13 Best Movies From Otherwise Terrible Franchises

4. The Matrix - The Matrix Trilogy

The Matrix Neo
Warner Bros.

Other Films: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

The Matrix Trilogy is another franchise which is a poster-child for franchises you should stop watching after the first film and with good reason.

The Matrix is a superb, full-throttle action film that's made with astonishing craft and has a very strong story too, but the sequels just kind-of lost the plot.

The Matrix Reloaded is OK, but it does have a fair amount of poor writing, especially in the widely-mocked Architect scene, while the Zion rave is arguably one of the worst film scenes of all time. The Matrix Revolutions, meanwhile, is pretty bloody awful and ends the story with a maddening anticlimax.

With this trilogy, it would've been a lot better had the Wachowski siblings (who wrote and directed all three films) just kept things a bit simpler and not got quite so lost in all the pretentious philosophical concepts that bogged these sequels down.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.