Comments on: What Was the Weirdest Live Action Film Franchise?

By: Kevin Bicknell

Kevin Bicknell — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 17:40:35 +0000

The way the Terminator franchise moved between “time is fixed” and “history can be changed” was always a little bonkers.

By: Fraser

Fraser — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:34:34 +0000

Not to mention Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was terrific but definitely not in the main timeline. I tried figuring it all out: https://atomicjunkshop.com/terminator-trying-to-sort-out-the-timelines/

By: James

James — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 05:44:07 +0000

Fast & Furious definitely got weird., but most of the time if you ask a fan of the series “Didn’t this series used to be about street racing?” they’ll tell you, “No. It’s about family.”

Some I can think of just got kind of hard to follow for the average layperson.

Like the Highlander movies, which kind of contradict one another, then fold in characters from the TV series, which also contradicts the movies and events of the show.

The Terminator movies ran more or less a consecutive story for 4 movies, then did a weird reboot, then another weird reboot. The first weird reboot could be chalked up to time-travel shenanigans, but the second one just directly contradicts the story of any and everything that came after the second movie.

By: Alex Widen

Alex Widen — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 18:04:22 +0000

I think many horror film franchises reach this level once they go on too far. “FRIDAY THE 13TH” started as a series about a vengeful camp mom wanting to avenge her drowned kid and evolved into featuring a male, adult serial killer, then a copycat, then a ZOMBIE male adult serial killer who eventually goes to space and becomes a zombie-cyborg. And then has a stalemate battle with a dream demon (Freddy Krueger).
The “HALLOWEEN” franchise has been fairly dubbed “The Choose-Your-Own Adventure Of Horror” since it’s had a string of sequels which also brought it to weird places, one sequel (“HALLOWEEN 3”) which has nothing to do with the series, and various relaunches that still act as sequels to the original from the 1970s. And that doesn’t get into bits where Michael Myers starts as a normal serial killer who then becomes some immortal cult-empowered zombie and, like I said, all the relaunch-sequels that go on different paths.
While I loved them as a kid, an outsider might find the ERNEST movies weird. I don’t mean the direct to video ones, I mean the five which were theatrical from the 80s into the 90s. For someone who never saw the commercials or even the brief CBS TV show, they might not know why this loveable redneck went from a camp counselor to saving Christmas to getting super-powers and multiple personalities in various movies to killing trolls and finding the lost Crown Jewels of England (“ERNEST RIDES AGAIN”).
They may have been TV movies, but Disney’s Dexter Riley TV movies from the 60s and 70s were kind of weird.

By: Fraser

Fraser — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 10:20:53 +0000

There’s a good case for Fast and Furious. Starts out as a simple story about fast cars, sexy women and a cop torn between Duty and The Bro Code (will he do his duty and turn over Found Brother Vin Diesel to the law?). Then by the fifth installment they’re car-driving superheroes dragging a crimelord’s money vault away from him through the streets (https://atomicjunkshop.com/fast-furious-successful-the-fast-and-furious-franchise/). Then they turn into super-spies working for Kurt Russell and in one film successfully attack a Russian nuclear submarine base. I like the series (well, most of it), but it’s fricking loonie

By: Fraser

Fraser — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 10:16:05 +0000

I know Dear Ruth. Had no idea about the sequels.