10 Most Disappointing Action Movie Sequels Ever
The law of diminishing returns is very real, and has haunted more than a few franchises.
Franchises have been the lifeblood of the movie industry for decades now, with studios deciding that it would be much easier to build their biggest projects around an established brand and familiar characters instead of taking a chance on an original concept.
The approach has proven to be hit-or-miss, because you'd be hard-pressed to name any long-running franchise that has a 100% track record of critical acclaim. No matter how much you loved The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman & Robin will always exist, and another two dozen installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe aren't going to make Thor: The Dark World any more interesting.
Sequels to popular action movies are always a tough nut to crack, because if you decide to copy what worked before then you get labeled as unoriginal, while if you attempt to reinvent the wheel then you run the risk of alientating the core fan-base.
Plenty of action sequels have managed to hit that sweet spot in the middle, but there are countless others that have missed the mark entirely and ended up delivering something awful that doesn't appeal to anyone.
10. Robocop 3
Paul Verhoeven's Robocop remains one of the definitive action movies of the 1980s, as well as one of the decade's greats. While the inevitable sequel wasn't an awful follow-up, but a fairly derivative and uninspired one that couldn't hold a candle to the first installment, Robocop 3 flat-out sucks.
The writing should have been on the wall when Peter Weller decided against returning to his career-defining role, and the studio was so eager to keep the brand going that they didn't even bother making a new costume for his replacement Robert John Burke, despite the fact he was much taller than his predecessor.
The first Robocop was all about skewering consumerism, and nobody seemed to realize the irony in making the character's third outing PG-13 in order to increase its chances of box office success and appeal to a younger demographic.
Despite being made available to a wider audience, nobody really cared anyway as Robocop 3 was savaged by critics and tanked at the box office, marking a huge comedown for a franchise that had gotten off to an all-timer of a start just six years earlier.