There’s something comforting about running through every film in your favorite franchise, but there are some entries best left ignored. There was a time when sequels were seen as creatively bankrupt by actors and directors, but the success enjoyed by the likes of 1978’s Jaws 2 or the Star Wars sequels saw Hollywood become more open-minded.
It’s hard to picture the modern movie business without the safety net of sequels keeping it afloat. Even during a time where originals like Weapons or Sinners are thriving, Hollywood is still gearing up for more sequels to old reliables like the John Wick or James Bond franchises.
Once in a while, fans feel the urge to run through every entry in their favorite series – even one with less than stellar sequels. However, some franchises have entries that are so dull or outright bad it’s best to skip over them rather than waste the time a rewatch would entail.
Jason Bourne (2016)
Director Paul Greengrᴀss and Matt Damon appeared done with the Bourne movies following their third entry, Ultimatum. Soon after, Tony Gilroy attempted a spinoff dubbed The Bourne Legacy that would move the series away from Bourne and create an MCU-style expanded spy universe. When it underperformed, Damon and Greengrᴀss mounted their own sequel that simply ignored Legacy.
The result was 2016’s Jason Bourne, a total shoulder shrug of a follow-up. This entry offers nothing fresh; no interesting new insights into Bourne himself, the story is a mishmash of then-current events and even the action sequences are reheated versions of previous sequels.
There’s a general feeling Damon and Greengrᴀss made Jason Bourne simply because they needed a hit. This fourth sequel isn’t even interesting enough to be bad; it just runs through the hits of the Bourne franchise before closing with a half-hearted sequel tease. Even Legacy, for its faults, at least tried to do something different.
The Predator (2018)
The Predator should have rocked. It saw screenwriting legend Shane Black return to the Predator franchise after playing Hawkins in the original; it had a great cast, and it expanded the franchise’s universe wider than ever. Somewhere between production and release, however, it fell to pieces.
The studio made Black reedit the film and shoot an entirely different third act, and the final cut of The Predator is a choppy mess. The plot makes little sense, a lot of Black’s trademark gags fall flat and the setpieces feel hastily ᴀssembled.
Its additions to franchise lore – like the hunters “upgrading” their DNA with other alien species – are intriguing but not enough to make it worth viewing. While not entirely without merit, The Predator is the most skippable outing in the mainline series to date, and it’s better to leap from Predators right to Prey.
The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Pool (1988)
The Dirty Harry series concluded in disappointingly creaky fashion with this fifth outing. It has a decent hook, where a serial killer runs through a list of predicted celebrity deaths, with Clint Eastwood’s Harry being part of this “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Pool” too.
The Dirty Harry saga never topped the original, but this finale is downright lethargic. Eastwood just runs through the motions and the whole thing is flatly sH๏τ, feeling more like a TV movie than a big-budget action sequel.
Outside a well-staged car chase involving a toy vehicle carrying a bomb, there’s not much in The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Pool to get the blood pumping. It’s a lame ending for such a controversial character, so fans should close on Sudden Impact instead.
The Final Destination (2009)
The Final Destination movies are one of horror’s most creative and fun franchises, and nearly all of them are a good time. The sole exception is The Final Destination, the fourth installment that was billed as the “final” chapter.
This “finale” also arrived during the whole 3D craze, and sold itself on how wild the deaths would be. Instead, The Final Destination is a slog. The characters are flat and boring, the deaths lack the inventive edge of past sequels, and there’s a genuine lack of heart about the whole enterprise.
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Sylvester Stallone was one of the first stars to recognize the value of having reliable franchises and built the likes of Rocky and Expendables around himself. Stallone has returned to the well once too often with most of his famous characters, to the point that he spoiled a perfect finale for Rambo.
2008’s Rambo closed on the best note for Stallone’s ex-soldier. After avoiding his home country for decades, Rambo finally plucked up the courage to return and this third sequel closed with the moving image of John walking to his father’s farm. That should have closed the series, but Stallone yanked the lottery chain again for the terrible Rambo: Last Blood.
This fifth installment is a repellently violent, grubby follow-up where Rambo is the only character with any dimension. It plays like a mean-spirited riff on Taken, but not even its montage of bloodshed finale can save it. It closed Rambo’s story on a sour note and is better ignored on a rewatch.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later should have ended the original series, in addition to giving Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) the ultimate victory after she decapitated Michael Myers. However, the producers insisted Michael couldn’t die, with Resurrection explaining how he survived – the first mistake of many in this misbegotten entry.
The Halloween series has plenty of bad sequels, but Resurrection stands proud and tall amongst them. From its miserable lack of suspense to its bland kills and annoying characters, there’s almost nothing to enjoy in this eighth outing. Its most infamous claim to fame is having none other than Busta Rhymes beat Michael Myers up: not once, but twice.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Anticipation for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was borderline cosmic. It had been nearly 20 years since Indy was last onscreen, and the reunion between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford promised great things. What audiences got instead was a CGI-riddled disaster.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feels like Spielberg lost his touch for directing blockbusters, with the viscerally thrilling action of the prior films replaced with a cartoonish edge. The central MacGuffin feels like it belongs to a silly 50s B-movie, and Shia LaBeouf’s “Mutt” sidekick is a cringeworthy edition.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just fails at its job, starting on a disappointing note and getting worse from there. While the fifth film, The Dial of Destiny, has its own issues it at least features an emotional story and feels like a dignified last chapter for one of cinema’s greatest action heroes.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Conceptually, the notion of the Enterprise crew setting off to meet God sounds like a solid hook. In the hands of star and director William Shatner, The Final Frontier is a chintzy sci-fi adventure with bad special effects that asks big questions, but isn’t thoughtful enough to fully explore them.
There is a comfort in seeing the original crew together again, but The Final Frontier feels like the odd man out of the whole series. It lacks a strong villain, the script forces characters to go against their established nature just to progress the story and Shatner lacks the directorial vigor to make a rousing adventure from this highbrow premise.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
In 2000, the sight of Tom Cruise riding through flames on his motorcycle to a badᴀss guitar riff was the height of cool; in 2025, it’s like watching a beloved uncle go through a midlife crisis. It took the Mission: Impossible saga a few tries to nail its formula, only fully clicking into place with 2011’s Ghost Protocol.
Mission: Impossible 2 now feels like a relic of a bygone era, and can easily be left out of a rewatch. Despite some impressive action, it’s shockingly low on setpieces and there is a solid hour dedicated to the interminable plot with nary an action scene to break up the boredom.
John Woo is the greatest living action filmmaker, but he’s simply ill-suited to spy adventures. His focus is on romance and action, but the sequel never finds a pulse. There is fun to be had with how overwrought and OTT Mission: Impossible 2 can be, but boy, is it tough on a rewatch.
Die Another Day (2002)
Die Another Day was a huge turning point for the James Bond series. Its cartoony tone, dad humor gags and overblown setpieces felt completely out of touch with modern spy thrillers like The Bourne Idenтιтy or 24, and it signaled Bond had to reinvent himself for the new Millennium.
Die Another Day led to Casino Royale, so it’s not totally without its positives. Even so, it’s the worst film in the James Bond franchise by a considerable distance. It wasn’t so H๏τ when it arrived in 2002 and has aged terribly since then. Madonna’s theme song and cameo are embarrᴀssing while the tsunami surf is downright unbearable.
