Nearly every film that gets a major summer release these days has a 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 attached to the end of it. Is there not really a general rule that once a franchise gets past number 3 they turn really crap? I mean the obvious exception to this rule would probably be Harry Potter, but that was a series of books first that has always been planned across seven installments (8 in the films) so it makes sense.
Even if a film doesn't have a number attached to the end of it it's normally marketed as 'The New (Insert Star/Director name) Film". We have all become so attached to some form of brand identity that people are no longer willing to put their faith into truly original movies.
The one company these days that seems to be producing what we could consider "Modern Classics" is Pixar; Toy Story, Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, The Incredibles and more. Now one of those has already become a trilogy and two more of those are on their way to getting the franchise treatment. Pixar has very recently announced they will be releasing Finding Nemo 2, Monsters Inc 2 and Toy Story 4. I'm sorry, the Toy Story sequels I could on board with because it made sense seeing the transformation of the relationship between toys and their child transform over the three films as Andy grew up.
Toy Story 3 had a great ending. It was probably the only threequel in history that actually managed to better the two that came before it. But the point is that it ended. I understand that the toys were left with Bonnie and some people want to see that story but is it not better to just leave it open for people to make up their own minds.
Monsters Inc, was a beautiful film. It was a lovely emotional piece that worked completely well as a standalone film. I have a feeling that showing us what happened before that film (because it's actually a prequel about Mike and Sully in College) will take away from the emotional depth of the first and just ruin it.
And Finding Nemo 2. Seriously Pixar? I mean, you'd think that after the events of the first film then Nemo would have learnt his fucking lesson. And to be honest we all know exactly how the plot is going to go; the same as the first one. Nemo gets lost, Dad Tries to find him, get in to shenanigans, finds nemo at the 11th hour. And not to be a buzz kill but surely he should be dead by now.
Pixar have tried turning one of their previous properties into a franchise; Cars. Let's be honest here as well because Cars was basically the first Pixar film that kind of sucked balls. I've not even bothered to see the second one because it looked crap and the reviews seemed to back that up.
They do have some interesting projects lined up such as Brave, coming out later this year, and a film called 1952, a scifi written by Damon Lindelof but that's all we know at this point. Up until the release of Cars, Pixar films had review pretty much unanimous critical acclaim. And then Cars 2 was the only Pixar film to receive a 'Rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
John Lasseter, the man who runs Pixar, said before the release of Cars 2 that Pixar would only make films if they thought the story was worth telling. Really? Because I don't there was much demand or interest in a sequel to the talking cars story. What is interesting is that Pixar made a lot more money from merchandise and toys on Cars than they did in box office receipts. And what did the sequel happen to introduce; a lot more characters. Therefore a lot more toys and then a lot more money.
So what can we expect from Finding Nemo 2, Monsters Inc 2 and Toy Story 4? I wish I could say I had absolute faith in Pixar and they were only making these films because the story was well worth telling. I can tell you one thing we're guaranteed to see; a lot more characters, toys and merchandise. Pixar used to stand for world class film making, but now all I can see them standing for is a large pay cheque.
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