Die Hard: 5 Ways To Redeem This Once Great Franchise
3. Enough Of John McClane's Children
As a consequence of making an endless amount of sequels, writers are tasked with the problem of coming up with a plot that is related to the first film, and yet, different enough to warrant a sequel (unless you make a carbon copy like The Hangover II). The best sequels are those that take the central character(s) to new places emotionally and further the development of who they are. In short, a character arc that spreads across multiple films that are all centrally related, and yet, totally different.
Its not an easy task to handle and requires some real outside-the-box thinking to come up with something that audiences can readily recognize as part of a complete franchise and yet, is surprising at every turn. In Live Free or Die Hard (the 4th of the series), it introduced John McClanes daughter, Lucy.
It was a nice bit of change that introduced a different side to John, until she turned into the helpless damsel-in-distress that seems to be THE #1 point of conflict in action movies. But in the next film A Good Day to Die Hard, it turns out that John has yet ANOTHER child that we didnt know about who is causing all kinds of mischief in Russia! Oh those wacky kids and their shenanigans.
The problem is, John McClanes children arent nearly as interesting as he is, unfortunately. His son drags down the film and makes the whole movie seem like some odd side quest for John, before he gets back to the real shit happening back home. Am I saying these movies can never ever feature Johns children at all? No, but they also shouldnt be used as a crutch when the screenwriters cant think of anything better to write.