When I was watching the many Super Bowl commercials that came out, the Han Solo trailer surprised me. I remembered that the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie had just come out a few weeks ago. Why would another movie in the same universe be coming out so quickly after the release of The Last Jedi?
The long form series of movies such as trilogies and long strings of movies are now favored over the complete story a single film tells. With it’s gaining popularity, most series end up as cash grabs for companies.
Films made as cash grabs tend to be rushed and that lowers the quality of the film. They are only made for production companies to make money, and in turn, they don’t create the film for the sake of art. Some of these cash grabs prove to be great while others fall flat. Only a few film series end up being worth the time.
The first Matrix film was successful at telling a new story. The following two films in the trilogy were mediocre, riding the wave of the first film. You can see this in their Rotten Tomatoes score, with a steady decline. The first movie scored a 87%, the second scored a 73% and the last film in the trilogy scored a 36%. The Godfather Trilogy has the same problem.Their first two films got a 98% and 97% respectively, but lost steam on the last film, getting a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even as a film that’s regarded as one of the best of all time, it fell under the same issues most The Star Wars series is a mixed bag. The original series is loved by many fans but the prequels that trilogies came after are known to be bad.
When Disney bought the Star Wars brand in 2012, generally popular Star Wars movies came in rapid succession. With the new Han Solo focused movie coming soon, the verdict is still out on whether Star Wars is slowly declining with each new film, or if it solidifies the trilogies as one of the best movie series of all time. The Avengers is going strong with dozens of movies, similar to the Star Wars series. Their new movie, Avengers: Infinity War releasing May 4, 2018. Each movie produced makes for a fun time at the movies, each doing a good job entertaining and showcasing a classic superhero story.
Transformers, directed by Michael Bay and and extended to five movies now, a Bumblebee movie releasing 2018 and another Transformers movie coming out 2019, it is easy to see that Transformers became a cash grab series.
Paranormal Activity started off as a decent, short, very low budget horror film that intrigued audiences, but to the dismay of viewers, more and more Paranormal Activities kept coming out, with each release being worse than the former. You see this as their Rotten Tomatoes scores plummeted from the first film getting a 83% to the last film getting a 14%. As the series goes on, the complicated, ridiculous and effortless The Paranormal Activity series falls under the same problems most movie series do, becoming a cash grab.
