I watch The Accountant recently and if ever there was a movie that was a set up for future movies, this was it. I don’t expect much from action movies. Fights, good triumphing over evil, fights were good triumphs over evil, a serviceable plot that gives a good context for the fights. The Accountant did that. But I could not help but think that this was the building of a “team” of some sort. The ending clinched it. I read now that there is, of course, a The Accountant 2 in the works.
There are tons of movies that started franchises, but are there movies that were so very obvious in the execution? Also, I don’t know why but this flagrant maneuver seems to be why some people dislike Ben Affleck despite his obvious talents. Maybe it’s me, but this just seems to, well, forward for lack of a better word.
ETA: I want to clarify that I’m not talking about movies that were meant to be franchises. We all knew there’d be more than one Lord of the Rings. I’m thinking more of movies that are supposed to be stand alone.
I agree with The Rocketeer. It coulda been a franchise contender if only it hadn’t been so obvious. Sky Captain had such potential-- giant robots that shoot lasers from their eyes! But it was so terrible and so ruined by Kate Capsh. . . I mean Gwyneth Paltrow that I didn’t notice any ‘here come the sequels!’-ness. Too busy lamenting what could have been.
I loved Hudson Hawk. I haven’t seen it in 20 years or so. I also do not remember any hype associated with it before I saw it on HBO waaaaaaay back in the day, so I enjoyed it for the silly musical detective story that it was. I don’t remember thinking there must be a sequel brewing though.
Sahara, with Matthew McConaughey as a treasure hunter who travels the globe with his plucky sidekick in tow, athletically uncovering the historical artifact du jour for the rich benefactor who bankrolls his adventures. (Well, his latest adventure, anyhow; the whole story plays out exactly like it’s just one installment in a series – and, if the thing hadn’t flopped so danged hard, it probably would’ve been.)
The most recent big studio attempt at a Three Musketeers movie from 2011. It looked it was going to wrap up cleanly as a stand-alone film, that is until the very last shot suddenly left things hanging for a sequel that will almost certainly never get made. Instead of eliciting a “wow” it just felt like hubris on the part of the film studio.