I guess if you want to, that’s fine. I just look at the James Bond situation as different. It has been going on for decades, and it has two fail criteria for me: the main character has changed actors, and the next movie is not based on the previous movie.
Star Wars has two clear three part trilogies. Episodes 4, 5, and 6 stand alone, and so do 1, 2, and 3. And they were separated by decades and have completely different casts. And the biggest test is that you can watch 4 and never miss 1, 2, and 3… And since 4 is where the franchise started, it’s easy to see why. I grew up on the first trilogy. I was mildly interested in the backstory, which is why i went to see 1. But since I thought it sucked, I never wasted my time on 2 and 3 and that’s ok. I knew enough of the backstory to make 4,5 and 6 understandable and mostly watchable (except for 6’s scenes on the Teddy Bear planet…
In the OP, i tried to give an outline for what was acceptable for this. So, the franchise would either have the same actors, or the sequels followed the previous movies, or both. But you can’t have both the actors changing AND the plots being independent from the previous movie.
But I guess you can make the case for the Connery-era Bond as one franchise, the Moore-era as another, and so on.
This is supposed to be for fun, so do what makes you happy!
I’m voting Bourne for best and Transformers for worst.
Admittedly, I haven’t watched the third transformers movie, and the second only as background noise after the first few minutes, so for all I know, 3 was a masterpiece that elevated the whole saga.
I am not sure what is the best but I know what is the worst: The Scary Movie franchise. Aggressively unfunny dreck and possibly the most lazily written comedies ever. Half the time the “joke” is them repeating lines from another movie word for word. Since it is not the original movie, this is somehow funny. I hate every one of those movies.
Best - Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, although technically, while Pegg and Frost are the leads in all the movies, they are not really playing the same character, so a bit of a cheat. Still my trilogy though. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End
Worst - too many to name, but I’ll go with Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars to reflect my own personal disappointment.
That’s just a theory, and I believe an incorrect one. Not that I care one way or the other, and I don’t want to hijack this thread too much, but as I unherstood it, the license to kill designation was the “double 0”. So James Bond was 007, and the next one was 008, etc.
My feelings are they all suck. Usually not the first movie, but the longer the series ran, the worst they became, IMO. Horror films, to me anyway, appeal to me when they are a new idea, like the original Halloween. Even Halloween 2 had potential, since the end of the first one was open ended. But after that, they seem to always fall off a cliff.
Children of the Corn is one that really fell. The first one was original. End it there! But they can’t. They are relatively cheap to make, and they have an audience, so it’s easy money.
One movie that worked for me was the Mothman Prophecies. Sort of horror, sort of supernatural… It had a beginning and an end. No return of the mothman was necessary.
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 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.
