10 Film Franchises That Successfully Recovered From Awful Entries

The Awful Entries – Several

James Bond has become more and more marmite amongst film fans in recent years. Many of the earlier movies, with perpetual favourite Sean Connery in the role of 007, have certainly not aged well, but Connery’s hit to miss ratio surpasses any of his successors with the exception of Timothy Dalton, who delivered two hugely underrated efforts in the latter half of the 80s.

‘James Bond Will Return’ is the phrase that bookends the credits of each of Bond’s outings on the screen and for sixty-eight years he has kept returning, despite the presence of a handful of absolute shockers in his portfolio. By changing the man in the suit, as well as directors and other creative personnel, however, the series always finds a way to reinvent itself for the modern era and bounce back.

Roger Moore is guilty for much of the series’ drivel, but the subdued brilliance of The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only put to bed the bad memories of The Man With The Golden Gun and Moonraker.

Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond cursed with bad scripts (bar Goldeneye), but Die Another Day led to the unequivocally fantastic Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. Quantum Of Solace was then another entry in the ‘miss’ column before Skyfall gave the series a huge boost of adrenaline once more.

Time and time again, Bond survives what would kill anything else. That applies to both the character and the franchise…