10 Movie Franchises That Never Got Better Than The First Film

9. Shrek

The Franchise: Motivated by Jeffrey Katzenberg's disgruntlement over his departure from Disney, Shrek was a fun, subversive film that marked Dreamworks out as a fun rival to Pixar. Starting at a time when Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz were relevant, A-List names, the story of an ogre who ends up saving the day came with a great message about true beauty while also taking a good stab at the conventions of a fairy tale Disney had spent decades propagating. This was a general ideology that ran through the three sequels, released like clockwork at three year intervals. Why The First Was Best: Some of the pop culture references date it - the Robin Hood-Princess Fiona fight scene hearkens back to a time when mimicking bullet-time was viewed as parody - but overall Shrek is a fun movie that works for both kids and their parents. And, aside from cheap pop covers of great songs jutting through on too many sequences, Shrek 2 has its moments too (Puss In Boots was an obvious standout). But the problem here was the same that befell the likes of Pirates Of The Caribbean; over time the unlikely hero became so dependable he lost that everyman edge. By Shrek Forever After he was indistinguishable from the Prince's he'd been parodying in the first place.