10 Great Movies That Accidentally Made Cinema Worse

10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens Popularised Cynical "Legacy Sequels"

After suffering through the wildly uneven Star Wars prequels, The Force Awakens sure was a welcome return to terra firma - a safe and familiar yet thoroughly entertaining space opera which affectingly united beloved legacy characters with a new cast of appealing heroes.

J.J. Abrams' long-awaited sequel successfully passed the torch from one Star Wars epoch to the next, effectively ensuring the franchise could live on past its ageing original heroes. That the sequel trilogy as a whole ended up being a hot mess is really neither here nor there.

But The Force Awakens' mammoth commercial success basically kickstarted the "legacy sequel" as know it - nostalgia-soaked entries into flagging franchises that basically replay the original hits, while shuffling the legacy cast into supporting roles as younger actors carry the starring load.

While these types of movies can work, they more often feel like crass commercial exercises intended to distend dying or creatively bankrupt IP, as with Terminator: Dark Fate, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion.

When these movies succeed commercially, as they often do, they typically confirm that pandering to our collective dew-eyed nostalgia works, that it's easier to condescend to our most infantile desires to re-live the past than roll the dice on something truly new.

Again, legacy sequels can work when they come from a place of genuine heart and creativity, but too often they simply rake over stories and character types we've already seen, while showering us in "memberberries."

With the pandemic further heightening the risk factor of truly original blockbusters, expect to see Hollywood regurgitating the past even more aggressively in the years to come.