10 All-Time Great Franchises That Still Had One Bad Movie

Indiana Jones had literally ridden off into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade, and given how many attempts there had been in the intervening 19 years to mount a fourth installment, a lot of people thought that it might never actually happen. When it did, those same folks wished that bearded best buddies Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had never bothered.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn't quite as awful as certain sections of the internet would have you believe, and it does provide a decent amount of adventure-driven spectacle, but it would be fair to say that Indy's long-awaited return only served to disappoint.

For a franchise that relied so heavily on practical stunts, the overuse of CGI is one thing, but the appallingly bad quality of the vast majority of it is nigh-on unforgivable. The gophers, the vine-swinging and the poorly-rendered extra-terrestrials are still nightmare fuel for diehard fans, but at least the upcoming fifth movie won't be burdened by the same kind of impossible expectations given how badly Spielberg and Lucas dropped the ball last time round.