Just because a film franchise goes on for decades doesn’t mean its without its rough patches. Sometimes this comes in terms of poor critical reception, weak commercial reception, or both. Today, we’re looking at the poor critical reception side of things, and specifically when it comes to science fiction franchises. Like with horror and comedy, sci-fi is rife with cinematic sagas that soared with critics and fans early and have gone on and on, often to this very day. But it’s not as if, because they’re still going today, that means they haven’t been without their weak entries. Star Wars had Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (many would argue the first two thirds of the prequel trilogy, as well), Star Trek had a handful of weak movies, none of The Matrix‘s sequels are particularly well liked, Tron: Ares was laughed out of theaters, and so on.
The same goes for Men in Black, Jurassic Park, Predator, Alien, Transformers, Avatar…none of them are batting 1,000. In short, there are far more sci-fi movie series with at least one entry than there are sci-fi cinematic sagas with no true “bad” entry. But there are a few of the latter, and we’ve compiled them for you.
3) Dune
The property itself may be 60 years old, but we’ve only received three Dune movies. And, of those three, two are phenomenal and one is fine. It’s certainly divisive, but it has just as many fans as detractors.
Naturally, Denis Villeneuve’s two movies are the phenomenal ones. There’s next to no chance this year’s Dune: Part Three nullifies this entry on the list. As for David Lynch’s version, it’s a bit too ambitious for its own good. It’s a lot of story for two hours and fifteen minutes and it doesn’t quite pull it off. But it also has some rock solid casting and the late Lynch’s very specific vibe (merged with a pre-existing IP), so it’s difficult to call it a genuinely poor film. As far as 40-year-old adaptations of a seemingly unadaptable text go it’s astonishing it works at all.
2) Mad Max
The original Mad Max is fairly quaint and simplistic now, but it still works as a revenge movie. The Road Warrior is one of those seminal action classics that very much pushed the franchise (genres, including post-apocalyptic sci-fi) forward. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome pales in comparison to the first two, but it did still bring some interesting concepts and characters into the fray. Mad Max: Fury Road is slightly more perfect than The Road Warrior. And, lastly, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was wildly ambitious and sometimes struggles under the weight of that, but is actually a movie that gets better on rewatches because of that.
So, all told, Mad Max is one of the definitive examples of a franchise that has succeeded in adapting its world for modern viewers. The newer movies work just as well as the classic era. It can even focus on someone who isn’t Max for an entire movie (almost two entire movies, really) and be all the better for it. That’s a fleshed-out world, and thus far that world has yet to produce an experience that wasn’t worth buying a ticket to experience.
1) Back to the Future
Naturally, the original Back to the Future is the best Back to the Future. It is plenty of people’s very favorite movie, just like The Shawshank Redemption, Jaws, Forrest Gump, or The Godfather.
The question isn’t whether its two sequels are “bad” so much as just how short they fall in comparison to the original. The answer is that they do fall short, but not enough to be considered failures. They retain the heart of the original, the charming dynamics between the characters, and the overall strong writing. Do they feel too comfortable copying the original film’s structure? Sure, but that still helps them feel connected to a truly great film in a way that works.
Which of these is your favorite sci-fi film franchise? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!