10 Films That Should Never Have Become Franchises

As charming as the first Pirates movie was back in 2003, if someone touted the idea of four sequels in fourteen years back then, you might’ve wished that person well but you wouldn’t lend them any money.

We got a glimpse of just how bloated, noisy and unfunny those films were going to be in the summer of 2006 when, because we weren’t yet addicted to Netflix and social media, we turned Dead Man’s Chest into the year’s biggest movie. A year later, we all watched At World’s End thinking it couldn’t possibly be any worse and after nearly three hours of overblown spectacle conceded that we’d been overly optimistic.

Mark Kermode does an amusing rant where he claims nobody really enjoys these films, they just think they do because of diminished expectations. You’re watching $300 million worth of action, spectacle and special effects, so how could you fail to be satisfied?

Well, the effects might be expensive but soul and a sense of fun cost nothing, and they’re lacking in these movies.