Voyager and Enterprise. It's one thing to contradict established continuity, but Voy and Ent usually contradicted it for neither a good reason nor with a new idea that was better. In fact, the new idea, whatever it was, was almost always worse.
Gundam Seed Destiny--the first was pretty terrible, but the sequel series was an abomination, totally shitting on the only realy good part of GS, which was the final ten or so episodes. Likewise, they introduced new characters even more vile than the first series' most obnoxious ones and resolved cliffhangers in the cheapest, most insulting way I've ever seen in a program.
The Matrix Revolutions--I liked Reloaded, but don't want to merely recapitulate the arguments of how and why Revolutions destroyed the franchise here.
The Shrek followups. The first Shrek was an alright watch-it-once comedy. It was, as I already knew from family members who watched it over and over, a formula prone to producing some of the most annoying cinema in the world given repetition.
And fucking Austin Powers 3, now that I'm reminded of Mike Meyers' tragic talent-collapse. This probably makes me the angriest, because the premise (Goldmember the disgusting sight gag) doesn't even look good on paper, and yet it suggests immediately an excellent premise. I can understand how I can easily imagine the best Austin Powers film, centered around conflict with a 1970s version, or even a time-travel-created 1970s doppelganger, of Austin. Played relatively straighter, this would develop an HST-like theme of the 1960s counterculture's fall from grace, which is potentially much funnier (not to say more emotionally involving) that some motherfucker who eats his own skin.
Batman Begins. Okay, it's better than Batman and Robin, but this movie still sucks. It's not exactly a sequel, but I really do hate it for rebooting the Batman franchise in such a dull (movie is boring), disrespectful (Ra's al-Ghul) stupid (microwave gun?!) manner. The Dark Knight is a lot better, and I do consider it a good movie. And yet it suffers profoundly from a bloated running time and plot, a ridiculous, disbelief-dropping xanatos gambit on the Joker's part, and that sad, artless notion of the mid-Noughties where any mention of terrorism or civil liberties was equated mechanically with some kind of relevance, no matter how strained and nonsensical the metaphor is. For the example par excellence, watch and "enjoy" nuBSG's descent into crapitude with the Caprica Arc.
On the other hand, I can find a lot of redeeming qualities in Terminator 3 (good action setpieces; tough and uncompromising ending) and Spider-Man 3 (thought Emo Peter Parker was one of the best comic relief scenes in recent memory; loved Topher Graas' Eddie Brock). My credibility: gone?
Gundam Seed Destiny--the first was pretty terrible, but the sequel series was an abomination, totally shitting on the only realy good part of GS, which was the final ten or so episodes. Likewise, they introduced new characters even more vile than the first series' most obnoxious ones and resolved cliffhangers in the cheapest, most insulting way I've ever seen in a program.
The Matrix Revolutions--I liked Reloaded, but don't want to merely recapitulate the arguments of how and why Revolutions destroyed the franchise here.
The Shrek followups. The first Shrek was an alright watch-it-once comedy. It was, as I already knew from family members who watched it over and over, a formula prone to producing some of the most annoying cinema in the world given repetition.
And fucking Austin Powers 3, now that I'm reminded of Mike Meyers' tragic talent-collapse. This probably makes me the angriest, because the premise (Goldmember the disgusting sight gag) doesn't even look good on paper, and yet it suggests immediately an excellent premise. I can understand how I can easily imagine the best Austin Powers film, centered around conflict with a 1970s version, or even a time-travel-created 1970s doppelganger, of Austin. Played relatively straighter, this would develop an HST-like theme of the 1960s counterculture's fall from grace, which is potentially much funnier (not to say more emotionally involving) that some motherfucker who eats his own skin.
Batman Begins. Okay, it's better than Batman and Robin, but this movie still sucks. It's not exactly a sequel, but I really do hate it for rebooting the Batman franchise in such a dull (movie is boring), disrespectful (Ra's al-Ghul) stupid (microwave gun?!) manner. The Dark Knight is a lot better, and I do consider it a good movie. And yet it suffers profoundly from a bloated running time and plot, a ridiculous, disbelief-dropping xanatos gambit on the Joker's part, and that sad, artless notion of the mid-Noughties where any mention of terrorism or civil liberties was equated mechanically with some kind of relevance, no matter how strained and nonsensical the metaphor is. For the example par excellence, watch and "enjoy" nuBSG's descent into crapitude with the Caprica Arc.
On the other hand, I can find a lot of redeeming qualities in Terminator 3 (good action setpieces; tough and uncompromising ending) and Spider-Man 3 (thought Emo Peter Parker was one of the best comic relief scenes in recent memory; loved Topher Graas' Eddie Brock). My credibility: gone?
).
