We all love a good movie franchise, and honestly, there are a lot. It’s almost become Hollywood’s new thing to create as many films as possible in the same franchise. While there are many we still love to watch, there are definitely some that just aren’t what they used to be. While some franchises have literally been running for decades, it’s pretty to easy to see that some might just not make the cut. Yet, also, some of them might just last for a few more. Here are 5 franchises we’re still excited to head to the theater for, and 5 that we’re praying will end.
Should End: Halloween
We all love these classic slasher-thriller films, and honestly, Michael Myers is probably one of the most famous movie characters of all time. The first film came out in 1978, and kids are literally still wearing Michael Myers’s masks on Halloween. However, we’re 11 movies in at this point, and there’s two more in production. Ask yourself, did we really need them to reboot the franchise after 9 years? No, probably not. Like, how many of these movies can there really be and still make them interesting? The answer is probably, like, four.
Still Love: James Bond
Alright, so there’s a lot of James Bond films—we’re talking 26 of ’em. That seems like a lot, and you might be thinking that’s 25 too many, but we’re here to argue otherwise. Although they’re not the classic films that they used to be, we still all love to see some kickass, classy action-goodness with a stellar leading man. Be honest, we all still love that martini-drinking gun-slinging badass, right? Right.
Should End: Transformers
This is definitely a franchise that should’ve called it quits after the first film. Well, maybe allow the second one, but we never support a series that nonchalantly keeps going after slicing one of its main stars.
Not only did this happen in the third movie with Megan Fox, but, in case you forgot, Shia LeBeouf is nowhere to be seen in the fourth or fifth movie. Is that all we need to say? Oh yeah, these movies are also terrible, and not even Mark Wahlberg could save them. At least the action is decent. (Let’s ignore that its huge box office in Asia, okay?)
Still Love: Rocky
Rocky is arguably the best boxing film there is—and there are a lot—and Rocky Balboa has become a character that everyone knows and loves. From 1976-2006, Rocky released 6 movies, but he didn’t stop there. We now have Creed and Creed II, which, honestly, for an extension of a popular film franchise, is actually pretty impressive. We get a new, dynamic character in Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan, with the classic Rocky Balboa as his mentor. These films are actually pretty good and scored above a 7 on IMDb. We’re still loving it, and there’s another one rumored to be in the making.
Should End: X-Men
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe may still be going strong, we’re going to go ahead and say that’s not exactly the case for the X-Men franchise. With twelve films under its belt and one upcoming, we’re feeling like the last good one was probably the first one. While we absolutely love this cast, the movies just can’t seem to find ground to stand on. They’re cheesy, predictable, and not even that cool. Sorry, mutants.
Still Love: Marvel Cinematic Universe
We did say that the MCU was still kicking it, and, although it’s never going to be what it used to be after Avengers: Endgame, we’re still going to go see every new film they release.
While we’re not going to go ahead and say that they’re the best movies ever, they’re still pretty entertaining, and they’re coming out with a bunch of new and innovative films. This franchise is so huge that there are literally phases—four of them, actually, and there’s a total of 28 films. We’re pretty sure this franchise will literally never end.
Should End: The Fast and the Furious
This is another franchise guilty of adding new characters, missing old characters, and trucking along like nobody noticed. Except yeah, we did. This franchise is 9 films deep and has another three on the go.
Honestly, this franchise is the most guilty of totally deviating from what the first few were actually about. Wasn’t this franchise about street racing circuits, police officers, and family?
Still Love: Planet of the Apes
This movie had its original films series, for a total of five films before they released a reboot series, which is currently at three—however, there’s a fourth one rumored. Honestly, this reboot series was a brilliant choice. Of course, CGI and technology are way beyond what it used to be, and these new films have the same charm of the old ones, but with much more satisfying action sequences and incredible visuals. They’re still scoring high with the critics, and we’re still loving all those apes.
Should End: Harry Potter
We’re sorry to crush the hearts of all die-hard Harry Potter fans out there, but honestly, this is something you’re probably just not willing to admit. The first eight films were stellar, we truly believe that, but these new spin-offs? Yikes. They’re not exactly doing great with reviews, but bless their hearts for trying. Again, why even bother if you’re not going to keep even some of the same cast members? PSA: We fall in love with characters, not franchises.
Still Love: Star Wars
Again, while the new Star Wars films don’t have all the classic charm of the original six—or three, if you’re that kind of snobby fan—we still love to head to the theater to watch our favorite franchise. We’ve gotten two sequels and a third in December, two anthology films, and, honestly, we loved all of them… TLJ perhaps notwithstanding.
This series is actually brilliant and should be applauded for maintaining everything that we love about the original series. While we get new characters, they’re still attached to our favorites, and we even get some of the OG crew. This series manages to give us that original Star Wars charm all the way from 1977, and we’re guessing we’ll be swinging our lightsabers for quite some time.
