10 Movie Franchises With No Bad Sequels

5. The Matrix

The Matrix Resurrections Neo Trinity
Warner Bros.

Got to hold my hands up here - I was wrong about The Matrix sequels. For the longest time, I was one of those guys that was like, "the CGI is bad!" "The romance is boring!" "The only good bit is the highway chase!" Bad, bad takes from a man who had clearly lost his way.

Thankfully, before seeing The Matrix Resurrections in 2021, I decided to go ahead and revisit the entire series start to finish. The original Matrix is still the Wachowskis' magnum opus - one of the finest action films ever produced and one that also reset the genre landscape. But The Matrix Reloaded and, to a lesser extent, The Matrix Revolutions, are still worthy, artfully crafted follow-ups replete with great set-pieces, Carrie-Ann Moss on a motorcycle, and lots of Hugo Weaving stealing every scene he is in.

The Matrix Resurrections is my favourite sequel in the series, however. Helmed by Lana Wachowski alone this time, Resurrections reiterates what the story means to Wachowski and how ultimately that's all that really matters. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss are magnetic once again, and while the lack of Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving is noticeable, new additions Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick and Jonathan Goff are all worthy replacements.

Give it another 10 years, and everyone will be kicking themselves for not appreciating this masterpiece the same way they did the first sequels from the early 2000s.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.