A good while back, I wrote about five film franchises that forgot what they were all about. These are movie series that started out one way and just turned into something else entirely. Take the Fast and the Furious film franchise. The first few movies were all about illegal street racing with a mix of camaraderie and family. By the time the fifth movie nitro boosted into cinemas, it changed. It still kept the family aspect but turned that up to eleven. Oh, and these street racers were now spies with extraordinary skills like hacking and surviving things that would kill a normal person twice. By the ninth movie, the Fast and Furious family were blasting cars into space because… why not?

I listed down the Fast and Furious in my previous list as well as four other. But there are definitely more movie franchises where the later entries utterly abandoned the plot of their predecessors. In fact, let me give you three more!

#1 The Jurassic Park franchise

The original Jurassic Park trilogy had a very simple idea: what would happen if a bunch of scientists managed to bring back dinosaurs and try to put them in a theme park? Apparently, the answer to that would be chaos, especially if you underpay one computer programmer into selling your tech from under you. Still, the idea in these movies is that actually seeing living, breathing dinosaurs is going to be magical.

That all changed when Universal Pictures decided to revive the dinosaur franchise with the new Jurassic World trilogy. Taking place years after the original trilogy, cloned dinosaurs have now become boring and the idea is becoming stale. So, the sense of wonder of seeing actual living dinosaurs is now boring apparently. So, they now create new species of dinosaurs… obviously. By the end of this new trilogy and the start of the even newer trilogy, dinosaurs have been released into the public so now dinosaurs have become commonplace and even more boring!

But what’s even worse is the underlying idea of the original films is now totally gone. The subtle message of how people shouldn’t be playing god and how, just because we can do something, that doesn’t mean we should, has been driven into extinction now. To be fair, they do try to differentiate the original trilogy from the later movies. I mean, the later movies are called Jurassic World and not Jurassic Park, right? Still, when the focus is more on the carnage rather than the heart, it just makes me want to see these movies get hit by a giant meteor.

#2 The Rocky movies

The Rocky movies is going to be a weird case study of a movie franchise that started to veer away from what it was originally only to kind of try to go back to its roots. The first two movies focused on Rocky Balboa, a down on his luck boxer, who eventually becomes the world heavyweight champion. What makes the first movie so interesting is Rocky actually loses. However, he did do something that no one has ever done: he knocked Apollo Creed, the current champ down and took him to the distance.

In Rocky II, needing money to support his new family, Rocky eventually agrees to Apollo Creed’s taunts for a rematch. The match is dangerous as Rocky is injured and he could actually lose his sight. Still, Rocky goes through the match and, in the final round, he manages to knock out Apollo Creed to become the new champion.

Rocky III is where the franchise takes a weird turn. Rocky isn’t the humble fighter that could anymore. Apparently, after his win against Apollo, he becomes a monster as he’s able to fend off against all contenders until he faces off against Clubber Lang and he’s soundly beaten. It turns out all of Rocky’s other opponents were bums. Rocky then actually starts training really hard and becomes a “real” boxer. By Rocky IV, Rocky becomes almost like a superhero, even facing off against the monster, Ivan Drago, who killed Apollo Creed. Essentially, he’s not the bum he was as depicted in previous movies. He’s now an actual boxer.

After that, Rocky actually retires from boxing. Yes, the film series continues with Rocky not actually being a fighter anymore. After losing all of his money, Rocky and his family are forced to move back to his old neighborhood. Eventually, he does make a decent living for himself, even opening up a small restaurant in the area where he can regale to fans his boxing exploits. In, Rocky Balboa, the final real Rocky movie (I’m not counting the Creed films as I feel that’s more of a spin off than a continuation of the franchise), the aged prizefighter gets in the ring one more time in an exhibition match against Mason Dixon, the current champ. The end has Mason Dixon winning by split decision but Rocky doesn’t really care as he went the distance, mirroring the events of the first movie in the franchise.

In essence, the Rocky movies change around every couple of movies. The first two are about an unknown boxer who beats the odds. The next two are about the same boxer but he’s now actually a good fighter! The last two takes this same boxer and knocks him back down. It’s weird, isn’t it?

#3 The Revenge of the Nerds movies

Now, I’m expecting a lot of you here reading have never seen the Revenge of the Nerds movies. That’s understandable as the first movie can be a little, shall we say, problematic by today’s standards and practices. It’s not on any of the major streaming services because of its content (but it is still available in its entirety on Internet Archive). The original came out in the ’80s were raunchy comedies can do pretty much anything and brush it off as “silly hijinks” without issue. Those same “silly hijinks” simply won’t fly today.

So, it’s actually kind of weird that it seems like the people behind Revenge of the Nerds could see into the future as future entries of the series toned down those “silly hijinks” severely. In Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, most of the “silly hijinks” are gone. By the third film, Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation, there were no more “silly hijinks” but that was mostly out of necessity as this was a made for TV movie.

This, to me, is one of the most drastic changes I’ve seen in a movie franchise. While they still kept the story going with the same characters, the tone totally changed. The first movie was known for the raunchy tone and, almost immediately, switched to being more focused on more “family friendly” gags.

BONUS: The Starship Troopers Movies

I had to add the Starship Troopers franchise as a bonus entry because, strictly speaking, they actually keep the tone of the original film. The problem is future entries didn’t comprehend the underlying message of the original movie. Overall, all of the Starship Troopers focuses on Earth fighting a war against invading aliens called “bugs” and to protect Earth’s interest. The thing is, by the end of the original Starship Troopers movie, it is more than strongly implied that Earth are the actual invaders and the “bugs” are just defending themselves! Everything you’ve witnessed in the movie is just Earth propaganda to turn public perception that the “bugs” are bad guys!

The thing is, the later movies seemed to buy into the propaganda! Gone is the subtle subtext that the Earth are actually the bad guys. The bugs are definitely, very undoubtedly evil and must be stopped. So, in a way, the sequels still follow the basic premise of the original movie. In fact, in my own headcanon, all of the movies are propaganda films they show their kids to make Earth’s invading forces look like they’re the good guys!

What other movies can you think of that have changed their tones? Let me know in the comments section below!