It’s kind of inevitable for Hollywood to look at a successful movie and immediately order for a sequel to be made. Frankly speaking, although we audience members claim we want originality, we’re more than happy to oblige to see the continuing adventures of the characters we loved so much in the first installment.
However, Hollywood sometimes don’t really know why a movie becomes popular in the first place and they decide to focus on the wrong aspect or not understand the point of the first film. Or they just pick out a random script and plug in the characters from the first movie. Whatever the reason, these sequels lose the spirit of the original and this happens fairly often. This week, I’d like to focus on five such movie franchises that have severely changed the direction and spirit of the original movie.
With a film series spanning ten films, a potential spinoff movie series and an animated show, it was kind of expected for a franchise as big as the Fast and the Furious to change. But the degree of the change? Wow!
The original Fast and the Furious movies, around the first three movies anyway, was mostly about the illegal street racing scene. Sure, there were subplots about high speed heists of gas, crime cartels and whatnot. But a lot of the focus was on the street racing scene. Although things may get a little Ludacris ludicrous even back then, it never hit the levels of insanity and reality bending rules of the later movies!
All of a sudden, this “family” weren’t just a simple crew who looked after each other. Nope! They were conducting high tech heists involving impossibly strong electromagnets, stealing spyware that can hack any computer in the world, plummeting from impossible heights and surviving with nary a scratch, outracing a submarine and, of course, flying into space!
I personally loved the first three movies but that’s mostly because I generally like the thrill of fast cars and racing. So, this change to more silly action was not for me. However, in hindsight, this was indeed the direction to go as, when the Fast and the Furious movies started to get really crazy, they became huge hits in the box office. So, give the people what they want, I guess?
I remembered when the first John Wick movie came out and I would summarize the plot by saying “a guy gets revenge on the people who killed his dog.” I joke about it because, if you strip everything away, that is the plot of the movie. Sure, there are deeper plot points, such as John Wick was a terrifying hitman in the past, even earning the nickname of “Baba Yaga” from the assassin underworld. Even so, the distilled essence of the first John Wick was the titular hero going on a killing spree. That’s it.
But I guess the Hollywood bigwigs liked the idea of John Wick’s shadowy underworld instead of the simple revenge story because, in later installments, that became the focus. After the events of the first film, John Wick was forced back into the assassin game and now in search of a way to free himself. Oh, he also starts getting hunted by his fellow assassins later on so everyone is out gunning for him!
In my opinion, I actually like the change here. While I do have a soft spot for simple revenge movies, I do enjoy the grandeur and the overall world building the later John Wick movies did. The later installments allowed the John Wick universe to come off as really grand and bigger than life. My only complaint is they forgot about the dog in the later films! They had characters who had dogs but it’s not John Wick’s new dog! How’d they forget about that?
Rambo is a movie series which did both a zig and then a zag when it comes to the overall tone of the films. The first movie, First Blood, while still an action movie, had more of a message regarding how the United States mistreat and ignore war veterans. In the film, John Rambo is a Vietnam war veteran travelling through a small town when the sheriff and his deputies harass him, leading to him reliving the abuse he endured as a POW. Rambo snaps and starts taking out the local police.
In its sequel, Rambo: First Blood: Part II, our hero still PTSD… but he’s now more of a badass and not as misunderstood as he’s recruited to rescue other POWs. There’s still a message of how war veterans are not treated right but it’s slowly slipping into the periphery. That message is virtually gone by the third installment, Rambo III, as it almost seems as if Rambo’s PTSD is cured by this time. Essentially, the Rambo movies became more action focused and less about delivering a message.
Another tonal shift in the franchise happens in the 2008 Rambo film. Gone is the war veteran who didn’t want to kill people until pushed too hard from First Blood. Now, he’s just a killing machine, exacting bloody vengeance on a ruthless army run by a dictator. Things get even more violent in Rambo: Last Blood with John Rambo fully embracing his sadistic side and essentially kill a ton of, admittedly, very bad people.
So, as you can see, the entire Rambo series didn’t just change once, but twice! Originally, in First Blood, it was a commentary on the poor treatment of war veterans. The next couple of movies took a sharp turn and turned it into an adrenaline enfused action franchise. The last couple of flicks fully turn John Rambo into a violent killing machine. What a turn of events!
The first Godzilla movie came out way back in 1954 and is still running up to today. So, it’s hardly surprising that the tone of the movies have changed. But the changes are pretty wild and almost planned out! The original had Godzilla as a metaphor for “atomic bombs” and the disasters it can wreck. He was a monster and he would indiscriminately destroy anything in his path, making him a danger to all humanity. Later entries would have the King of Monsters fighting other monsters but he was still technically the villain.
This all changes with the 1964 movie, Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. Godzilla, seeing that King Ghidorah is a danger to the entire planet, he joins Mothra and Rodan in repelling the alien monster’s attack. This is when this former allegory of nuclear war becomes the protector of the planet and friend to children! Yes, it’s weird but kids loved watching him wreck cities and unaliving tons of people! I mean, I can’t blame them! That’s so cool!
Anyway, that period is known as the Showa era of Godzilla movies, which ended with Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Return of Godzilla in 1984 was the beginning of the Heisei era and wipes out all the previous movies, besides the original film, out of continuity. This meant that Godzilla was back to being a bad guy… but not totally. He was still a threat but, at times, he would be called upon to try to take on other monsters that would pop up. For example, in Godzilla vs. Mothra, Mothra is trying to save the planet from Godzilla’s rampage. But in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla is used more as a tool to save the planet against SpaceGodzilla‘s rampage.
Things would change slightly with the advent of the Millennium series. During this time, Godzilla would primarily be the villain and the monsters he faces off would be the protectors of humanity. Even King Ghidora, the baddest monster of the Showa era, is a good guy here! However, in the final movie of the Millennium series, Godzilla: Final Wars, The King of Monsters turns good and wrecks all of the other monsters in quick succession who are being mind controlled by aliens!
Although he started out as an allegory for the dangers of nuclear war, the focus has changed as the years have passed. He may have started out as monster but he turned good and became bad again at times. Kinda like a pro wrestler if you think about it.
Although there are a lot of horror movies wherein they started sprinkling in some dark humor here and there, none have really changed their tone like the original Evil Dead movies. The original film was a gory and over-the-top supernatural horror with Ash Williams and his friends unwittingly unleashes a demon who torments them. In an odd twist, the sequel, Evil Dead II, did not continue after the events of the first movie. Instead, Evil Dead II is more of a retelling of the original but with a more comedic tone to the events.
The third movie, Army of Darkness, is a true sequel to Evil Dead II. It picks off where the last film left off: with Ash Williams stranded in medieval times. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
Almost shedding its original horror tones, Army of Darkness comes off more as an action/fantasy/comedy movie… and one of the very first instances of an isekai ever, come to think of it. Tell me I’m wrong!
BONUS: Angel
I’ve covered pretty much the more popular instances wherein movie franchises have changed. Well, I decided to include a bonus with the little known Angel trilogy of films. The trilogy follows the titular character, Angel, who’s actually a teen named Molly. In order to stay in private school, she works as a prostitute. In the first film, Angel manages to identify a serial killer who has been going after prostitutes. After the serial killer escapes, Angel/Molly’s life is turned upside down as her secret double life is revealed and the killer starts targeting her and her friends.
The sequels, well, this is where things get weird. In Avenging Angel, our titular character is now in college studying law and is off the streets. However, when the cop who helped her in the first film is murdered, Angel/Molly and her friends from the street become vigilantes in order to find out who killed him! Finally, in Angel III: The Final Chapter, Angel/Molly is now a photographer (so I guess law school didn’t work out for her?) and finds out about a sister she never knew she had. When her sister gets embroiled with a white slavery ring, Angel decides to go undercover to save her!
Like with the other entries on this list, Angel sure has a lot of tonal changes! From teen prostitute, to vigilante to undercover agent, Angel sure had a lot of lives… and since they kept changing the actress, a lot of different faces as well!
What other movie franchises can you think of that have changed over time? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 