Be it horror, comedy or action, production houses have been bankrolling film series for a long time. Nevertheless, most of the them have resulted in film franchises that didn’t age well and failed to maintain themselves, irrespective of how popular they are. It’s not like they are deemed to fail but with time, the makers aren’t able to maintain the charm. And it hurts, sometimes a lot.
In this list, we bring you the film franchises that despite having a huge fan following have only gotten worse with time. “Worse” isn’t exactly the word that I should use here but considering just how much I loved the first one or two movies of all these franchises, it pains me to see how the level has gone down. And I cannot find any other way to express how I feel about it. After all, when you have to search for ways to love something, it means that you have stopped loving it altogether.
6 Film Franchises That Didn’t Age Well
Fast and Furious
One of the most popular film franchises across the world, Fast and Furious lost its charm after the death of Paul Walker. The last three movies of the franchise were utter nonsense and deserve to be addressed as comedy action films whose seriousness itself adds to their silliness. For me, the fourth part, the one with Arturo Braga as the antagonist, was the most effective one that upped the ante of the franchise dealing with street racing in an action thriller (almost) style. Presently, it’s just irrelevant, especially after the ludicrous Fast X.
Jurassic Park (and Jurassic World)
A franchise that was path-breaking, especially in terms of its visual effects, the Jurassic franchise certainly didn’t age well, especially the Jurassic World movies. And I am not saying this because I saw the first Jurassic Park (directed by Steven Spielberg) as a kid and have an emotional connection with it. The film is objectively better than its successors till the latest Jurassic World Dominion, especially the background score still gives me goosebumps and the dinosaurs felt real because they were real!
One can consider Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World as a worthy sequel to the first part but that’s all. The rest of the movies just failed to hit the spot. Presently, the movies led by Chris Pratt are just a way for visual effects companies to showcase their talent and nothing more. The fear of knowing that a Velociraptor is nearby hunting for you, is no more.
Terminator
It’s painful to see what James Cameron’s masterpiece has become. The first two films, directed by Cameron, had a certain tangible quality to them and can easily be considered classic sci-fi movies. Then came Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003 which was so-so. It was 2009’s Terminator Salvation when things started going downhill. The movie, which showed a post-Dooms-Day world, basically had nothing good other than a T-800 with Arnold’s face on it.
Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate were both equally bad and the worst of the lot. From the first to the last part, the franchise has seen the worst decline among all the franchises mentioned in this list.
The Conjuring
Although there are only three Conjuring movies, the franchise’s charm is decreasing with every release. 2012’s The Conjuring took the world by storm and set a high bar for horror movies altogether, rekindling the spark the cinephiles had for jumpscares. Its sequel was a little less effective but 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It failed to deliver on its promise and people’s expectations. With The Conjuring: Last Rites in the pipeline, it is frankly the franchise’s last chance to reclaim the horror throne.
Transformers
My favourite franchise on this list, Transformers has also seen a drop in its appeal and quality. Way ahead of its time in terms of visual effects, the 2007 premiere still remains one of my personal favourite sci-fi movies ever. The first five movies have been directed by Michael Bay and his style is evident in all five of them. Despite what many say, I really liked 2014’s Age of Extinction and 2017’s The Last Knight. The first three were the best of the lot.
To make a film with such huge robots fighting, having a grand vision is necessary, something that Bay has. This vision was absent in Bumblebee (directed by Travis Knight) and Rise of the Beasts (directed by Steven Caple Jr.), the last two movies of the franchise. Maybe only Bay can bring back the charm of the autonomous robotic organisms from Cybertron. But it seems unlikely now.
X-Men
X-Men and X2 are my favourite in the franchise. Then comes 2013’s The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014 and finally Hugh Jackman’s Logan in 2017. As much as I want to incorporate the rest here, the charm of the original two, if not three movies is missing from those dealing with the First Class batch of mutants. The last X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, was a disaster of cosmic proportions. Overall, the only thing good about these movies was Bryan Singer.
Which of these movie rosters that have resulted in ultimately failed film franchises over the years do you feel have suffered the most? Do let us know in the comments below.
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