10 Dumb Mistakes That Ruined Once Great Franchises

There's a lot of reasons that the last three Terminator movies haven't worked: poor directing choices (why take the neon-purple future and make it murky brown?), an over-reliance on time travel (something that was little more than a narrative device in the original), bland recasting of iconic characters (the epitome being Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese) and a complete lack of actual purpose (oh look, another Judgement Day). But all of those pale next to something bigger; Terminator probably shouldn't be a franchise in the first place.

The first movie was a big hit, sure, but it was when the sequel, then the most expensive film ever made, smashed up the box office (adjusted for inflation it made almost $1 billion) that people thought there was something intrinsic in the idea that could be spun off forever. Of course, that it took another twelve years to act on that shows how unique successes these films were, requiring James Cameron's large scale action hand and understanding of complex, story-specific characters. You can't just "do another one".

After Genisys, a film that ticked all the iconography checkboxes (too many, if you ask me) and yet wound up being an original-duology fan fic, it should finally sink in it's better to let this series lie. But, oh no, it was a success in China, so expect a raft more...