15 Movie Franchises Fans Say Got Off To An Amazing Start, Only For The Next Movie To Torpedo Any Interest They Had In The Story

BuzzFeed
·5 min read
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Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community which film franchises they think fell off after the first movie.

Here are 15 of their top responses:

1."The Mummy (1999). The sequel was just a less good version of the first film, and I won't even talk about the third one."

John Hannah, Rachel Weisz, and Brendan Fraser, dressed in adventure attire, stand in a desert with camels behind them in a scene from "The Mummy."

Here's the trailer for The Mummy:

2."Die Hard! The first Die Hard is the best movie! Bruce Willis's performance was masterful. He combined humor and the action scenes perfectly. There is no way the remaining movies can compete with the first movie."

Bruce Willis in a scene, looking to the side with a concerned expression, wearing a jacket
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

Here's the Die Hard trailer:

3."Home Alone. The first is a classic. The second I have a soft spot for because it was the one I had on VHS as a kid and I now live in NYC, but it's definitely not as good. The rest? Don't even bother."

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister in a scene from "Home Alone," wearing a winter hat and holding a magazine
20th Century Fox Film Corp. / CourtesyEverett Collection

Watch the Home Alone trailer below:

4."The Matrix series. The first movie is an iconic masterpiece, and the other three are so lacking in any depth and development."

Keanu Reeves as Neo in "The Matrix" wearing a trench coat, sunglasses, and holding a rifle, with a helicopter in the background

Watch the trailer for The Matrix below:

5."Many of the DC films. I'm talking to you, Aquaman. They tried to be as strong as the MCU, but it didn't stick."

Jason Momoa, shirtless, with long wet hair and tattoos, stands in a control room filled with machinery and electrical panels, in a scene

Here's the Aquaman trailer:

6."X-Men! I loved the first one; the second one was…weird but tolerable, and the last one…ugh. I haven't even watched any of the others."

Wolverine in a leather jacket comforts Rogue, who is resting her head on his shoulder, on a train with red seats, scene

Watch the X-Men trailer below:

7."Pirates of the Caribbean! The first one is a perfect movie (my fave of all time). It's simple and fun and goofy and suspends reality JUST enough that you feel like undead pirates COULD'VE been a thing. And the characters were so brilliantly cast and played so well off each other. It's just the perfect movie, even 20 years later!"

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner on a ship in a scene from "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Watch the trailer for the first movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, below:

8."Surprised Fast & Furious hasn't been mentioned yet! 😂"

in a scene, Vin Diesel points at Paul Walker while holding a phone, with both standing outside in front of houses
Universal / courtesy Everett Collection

Here's the trailer for The Fast and the Furious:

9."The new IT (2017) was so creepy and cool. I was so excited for the sequel in 2019, but it was so boring."

Pennywise the Dancing Clown from the movie "It" stands menacingly in front of an old building, dressed in a Victorian-style clown outfit with pom-poms

Watch the It trailer below:

10."Frozen. The first movie was pretty great, even though now it’s vastly overrated. It had a great plot, a lot of the characters' arcs were finished, and the premise was carried throughout to boost the movie’s overall message and tone. Sisterly love, accepting yourself, and not letting your fears define you, beautiful! However, Frozen 2 ruined all of that in a mere hour and a half with half-done songs, cheesy dialogue that was more cringe than fun, a white savior complex, and a rushed plot that felt it wasn’t very well developed."

Elsa from Frozen strikes an action pose with her hand extended, standing in front of ice palace

Here's the Frozen trailer:

11."The Bourne movies. First one — great. Second one — too much bouncy, pseudo-documentary crap. Third one...'Holy shit it's Jason Bourne! Activate the level 42 double secret protocols!' When the dialogue is so stupid it makes people laugh, the 'legacy' isn't what you hoped for."

Matt Damon wearing a dark jacket stands on a city street with his hands in his pockets. Buildings and cars are in the background, in a scene
Universal / courtesy Everett Collection

Watch the trailer for The Bourne Identity below:

12."Jurassic Park and Jurassic World — they both had great [first] movies, okayish second films and horrid third films."

Top: Richard Attenborough, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern look up in awe in Jurassic Park. Bottom: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Ty Simpkins, and Nick Robinson appear tense in Jurassic World
MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection / Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

Here's the Jurassic Park trailer:

And here's the Jurassic World trailer:

13."[After Wonder Woman], I will never get over the trash that was Wonder Woman 1984."

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, wearing her iconic warrior outfit with a headband and armored corset, standing on a battlefield
Clay Enos. ©Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection

Watch the Wonder Woman trailer below:

14."Children of the Corn (1984). The first one was passable and had its creepy moments and created some cool atmosphere and frightening subtlety. The sequels were not only not scary or mysterious in the absolute slightest, but totally crossed over into slapstick cartoony horror-comedy."

Linda Hamilton with a terrified expression is tied up with stalks of corn around her head in a scene from the movie "Children of the Corn."

Here's the Children of the Corn trailer:

15.And finally: "The Divergent series is the only correct answer."

Shailene Woodley in a scene from "Divergent," surrounded by large bowls of stones, in front of a seated audience. She is wearing a loose jacket and a light dress
Jaap Buitendijk/©Summit Entertainment / courtesy Everett Collection

Watch the Divergent trailer below:

Which other movie franchises do you think fell off after the first film? Why? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.