10 Franchises That Peaked With The First Movie
9. Back To The Future
Back to the Future is quite simply one of the greatest popcorn flicks ever made. Smart, funny, quick-witted and bolstered by the effortless charm and comic timing of Michael J. Fox along with the natural chemistry of his double act with Christopher Lloyd, it remains one of the most endlessly rewatchable movies to ever come out of the Hollywood studio system.
The sequels, while not terrible, failed to recapture the lightning in a bottle that made the first installment so special. Part II doubled back on itself and ended up over-complicating the plot to an unnecessary degree, although it did feature some groundbreaking effects work and also introduced the hoverboard into the public consciousness. We're still waiting...
Shot back-to-back with its predecessor, Part III wisely decided to deviate from the established formula and take things back in time to the Old West, recapturing some of the imagination and creative inventiveness that had been sorely missing from the first sequel in the process.
It still holds up decades later as one of the all-time great trilogies, but there is no denying the fact that Back to the Future Parts II and III can't hold a candle to Robert Zemeckis' masterpiece which is hardly a damning indictment of the sequels, as not many movies can.