# The best and worst movie franchises **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985 "2013-10-22T23:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/41 "2013-10-24T04:52:54Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the _ **Rambo** _ series yet, either as one of the best or the worst. I personally quite like all four movies, so far as ultraviolent invincible-hero-facing-impossible-odds war flicks go, and Stallone is truly in his element. But then, I also liked watching four guys driving around the desert in jeeps every week and regularly blowing up German convoys. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/42 "2013-10-24T07:50:02Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I’ve got some bad news… Re: the third Riddick movie : au contraire. It’s better than the second one. A topnotch B movie in the SF adventure vein. Nothing wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/43 "2013-10-24T08:00:44Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Re: the third Riddick movie : au contraire. It’s better than the second one. A topnotch B movie in the SF adventure vein. Nothing wrong with it. I like how the 2nd one went all Highlander. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/44 "2013-10-24T08:05:22Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I like how the 2nd one went all Highlander. I just didn’t like the necroms and the poorly created “underverse.” I got some underverse in my underwear for the second in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/45 "2013-10-24T08:25:26Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > i knew the minute i read the thread title that someone would say twilight for worst. it’s an easy target, but really, the movies are fine. (and i have to wonder if the people who are first to name it as worst have even seen any of them.) i would say they’re better than the books (not that that’s saying much), and believe it or not movie bella is actually slightly more likable than book bella. for what they are and who they were made for, they’re fine. the cinematography is pretty good, it’s got some nice music, and the eye candy doesn’t hurt. there’s plenty of eye rollingly dumb moments, but seriously, there are wayyy worse franchises out there, some already named in the thread. the umpteen million final destination/friday the 13th/nightmare on elm street/halloween sequels? crap. the jaws sequels? complete crap. baby geniuses? utter crap. you get the picture. That’s why I pointed out the Twilight movies had pretensions. Consider movies like _Friday the 13th_ or _Nightmare of Elm Street_ or _Halloween_. They were intended as cheap drive-in slasher movies. Movies for which you have low expectations. But these movies managed to rise above the limits of their genre (which is why they became franchises while crap like _Drive-In Massacre_ and _Tourist Trap_ and _Don’t Go in the Woods_ has been forgotten). The Twilight movies on the other hand started out as a mainstream series. They were based on best-selling books (although admittedly not critically acclaimed ones) and they had big budgets. While it may have been unlikely they would be great, they should have at least been competently made. But they weren’t so they represent squandered potential. I stand by my post. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/46 "2013-10-24T08:26:49Z")
I don’t think twilight could be voted the worst because nobody expected it to be good anyway. That’s why catwoman rarely makes it on the “worst ever” lists. Anyone who’s read the book and liked it/hated it got exactly what they expected from the movie. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/47 "2013-10-24T08:52:33Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > IMHO, there’s a stronger case for the Daniel Craig era being a separate franchise than any of the others. How do you explain the Dench-M-continuity from the Brosnan era, then? In addition to ones already mentioned, I think the **Indiana Jones** movies still rank high. Yes, 2 is problematic and 4 is not great, but they 1st and 3rd make up for it in spades, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/48 "2013-10-24T09:05:55Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I don’t think twilight could be voted the worst because nobody expected it to be good anyway. That’s why catwoman rarely makes it on the “worst ever” lists. Anyone who’s read the book and liked it/hated it got exactly what they expected from the movie. Like I said, greatness was unlikely (although not impossible - look at _The Godfather_ for an example of a great movie made out of pretty weak source material). But _Twilight_ could have at least been as good as _The Hunger Games_. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/49 "2013-10-24T09:25:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Like I said, greatness was unlikely (although not impossible - look at _The Godfather_ for an example of a great movie made out of pretty weak source material). But _Twilight_ could have at least been as good as _The Hunger Games_. Why on earth would you expect that? There’s virtually nothing in the twilight franchise that could be compared to hunger games, first and foremost, grammar and a thesaurus. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/50 "2013-10-24T10:42:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > While it may have been unlikely they would be great, they should have at least been competently made. But they weren’t so they represent squandered potential. They weren’t? Admittedly, I’ve only watched the first two, but I thought them quite well directed for such a retarded plot. I was particularly impressed with the first one in a scene where the sulking girl is lost in a bad neighbourhood and goes all scared and dizzy that actually managed to convey the sense of imminent danger, and a well paced climax. Bad source material, but competent anywhere else. Even the actors were, at the very least, adequately cast to play their role. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/51 "2013-10-24T11:14:16Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Re: the third Riddick movie : au contraire. It’s better than the second one. A topnotch B movie in the SF adventure vein. Nothing wrong with it. The crime of Riddick 3 is that it commits that worst of sequel crimes: it’s a remake of one of its own series (Pitch Black). Despite the drastically different styles and stories, I’ve contentedly re-watched the first two movies. I’ll never see the third again. Not saying I wouldn’t watch another in the series if they make it - I still catch the new Die Hards and I’ll never sit thru DH2 again. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/52 "2013-10-24T13:04:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How do you explain the Dench-M-continuity from the Brosnan era, then? Well, with Brosnan she’s the new M who dismisses him as a Cold War relic who’s been a Double-Oh for years (as per that before-the-fall-of-the-USSR scene with 006). But with Craig it’s a _ **reboot** _: he’s not even a Double-Oh when it starts, sure as he’s apparently neither met Felix Leiter for the first time nor ordered a vodka martini in what’ll someday be his signature style; he thus spends much of the film realizing he hasn’t yet learned how to be a cold-hearted manipulator of women. And in the Craig reboot, Dench is already there as M: missing the Cold War, and otherwise doing _we’re-not-really-doing-continuity_ stuff, in Skyfall. ---
**Author:** ![Sterling\_Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/53 "2013-10-24T13:40:21Z")
I’ll just mention a few new ones: Best: Underworld Worst: Saw (loved the original, though… have only seen 2 of the others but they were craptastic) Some I’m surprised haven’t been mentioned: Spiderman with Tobey Maguire (I hated the 3rd) Paranormal Activity (1st and 3rd are good) National Lampoon’s Vacation (original and Christmas are great, Euro and Vegas lousy) Chucky (didn’t see it, looks too stupid) Leprechaun (ditto) Poltergeist (1st one is decent, rest are terrible) The Exorcist I think the problem with the “bad” franchises is few people want to invest the time to watch an entire series of movies and then declare them one of the worst collectively. I will agree with Transformers (although I enjoyed the 1st one) and the Star Wars prequels. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/54 "2013-10-24T17:23:23Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > SFP I can’t believe you can’t put the GF series in the best category because of the third one but you named Back to the Future. BttF is fun but doesn’t hold up that well. The second two went downhill fast. I still enjoyed them but they don’t compare to the GF series. GF 1 and 2 are at least in the top 5 of best movies of all time. Maybe 1st and 2nd. GF 3 is vilified only due to comparison with the others. And the disappointment after so many years that it wasn’t better. Its not great but its OK. I think it had some great moments and should have been great but fell short. But the quality of the first two make it one of the best series of all time. I disagree. And you aren’t the only one that agrees that it was the best, so I’m ok with that. When i was writing the OP, i was thinking of a series of movies, or a franchise, that I could sit down and watch, back to back to back etc. i can’t do that with the Godfather. Thers is no argument from me regarding the quality of the first two, but I find the third one so unwatchable. Maybe it is cursed for having two of the greatest movies of all time as it’s lead in, but I have yet to see the movie from start to end. And I’ve tried. BttF, on the other hand, provides me with exactly what I expect. There is no groundbreaking movie making, but they are fun movies that I can watch very easily and not look for something else to distract me. And I disagree that they havent healf up well. Agsin, that’s just my opinion, but in many ways I think II is better than I. Of course these two franchises don’t measure up if you are judging them by Oscar-quality. That’s not what I was considering, however. ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/55 "2013-10-24T21:14:06Z")
I’m fond of the _Friday_ series, especially _Next Friday_ for no particular reason. I love how they’ve been on the Oxygen channel on weekend nights for the past couple years now. It seems so out of place there. I think the _Scary Movie_ franchise gets a bad rap. The movies written by the Wayans brothers are still quite good, but they drop off in quality around the fourth one. I grew up on _Toy Story_ so I will go completely homer and say it is the best franchise ever. It is only rivaled by HP since those books made me literate and I saw every single movie in theaters. A bad franchise would be _High School Musical_, but I can forgive it because Zac Efron’s abs (and his eyes! /melts) are a national treasure. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/56 "2013-10-24T21:38:47Z")
Best: **Jackass** Worst: **Texas Chainsaw Massacre** (the first one hit it out of the park, but the others were a pile of nothing) ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/57 "2013-10-24T22:21:01Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m surprised no one has mentioned the _ **Rambo** _ series yet, either as one of the best or the worst. > > I personally quite like all four movies, so far as ultraviolent invincible-hero-facing-impossible-odds war flicks go, and Stallone is truly in his element. But then, I also liked watching four guys driving around the desert in jeeps every week and regularly blowing up German convoys. I was a _Rat Patrol_ fan, too. Best: _LOTR_ The two _Alien_ movies _The Evil Dead_ Trilogy Worst: _Twilight_ “One girl’s choice between necrophilia and bestiality”😃 ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/58 "2013-10-24T23:51:38Z")
I don’t see Terminator anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/59 "2013-10-25T00:08:45Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Why on earth would you expect that? There’s virtually nothing in the twilight franchise that could be compared to hunger games, first and foremost, grammar and a thesaurus. > [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > They weren’t? Admittedly, I’ve only watched the first two, but I thought them quite well directed for such a retarded plot. I was particularly impressed with the first one in a scene where the sulking girl is lost in a bad neighbourhood and goes all scared and dizzy that actually managed to convey the sense of imminent danger, and a well paced climax. > > Bad source material, but competent anywhere else. Even the actors were, at the very least, adequately cast to play their role. It’s ironic because the two of you seem to be arguing opposing points in counter to what I wrote. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985/60 "2013-10-25T01:26:06Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > I don’t see Terminator anywhere. That’s because you didn’t read page 1. Do a search, and you’ll find 2 mentions of it. And would you be calling it the best or worst? > [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Best: **Jackass** I like the choice of Jackass. Didn’t even cross my mind, but it definitely delivers what it is supposed to, and if you like that genre, they are all pretty good. With that in mind, I’ll nominate as one of the best the **Naked Gun** series. All were excellent, Frank Drebin was a classic character that Leslie Neislon pulled off, and if you like slapstick and pun driven humor, they all were fun. I’m going to have to think of a franchise that is more than just fun. The Godfather, for example, would be the perfect choice for me if it wasn’t for the third installment. I know many people disagree and that is fine. But for me, it was so bad compared to the first two, I personally can’t include it. Consistency is the key for me, which is why ironically Jackass gets on my list, but the Godfather doesn’t. I can sit and watch the Jackass movies back to back to back. They aren’t great movies, but they make me laugh, which is always good, and they are pretty consistent from one to the next with the stunts and gags. I’ll get back to you all with a more serious, better quality series of movies if I can think of one. or if someone mentions one I can ditto, that will work too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-and-worst-movie-franchises/671985.md?page=4)