There are plenty of movies out there that people will gladly defend when it comes to the fact that they’ve inspired sequels and spinoffs aplenty, but there are some franchises that would have been better off not being created. The movies that started these franchises were great enough that they didn’t need to be continued, but as it happens, when a studio finds that they can make more money by continuing a story they’ll do so without hesitation. In some cases it’s worked and the profits have continued to roll in, but often at the expense of the story as it begins to degrade with one sequel after another until finally, it comes down to the idea that the original movie is and always will be better, and apart from the profits, a movie would have been just fine without pushing forward. Some would likely call this sentimental nonsense and that’s okay, but the point here is that by losing sight of the original story and attempting to build it up to something that it was never intended for, the profits don’t matter as much.
Here are a few movies that would have been better off if they hadn’t become franchises.
5. Fast and Furious
With what it’s become now it’s fair to say it’s not about the story any longer as it’s all about the profits since with F9 launching two of its characters into space to knock out a satellite and the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift characters finally coming back into the picture, it’s safe to say that the simple story that started between Dom and Brian just wasn’t enough. The ending to this movie was nice since it had a nice feel to it even if one that knowledge that Brian would have a lot of explaining to do and would likely lose his job and even his freedom possibly. But despite all that, glamorizing the criminals is still a favored pastime of moviegoers.
4. Men in Black
Guess what happens when the secrets of the universe become commonplace and are exposed in four movies that have roughly the same plot with only a few notable differences? Obviously they still make money, but the fact is that the universe becomes slightly less interesting and the franchise has offered up what it must have felt was a drastic change in the fourth and hopefully final movie. Essentially, the earth is always in danger thanks to one alien race or another that wants to annihilate the planet for their own reasons, and only the MIB can save us. At the very least, the MIB wasn’t attempting to save other planets and sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.
3. The Terminator
One trip back in time changed things enough, but the constant trips that Skynet initiated didn’t make a lot of sense, and despite the fact that the second movie was awesome, it would have been better if the first one would have been the last. Seriously, it didn’t make sense for Skynet, which had far more resources than the humans did, to send back only one terminator in the hopes that it would complete the mission. Sending back several agents that could secure the timeline would have been smarter. Yes, it would have nearly wiped out humanity, but it wouldn’t have dragged on for so long.
2. Nightmare on Elm Street
Believe it or not, Wes Craven didn’t want to insert an ending that acted as a hook for a sequel, since he wanted Nancy to be able to walk away from the nightmare and be safe. But New Line Cinema didn’t see it that way and wanted to continue the nightmare, and so the movie ended as it did with the car spiriting the teens away as Nancy’s mother was pulled through a door. From that point on the wheels began to gradually fall off as Freddy became more of a trickster than a dream demon intent on murdering people in their sleep. What could have been one of the most terrifying horror movies in the history of cinema became a running punchline.
1. Alien
This is hard to say about this movie since the sequel is such a favorite, but after Aliens, everything fell apart. Ripley was given a chance to finally end her story in part 3, but of course, that wasn’t good enough since people wanted more, and so they were given more, and then groused about it when Alien: Resurrection came out. Seriously, this movie would have been great as a mystery that was revisited many years later to find out more about the xenomorphs. Or maybe it could have been left alone after Aliens and been just fine, but as it stands now, yikes.
Sometimes the money isn’t worth ruining the story unless one is only worried about the money and nothing else.
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