8 Upcoming Movies That Could Save Failing Franchises

2016 turned out to be a big year for franchise filmmaking. As well all the multiple installments into superhero universes - Disney's MCU, Warner Bros.' DCEU and Fox's X-Men universe - there were "rebootquels" of long-dead series like Ghostbusters and Independence Day. Plus, we also got some spinoffs from mainline franchises like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One. 2017, meanwhile, looks to be... another big year for movie franchises. There are yet more DC and Marvel films to appear, as well as new additions to the Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean and Planet of the Apes series. Plus, there's also possible franchise-starters in The Dark Tower and Ghost in the Shell. It might be premature, but some of these movies we've already written off as more of the same. For instance, War of the Planet of the Apes will hopefully be another solid entry into the Apes prequels while Dead Men Tell No Tales will likely be just as poor as the last Pirates films. Some of next year's movies are more intriguing, however. With the following eight flicks, we like what we've seen so far and are hoping that they'll breathe new life into their creatively-defunct franchises. 8) Spider-Man: Homecoming The franchise: They might have made a decent amount of cash, but The Amazing Spider-Man series followed on from Spider-Man 3 in being met with decidedly mixed critical reception. So mixed in fact that Sony held their hands up in the air and made a deal with Marvel to re-invigorate the character by inserting him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We first saw Tom Holland's teen webslinger in Captain America: Civil War, of course, but July's Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo venture of the rebooted franchise. The movie: Seeing as Holland's aforementioned debut was a massive success, it seems that the decision to entrust Marvel Studios with the creative direction of Spidey was a good move. They've worked their magic with the rest of the Avengers, after all, and Homecoming’s high school setting should give the movie a different flavour from the rest of the MCU and mark it out as a fresh entry into the Spider-Man movie canon. The cast here is great, too, with Michael Keaton as the Vulture, Donald Glover in an unnamed role, Robert Downey Jr. returning as Iron Man and a talented young supporting roster. Admittedly, there are a couple of warning signs – like the fact that there seems to be two or three major villains – but we’re going to assume Marvel knows what they're doing. 7) Thor: Ragnarok The franchise: Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston often receive a lot of love from fans for their roles as the God of Thunder and his villainous brother Loki respectively, but it has to be said that the Thor movies themselves are nothing special. Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 effort was an enjoyable, if middle-of-the-road superhero origins tale while Thor: The Dark World was easily one of the weakest MCU films to date. This time, however, Marvel might have struck gold, as Thor: Ragnarok has much to get us excited. The movie: First of all, it's directed by Taika Waititi, the talented filmmaker behind such indie comedies as What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (which was Deadpool’s favourite movie of 2016). As such, you can bet that he'll add a much needed comic edge to the proceedings. Secondly, Waititi has accrued a stellar cast of veritable Hollywood royalty including Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill, Karl Urban and, naturally, Anthony Hopkins. Not to mention that the movie will see Thor team up with fellow Marvel superheroes Hulk (as played by Mark Ruffalo) and Benedict Cumberbatch’s new boy Doctor Strange. As odd as it may be, Ragnarok – the Norse word for apocalypse – could be the movie that finally makes the Thor films come to life. 6) Alien: Covenant The franchise: The Alien franchise was once made up of two of the best sci-fi movies of all-time, before David Fincher’s Alien 3 came along and divided people. Then there was Alien: Resurrection and the Alien vs Predator films and the series went completely down the pan. Original director Ridley Scott returning to the franchise to take the reins of prequel Prometheus should have saved it, but again, the movie was met with a mixed reception. Alien: Covenant is ostensibly a sequel to Prometheus, but the switch back to the Alien title suggests it'll try to recapture what made those films work. The movie: For one, Scott has confirmed that either this movie or the next will reveal who created the Xenomorphs which, while we don’t have a crying need to know, should make it more interesting than the ponderous Prometheus. Furthermore, many will be pleased to know that Damon Lindelof did not provide the script for Covenant, after his work on Prometheus failed to win over diehard fans. We’ll also have more from Michael Fassbender, the best part of the last film, as he'll be in a dual role – as Prometheus’ android David and a more advanced model Walter. 5) The Mummy The franchise: To capitalize on the current vogue for cinematic universes, the world's original shared movie universe has been rebooted. Universal's monster movie franchise kicked off again with 2014's Dracula Untold origins story starring Luke Evans. Unfortunately for the studio though, while it made a nice amount of money, not too many people actually enjoyed it. Nevertheless, Universal are plowing ahead with the franchise, and have got some big names attached to help bring it to life. Russell Crowe is playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Javier Bardem will be Frankenstein's Monster, Johnny Depp is The Invisible Man and Tom Cruise is starring in next year's The Mummy. The movie: It hasn't even been twenty years since Stephen Sommers' first Mummy reboot, but Universal are still moving ahead with the redo. While that doesn't exactly fill us with a lot of hope, some of what we've heard about the movie does. Apart from Cruise's star power behind the project, the titular mummy will be gender-swapped and played by Star Trek Beyond's Sofia Boutella. It will also have a stronger horror element than the more adventure-orientated Brendan Fraser-starring films. Finally, Christopher McQuarrie wrote the most recent draft of the script, which could bode well considering his success with Mission Impossible, Edge of Tomorrow and others. 4) Power Rangers The franchise: Since it became a childrens' TV giant back in 1993, the Power Rangers franchise has incredibly never stopped - with a new version of the mighty morphin' colour-coordinated superheroes created practically every year. They even had a couple of movies back in the 1990s, both of which received scathing reviews from, well, anyone over the age of ten. In 2017, however, the series will return to the big screen for a very different, more adult take on the franchise. The movie: Fans of the titular heroes have already taken umbrage with the fact that Power Rangers seems to be taking a lot of liberties with the mythology - for instance, the re-designs of the suits and the very different version of villainess Rita Repulsa (as played by Elizabeth Banks). Once you get past that, however, what we've seen of the film so far suggests something much more character-driven that past incarnations. Yes, it does look a lot like Josh Trank's terrific found-footage superhero movie Chronicle, but it could still be good enough to warrant some sequels and get a wider audience interested in the long-running franchise again. Plus, it has Bryan Cranston as a floating head in a jar - which is something you can't say that about a lot of movies. 3) Logan The franchise: Despite being by far the most popular character the X-Men movies have spawned, neither of the previous solo endeavors for Wolverine have set the genre alight. The first, X-Men Origin: Wolverine, was downright terrible while the follow-up, The Wolverine was simply a passable action movie. The upcoming third movie for the adamantium anti-hero looks to be far removed from the last two, however. Director James Mangold is still in charge, but the ethos is of a stripped-back human drama. Something made clear in its simple title - Logan. The movie: The first thing that got us interested in Logan was the fact that it was R-rated - finally giving the character a chance to really let loose in his final appearance, after two decades of being confined by PG-13 movies. Still, as much as we like seeing Wolvie slice into people, what's even more promising about Logan is that it looks to focus on the man behind the claws. Featuring an older, grizzlier Wolvie who's losing his regenerative abilities, it will surely let Hugh Jackman stretch his considerable acting talents. Add in a welcome reappearance by Patrick Stewart as Professor X and an exciting new character in X-23, and Logan could well be one of the best X-Men movies ever. 2) Cars 3 The franchise: Pixar's name is almost always a guarantee of quality, but two outliers in their canon of great animated movies are Cars and Cars 2. They might be fun, family-friendly adventures, but the depth of character, intelligence and heart that marks out the studio's best work is largely absent (which is surprising considering the films are the babies of studio founder John Lasseter). Cars 3 wasn't particularly highly anticipated, then, until a recent teaser trailer got people talking. The movie: The teaser gives a markedly different feel from the goofy antics of the previous two; cutting out the humour and focusing entirely on the shock of seeing Lightning McQueen crashing during a race. For any children who love the talking racing car it must be horrific. But for us adult fans, it gives us hope that the threequel will go deeper than the previous movies, presumably dealing with the retirement of McQueen as the new generation of racers comes along. This is backed up by a report that states the film will aim to teach kids about the sad side of getting older, which Pixar have previously done with aplomb in the likes of Up, Toy Story 3 and Inside Out. 1) Justice League The franchise: Financially, the DC Extended Universe is doing extremely well - this year's Batman V Superman pulled in just shy of $1 billion while Suicide Squad exceeded expectations and made almost $800 million worldwide. Unfortunately, the box office doesn't represent those movies' reception from fans, as both were incredibly divisive, with some very vocal detractors and supporters. Going forward, Warner Bros. will be hoping to get critics onside and they have two chances to do so coming up - Wonder Woman, arriving in July, and then the highly anticipated Justice League movie. While there's a lot of excitement for WW as well, it's JL that will really make or break the franchise. The movie: If we're going by the trailer alone, Justice League looks to be a very different beast from Zack Snyder's previous DC movies. Swapping the gloomy introspection for good-humoured superhero banter, the film looks to be a taking a page out of Marvel's playbook - and that isn't necessarily a bad thing if they can do it right. Of course, the trailers for Suicide Squad promised a great time as well, and we all know how that turned out. Nonetheless, the thrill of seeing the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash teaming up will hopefully keep things enjoyable. At least, we sure hope so, as at this point, it's crucial for the studio that Justice League opens to a warm response.