Fans are a fickle bunch. They say they want more of their favorite franchises, but then they get upset when new movies come out! Then again, some of these movies ARE downright terrible. Here are ten sequels (or remakes) that fans say ruined their franchises.
The Rise of Skywalker
Fans have been divided on Star Wars for as long as there’s been such a thing as Star Wars. The Rise of Skywalker made everyone mad by walking back the things some fans liked about The Last Jedi, like Rey being a nobody, while still including things Sequel Trilogy haters despised, like characters Rey and Finn.
Ghostbusters (2016)
Films having female leads isn’t pandering, but it can feel inauthentic when a movie’s formula is to take a beloved 80s classic and just remake it with all women in the starring roles. The original Ghostbusters is a stone-cold masterpiece, so shooting a new one with a rebooted continuity struck many fans as a soulless cash grab in 2016.
The Mummy (2017)
Tom Cruise starring in a remake of The Mummy should be all you need to know when it comes to this film’s quality. The original was magical for a number of reasons, including star Brendan Fraser’s unique blend of good looks and charming affability. While Tom Cruise is handsome, his self-serious attitude stifles any chance this movie had at being a worthy remake.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
It might not seem like it now that Rupert Wyatt’s excellent Rise prequel has rehabilitated the Apes image, but there was a point in time when Tim Burton’s disastrous 2001 movie looked like it would sink the franchise. Everything in this film is terrible, from Mark Wahlberg’s performance to Tim Burton’s direction.
Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi is a great director and Tobey Macguire is a talented actor, but both of them come off as hacks in the abysmal Spider-Man 3. This overstuffed, busy movie includes some truly cringe-worthy dialogue and story choices, and it’s just a visual mess to look at.
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull raises some interesting questions, but not the ones the filmmakers likely wanted. You’re supposed to ask, “what if ancient aliens really visited humans in antiquity?” Instead, you’re left wondering, “what was the point of making an Indiana Jones movie in the year 2008.”
The Matrix Sequels
The first Matrix movie is an otherworldly, gripping film that literally inspired real-world religions. The sequels, Reloaded and Revelations, are… action movies. They’re not bad, but they focus on the “real” world of New Zion and don’t introduce any compelling reasons for the audience to get invested in the action in the “computer” world again, which was the whole draw of the first movie.
Every Terminator Since the Second One
The first two Terminator movies are incredible action blockbusters that show why Arnie was the quintessential 80s leading man. The ones that came after it have been varying degrees of “meh” to “abjectly awful,” depending on who you ask. It would be great if studios could nail the formula again, but the first two still exist, so just stick with them for now.
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Recent Die Hard Movies
Recent Die Hard movies, A Good Day to Die Hard and Life Free or Die Hard, don’t have the same spark that made the original such a phenomenal action flick in the late 80s. They focus instead on weird sidekick characters and make Bruce Willis’s once-relatable protagonist John McClane into a veritable superhero.
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The Phantom Menace
The Phantom Menace took the once-mystical, inscrutable Jedi Order and made them weird space cops who wear beige dessert robes as their official raiment. This movie laid bare how poor George Lucas’s writing skills really were, and showed what a fluke his success up to that point had been. The other prequels that followed on the heels of The Phantom Menace further solidified Lucas’s status as a hack who had relied on editing from his wife and direction from better filmmakers to make the original trilogy so beloved.
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