10 Movies That Are The Black Sheep Of Their Franchises

If a film is lucky (aka lucrative) enough to spawn a series, the law of averages dictates at least one sequel will suck. And not just suck, but suck really, really bad. It may even be so poorly regarded that afterwards the franchise will semi-reboot, with the next movie ignoring it completely. The reasons these entries are poorly received vary from case to case. Maybe it tried to mix up the mythology or series formula, resulting in a critical backlash. Or it followed the formula so rigidly that it brought nothing fresh or interesting to the table. It could even be that the movie wasn’t bad on its own merits, it just doesn’t neatly fit in with the other entries. And just like every family has one weird uncle who doesn’t get invited to reunions, these black sheep sequels are routinely shunned by fans. Here, then, are 10 such cases, where we got sequels that just couldn't compare to their predecessors. 10) The Incredible Hulk Before Marvel Studios became a relentless money eating monster, they had to gamble on audiences wanting to see a shared cinematic universe for their characters. They got off to a great start with Iron Man but the reboot of The Incredible Hulk wasn’t a huge (Hulk) smash at the box office and has since been overlooked in the subsequent movies. There was no direct sequel since Marvel had a public falling out with star Ed Norton over the tone of the film, leading to him being replaced with Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers. Furthermore, the events of the movie have rarely been brought up, and outside of William Hurt's reappearance as Thunderbolt Ross in Civil War, an argument could be made that it has been completely cast out of continuity. 9) Alien vs. Predator: Requiem Alien vs. Predator is hardly beloved, but its biggest sin was taking a geeky idea and making it bland and forgettable. The follow-up, however, is an insult to both franchises, their long-term fans and cinema itself. Bad actors run around spouting horrible dialogue and dying gory deaths. Occasionally, the title monsters will fight, but it'll be impossible to see anything since the lighting is so poor. The worst thing about Requiem is how relentlessly mean-spirited it is. None of the characters are likable, children die painful deaths and a pregnant woman is force-fed alien embryos which then burst out of her stomach. The filmmakers seem to think this is cool and hardcore; instead, it's gross and tacky. 8) A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge The first sequel to A Nightmare On Elm Street is one of the weirdest slasher movies ever. The story has a teen named Jesse moving into the house from the original. He's soon possessed by Freddy's spirit though and forced to do his evil bidding. Nightmare 2 is unique in that it has one of the rare examples of a male scream queen. The gay subtext makes it stand out too, even though the director claims it wasn’t intentional. Despite some interesting deviations from formula, it just isn’t scary and is loaded with several unintentionally funny scenes, like an exploding pet bird, a gym teacher being pelted by basketballs and the most embarrassing dance ever recorded on camera. 7) The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift The Fast and the Furious has evolved from a dumb Point Break ripoff to an enjoyably dumb blockbuster franchise. This evolution seemed unlikely a decade ago, however, when Vin Diesel refused to make a sequel, leaving Paul Walker to front 2 Fast 2 Furious. After that, neither of them returned for Tokyo Drift, which followed a new character, Sean Boswell, instead. Tokyo Drift looked like a final tug on the lottery chain, but it got one thing right: Diesel's tiny cameo got fans excited enough to see him appear in another instalment. So, the original cast reunited for the next one, and the series has gone from strength to strength ever since. Meanwhile, Tokyo Drift, is treated as the odd man out, with Boswell making a cameo in Furious 7 to wrap up a needlessly complicated plot strand. 6) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation The fourth instalment of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series is an unusually starry affair, with future Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger in leading roles. This is from a time before anyone knew who they were, so neither of them talk about it much - which is easy to understand. It's a tedious horror romp where the only highlight is watching McConaughey overact with all his might. The movie attempts to recreate iconic moments from the original, but it has none of the atmosphere or creeping dread. Furthermore, the characters are immensely irritating and Leatherface is turned into a shrieking drag queen who doesn't really do anything. At least the tagline is kind of funny: "If looks could kill, he wouldn't need a chainsaw." 5) Friday The 13th: A New Beginning The fourth Friday The 13th movie was dubbed The Final Chapter, as it was intended to conclude the series. It ended with Jason being hacked up, but when it made a boatload of money, another sequel was thrown together a year later - because, Hollywood. The plot has Tommy - the boy who killed Jason - entering rehab with other troubled teens. It soon looks like Jason has returned and is chasing Tommy for revenge; though this turns out to be wrong. The end reveals that the true killer was a vengeful doctor seeking revenge for his son's death at the halfway house. It also shows that Tommy has gone insane, which would have set him up as the next killer in the franchise. Fans weren’t having any of that though, so Jason came back for Part VI; a wise decision. 4) Jaws: The Revenge Jaws didn’t need any sequels, but it got them anyway. Jaws 2 is alright and Jaws 3D is a bore fest with horrendous effects, but Jaws: The Revenge, well, that's often cited as one of the worst movies ever. Michael Caine's comments on it are well documented, and everyone involved seem thoroughly embarrassed. It's not a total loss though; there are several effective attack scenes, such as the opening or the banana boat sequence, the score is effectively eerie and the ridiculous plot yields some laughs – it's a movie about a psychic shark seeking revenge, after all. That said, it’s often dull and the effects are shoddy, with the machinery driving the shark being easy to spot in some scenes. The main “hero” is also a selfish douche who endangers his family. Still, even despite all that, The Revenge is often preferred by fans over Jaws 3D because while it is bad, it’s at least the entertaining kind of bad. 3) Halloween III: Season Of The Witch John Carpenter never wanted to Halloween II, so he made damn sure Michael Myers was burned to a crisp in the finale to avoid making more. When asked for another sequel, he decided to make Halloween an anthology series, so each entry could be unique. This intriguing notion lasted one movie since Season of the Witch wasn’t warmly received. The story has an Irish toymaker – who's also an evil warlock – selling cursed Halloween masks. Once a special signal is broadcast, the masks will kill the children wearing them, causing poisonous snakes to crawl out of their exploded heads. This nutty entry has been re-appraised as an atmospheric horror tale in recent years, and many think it would have been better received if it hadn’t been called Halloween III. People came in expecting Myers and got killer robots and dead children instead, so you could see why they might've been disappointed. 2) X-Men Origins: Wolverine Giving Wolverine his own movie was a no-brainer, and sadly, so was the screenplay. Star Hugh Jackman tried to make this a character-driven prequel, but re-writes saw Origins basically become another X-Men movie. The story is a hot mess, complete with baffling twists and character motives, climaxing in the awful “memory bullet” explanation for Wolverine's amnesia. The film shoehorns in a bunch of mutants like Gambit, but gives them nothing to do. Origins also became infamous for messing up Deadpool, and it took years for his solo movie to get made due to the negative reception he received here. Other downsides include the crappy CGI, which doesn't look finished in a lot of instances. Wolverine’s claws, in particular, look terrible in certain scenes. Though the film performed alright financially, its events are basically ignored in the following movies. 1) Hellraiser: Revelations Hellraiser was never as popular as the other big horror franchises, mainly because S&M body horror isn’t the easiest thing to sell. It still has a fanbase, though, and for years a reboot has been stuck in development hell. It’s been there so long in fact that - in order to keep the rights - the studio had to make something. So, they slapped together Hellraiser: Revelations on a tiny budget in about a month, and it shows. Revelations is the ninth instalment in a series that had plenty of bad sequels, but even by their standards, this was a new low. The acting is appalling, the script eye-watering and even the gore is dull. Worst of all, regular Pinhead actor Doug Bradley was been replaced by a chubby guy doing bad cosplay. When a trailer declared it was from the mind of author Clive Barker, Barker responded on Twitter with: “If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my ****-hole.”