Best Film Franchise

Jeremy Ordan

Jeremy Ordan

Major Contributor
I work for a university, as those of you who know me already know. This Saturday we had our graduation ceremony and I was assigned to be an outside greeter. This means that for two hours it was my job to stand at the doors and greet people as they come in. I was assigned to work with a buddy of mine, total film geek, and we got into this long discussion about what is the best film franchise.

So to bring this conversation here, I am going to open the question to our community.

What in your opinion is the best film franchise, and most importantly, WHY?

I have my opinion which I will try to type up in a more coherent post than this, but I'm curious what you pick as the best franchise and why.

-Jeremy
 
Bond... the fact that the franchise has changed with the time and survived
a number of key actor changes.
 
I'd have to agree that Bond takes it. Culturally I don't think another franchise has so ingrained itself into our pop culture.

A second would probably be Godzilla. Maybe not ... I'd have to think about it more than my current level of awake will allow. :)
 
Star Wars.

it changed special effects. Cemented the idea of the blockbuster and raised the bar for quality sequels. Without it i doubt we'd have the LOTR trilogy or harry potter.

Plus its just got the best damn storyline and setting.


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Police Academy, hands down. I'd explain why but it sounds so banal discussing poetry through logic.

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When making Best Of Lists, I look at the big picture...I take all the individual components into consideration. I couldn't possibly say Bond for this reason - because for the through-the-roof installments (like Goldfinger) you have less-than-stellar chapters (like Die Another Day) that bring the overall average down.

Using this criteria for your best franchise question, I would say that it is indisputably the Indiana Jones franchise...which (as a series) is batting 1000. That is why I am skeptical about the fourth installment. Right now the series is absolutely perfect, and I'd rather just leave off the fourth altogether if it is going to hurt the franchise itself overall.


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Ok, just kidding. I don't know if it's the best but Batman was the obvious forerunner to the now ubiquitious live-action comic franchise model.

I'd say the Bourne stuff has a pretty solid lifespan to come. I'm not a huge action fan but I loved both of those films and look forward to seeing more. It seems like they toned down (ok only a little bit) the huge-budget explosions, etc., and focused more on interesting choreography and camera work.
 
For best film franchise I'm going to make my case for the Alien Saga (at least the first three films). I know the Godfather is unapproachable, but that looks at family relations and is more of a period piece. Indiana Jones is straight action with moments of comedy. There is the holy trilogy of Star Wars which I consider to be above and beyond a franchise (because I'm a fan boy). I have to go with Alien.

First of all, let's look at the general story line: It's survival horror set in space. We get a bad ass killer who bleeds acid, the ultimate killing machine, and most importantly, we get science fiction, horror, and action all rolled into one. A hard combination to execute well.

Next, actors. I think that the Alien franchise has well established itself with some quality performances. In the original we get John Hurt, a great and often under estimated actor. We also get Tom Skerrit, who unfortunately will be remembered for either Top Gun or The Other Sister, but really plays the commander perfectly. Finally, we get the man, Harry Dean Stanton... C'mon who can't like this guy? In the second film we get even better with Lance Henrikson who plays the perfect part (and he's got a great voice), plus we get introduced to a young Bill Paxton, the only actor I hate more than Ben Affleck. The third film introduces us to Charles S. Dutton, who I consider to be perhaps one of the best and most overlooked actors of the last 20 years (although I forgot him off my actor list, just proving my point that he is overlooked). Even if we look to the forgettable: Resurrection film we get the goods delivered by Winona Ryder (although someone told me she stole a bunch of things off the set). But wait, we're forgetting the person who plays the talented survivor Ripley... C'mon, Signorney Weaver is the best. She perfectly captures the nature of the ultimate survivor, victim of circumstance, and desperation of situation.

Directors - We get Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Ignoring Jean-Pierre Jeunet we are really dealing with some of the top directors of the last thirty years all who offer this bleak look on the future.

Futuristic Vision - The future is dark, scary, and without hope. This is the sort of vision that was laid out in Blade Runner and you can see it carrying over to Alien. I love it.

SFX - The alien itself is the scariest creation in cinema history. It can kick King Kong's ass, it would tear a raptor apart, and it would make Jabba the Hut let go of Princess Leah.

Big Picture - To me, this is what seals Alien as a solid franchise. It doesn't call you in the morning to say it's sorry for what it is or what it's not. It offers this dark vision, it kills characters, and it throws a wrench into the picture perfect vision of the future. In my opinion, that is what makes it incredible. This is just my opinion though, but the talent, story, and vision that made this series possible, well, that just wins out for me.

-Jeremy
 
STAR TREK!

With the television series (all five incarnations) to pull from this franchise has such a massive canon that the films have more than only previous films to rely on. This easily opens the door for a huge number of possible storylines for each new film to choose. I'm not saying the powers that be always make the most of the franchise's offerings, but on the day they let me take control of TREK XVII or whatever the power will be unleashed!
 
Halloween, Scream, Godfather, Star Wars


Halloween- I think this movie opened the door to slasher movies, people love this guy, all the other guys from Jason to Freddy came after him, without Halloween we wouldn't have many of the great horror films we've had. Not to mention the low budget on it, it was so low, even today, its low.

Scream- This opened the gate to teen slashers, right after this, many movies came out trying to franchise just like this did.

Godfather- I believe without Godfather we wouldn't have 99% of the gangster movies we've had during our time, this franchised very well, I see those "Godfather" tshirts around all the time.

Star Wars- Just like someone else on top said, this movie opened the doors for sci-fi in a way, fantasy was created with Star wars, without it we wouldn't have many of those TV shows that we have now, movies that have to do with space stole alot from Star wars.
 
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