I’m a fan of sequels and long-running franchises…to a certain point.
You see, when it comes to most horror franchises, like the Friday the 13th series, or something like every Halloween movie, I’m usually all for long, drawn out series, since the later movies in said series usually become more and more ridiculous (It’s Jason…in spaaace. Or, it’s Leprechaun…in the hoooood!), which I get a guilty pleasure out of watching.
But when it comes to other genres outside of horror, I usually have less tolerance for a series that may have worn out its welcome two or three movies ago, such as with The Expend4bles. Honestly, The Expendables probably shouldn’t have made it past the second movie (And apparently, I’m not the only person who wonders how The Expendables franchise has made it this far). So here are just a few movie series that probably should have been put out to pasture a couple of movies or so ago.
The Expendables Series
Critics haven’t been holding back on their feelings of The Expend4bles, and from what I’ve read, I don’t blame them. The Expendables arguably wore out its welcome by only the first movie, though I feel l’m a bit more charitable when it comes to the franchise.
The greatest appeal of The Expendables, at least at the beginning in 2010, was that it was old action heroes from the ‘80s basically coming back and having “one last run” (To their credit, those are my words, and not theirs).
But, there just felt like there was something off about the first movie, as even though it had Stallone, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren, the rest of the cast, which consisted of names like Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture, just felt like it was missing something. Like, there were too many modern faces, rather than faces aged with wrinkles.
And that’s where The Expendables 2 delivered, since we got most of the heavy hitters with that one. I’m talking Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme (as the villain!), Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Chuck freaking Norris! I mean, seriously, where do you go from there with a cast of legends like that?
Well, not with the abysmal (and PG-13 rated) The Expendables 3, which added Ronda Rousey, Wesley Snipes (A nice addition, but poorly utilized), Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson (as the villain this time), and…Kelsey Grammer.
The problem with this movie, besides it just being bad, was that it also felt tired. Like, the idea of getting all of these old stars together again for another action movie had already grown stale, possibly even after the first movie (Though again, I support the second). So, for there to be a fourth film just seems like overkill, with the tagline even being, “They’ll die when they’re dead.” It might have been better if the tagline for the third movie had been, “After this, we’re retired. For realsies.”
The Fast Series
The Fast series is an interesting case study, to be honest. Though I’ll always say that Tokyo Drift is low-key my favorite film in the franchise, there’s definitely a case to be made that the series really kicked into overdrive with the fifth movie, with many people agreeing (including CinemaBlend) that the fifth Fast & Furious movie, Fast Five, is the best in the series.
So, this is definitely a case where a series was finding its legs (or rather, its tires) late in the game, as 2001's The Fast and the Furious feels like a time capsule since it's so scaled back and different. In fact, the series completely changed with the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, becoming more of an action series rather than a street racing franchise.
That said, since we were all rocked by Paul Walker’s death, Furious 7 would have been a good place to end the series if they had chosen to do so. In the final moments of that film, Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’ Conner, and Vin Diesel’s character, Dominic Toretto, bid farewell to each other and drive off in separate directions.
It was honestly the perfect ending to the series, but as time went on, the movies have just gotten more and more ridiculous, to the point that it almost seems like a parody of itself these days (I like Jason Voorhees in space, but I don’t like my Fast movies in space). Honestly, I tried watching Fast X, and gave up halfway through. I guess I’m just done with this franchise. And really, I was probably done by The Fate of the Furious.
The MCU Series
Okay, so let me explain this one. My favorite MCU movie is Eternals, so make of that what you will. But I think a major reason why I loved that movie so much (and still do) was because it felt distinctly different from anything else in the MCU, and I really felt we needed that after the franchise crescendoed with Avengers: Endgame.
At the time, I didn’t really think the MCU was in trouble. Honestly, Avengers: Endgame seemed like the perfect place to end the MCU as we knew it and move onto something else entirely, which Eternals felt like at the time. But since then, I feel like the MCU has kind of gone downhill.
When I ranked the first four phases of the MCU, I put Phase 4 toward the bottom, and Phase 5 has really just been disappointment after disappointment for me. Sure, there have been some highlights since Endgame, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for many (I didn’t particularly like it, though).
But overall, I think the MCU should have pivoted in a completely different direction after Avengers: Endgame, which just seemed to wrap up everything nicely since the franchise started back with 2008’s Iron Man.
So, maybe the MCU shouldn’t have “ended,” per se after Avengers: Endgame, but it definitely should have changed. It might have made it feel fresh again.
The Saw Series
So you know how I said that I’m all for most horror franchises having long-running series? Well, I do feel that way, but maybe not for the Saw series. And I didn’t always feel this way. A while back, I ranked the best horror franchises, and I put Saw at number 5. But in hindsight, I take that back, because honestly, Saw needs to just die already.
I think I feel this way because they keep bringing it back. The seventh Saw was called "The Final Chapter," but now we have three more movies after that. And even though I hear that Saw X is actually pretty good (And I’ll definitely end up seeing it), I really feel like it’s a franchise that probably would have made for an absolutely KILLER trilogy.
A lot of the Saw movies after the first one are pretty lame, and Spiral really should have been a death knell for the franchise, but I think this is more of a case of a “just okay” horror series that could have been amazing if it hadn’t gotten so many sequels.
The Indiana Jones Series
Now look, I’ll defend Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But just because I’ll defend it, that doesn’t mean that I think it necessarily needed to exist.
In fact, just like with the Saw series, I really think Indiana Jones would have been perfect if it only had three movies, as there is no better way to end the franchise than they did with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. For many years, that was where the series ended, and that’s where I think it should have stayed finished.
But then, we got a fourth Indiana Jones movie, and really, the series hasn’t been the same since. I have nothing against an older Indiana Jones, but in a lot of ways it felt like Indy was taking a backseat to other characters in the fourth movie (Like his son, Mutt).
And, while I skipped the last Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny, I really had no interest in seeing another Indiana Jones adventure, since I felt like it’s just better to think back to the original trilogy, as Crystal Skull seemed unnecessary enough as it was (Even though I found it fun). I’ll probably just catch The Dial of Destiny when it eventually comes home to Disney+. Maybe. We’ll see. If there’s nothing else to watch.
And that’s the list. What movie franchises do YOU think probably should have ended a while ago? For more news on all things cinema, make sure to swing by here often!
