9 Ways 4th Films In A Franchise Failed (And 1 That Didn't)

9. Let's Make A Sequel Years After The Original Trilogy Has Ended...

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Billboard 600x3001 Evidence: Indiana Jones: Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. How many times do we hear about follow ups to great films from the eighties and nineties? The script has been written. Sorry, the script if in development. Sorry, there isn't a script but we have a great concept. We have the original cast back. Scratch that, we have some of the cast back. Admittedly it's not just trilogies. How long have we been hearing about the attempts to make a second sequel to Ghostbusters? Let's face it...it isn't going to happen. Unfortunately sometimes they do whether we want them or not. Worse still, when we have a near perfect trilogy, a fourth film is just going to stick out like a sore thumb. And that's kind of what happened with the fourth Indiana Jones film. Personally, I'm quite a fan of the film. I enjoyed Cate Blanchett's crazy KGB operative Irina Spalko. The army ants sequence is one of the best and horrifying sequences in the entire quadtrilogy. And it was great to see Marion Ravenwood back to spar off against Indy himself. The trouble is, for all our love of the original three films, did we actually want another, 19 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? If it was the start of a second trilogy, sent in the 1950s; perhaps. But until Indiana Jones 5 sees the light of day it sits randomly away from the rest of the franchise, adding a son for Indy and sort of setting up Shia LaBeouf's Mutt Williams to take over the reigns. Ask yourself though; does anyone want an Indiana Jones film that doesn't have Harrison Ford delving into danger with his bull whip and fedora? Probably not. Do we want an Indy who's too old to realistically be trekking through deserts and jungles, facing off against local warriors? Not really (And that's something that will have to be carefully considered when he returns as Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode VII). There should probably be a time limit on when sequels are made. 19 years is frankly far too long. I mean, how many times will Batman be rebooted in that time period? Not to mention Spiderman... Other fourth films that fit this 'model': Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Scream 4 , Die Hard 4.0, Lethal Weapon 4, American Reunion...
 
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A writer for Whatculture since May 2013, I also write for TheRichest.com and am the TV editor and writer for Thedigitalfix.com . I wrote two plays for the Greater Manchester Horror Fringe in 2013, the first an adaption of Simon Clark's 'Swallowing A Dirty Seed' and my own original sci-fi horror play 'Centurion', which had an 8/10* review from Starburst magazine! (http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/eventsupcoming-genre-events/6960-event-review-centurion) I also wrote an episode for online comedy series Supermarket Matters in 2012. I aim to achieve my goal for writing for television (and get my novels published) but in the meantime I'll continue to write about those TV shows I love! Follow me on Twitter @BazGreenland and like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BazGreenlandWriter