I have been trying to find good action movies made after the turn of the millennium but I am not having a lot of success. It is true that there are still some pretty entertaining and somewhat recently made movies out there. However, they are all quite one-dimensional. I will contrast some pre- and post-2000s movies. If you think I just have not found the right post-2000 movies, then please let me know in the comments below.
First, let us have a look at some classics from the 1980s and 1990s, briefly pointing out why they went beyond car chases, violence, and firefights:
– The Terminator (1984): The movie touches upon transhumanism, the downsides of technological progress for society, and also provides an introduction to time-travelling paradoxes. Also, how do you defeat a seemingly invulnerable robot?
– Robocop (1987): If we put your brain into a robot, what do we do if you retain your memories instead of becoming a perfect and ruthless killing machine? Also, how do we deal with all-powerful mega-corporations in a dystopian future that finance their own private army?
– Total Recall (1990): Could it be that all your memories are fake and that you are actually someone else? What if the hot slut you are banging every day is only there to kill you if your old memories come back? This movie probably introduced a mainstream audience to schizo thinking.
– Fight Club (1999): How will society deal with disenfranchised men? What if men see through consumerism and start to reject fake modernity?
– The Matrix (1999): What if you live within a computer simulation? How would you tell? Could you tell?
Obviously, there are also a lot of action movies of that era that were a lot simpler. I am not aware of any complex themes in Bloodsport (1988), for instance. Yet, even in supposedly dumb popcorn movies like Die Hard (1988) or Escape from New York (1981) there is a layer beyond the action and violence on screen. In the former, there is the obvious question of modernity (empowered woman in corporate America) versus tradition (Christmas, family), and the motivation of the protagonist is to attempt to reconcile with his separated wife as well as the children she kept. Of course, the movie does not answer how she is able to be a high-powered executive that is raising two kids on her own. In contrast, in the latter movie all the violence can be seen as merely a means to an end, i.e. it illustrates what may happen if we no longer uphold law and order. Obviously, contemporary reality is far worse than the dystopia envisioned by that movie over 40 years ago.
What did we get from the 2000s onward? I do not recall a single action movie of that era that can be considered a classic. One of the most highly regarded franchises in the action genre is John Wick. The first movie did not have much of a story. The second is basically a remake of the first, except that it adds a bizarre mythology to it, according to which there is some kind of occult Mafia-like global deep state that runs everything, yet still uses manual switchboards. For all the effort these movies make in detailing their world, they care very little about it in the end, with plot holes so big you could drive a truck through. These movies also do not know what they are. Sometimes, there are slapstick scenes in fights, but normally John Wick is a ruthless and highly efficient killer.
The fourth John Wick movie is almost three hours long. Three fucking hours! There is not a lot happening and surely a bunch of the repetitive fighting scenes could have been cut, or perhaps it would have been enough if John Wick only rolled down the stairs at the end once. The John Wick franchise, from the second movie onward, insults your intelligence, and it gets worse with each movie. You are supposed to believe that there are countless killers out there, waiting to wipe the eponymous protagonist out, as long as the bounty is big enough. When it is just 18 million, there are few takers, but once the bounty increases, suddenly a lot more hoodlums show up because then it is suddenly worth their time. Granted, these movies are well made but there is very little substance.
I found some pretty good foreign-made movies. Ong-Bak (2003) and Tom-Yung-Goong (2005) with Tony Jaa are phenomenal, if you like marital arts movies. It is a pity that Tony Jaa switched from stuntman to actor so late in his career. He peaked with Ong-Bak, and already two years later in Tom-Yung-Goong his physical decline was obvious. Needless to say, there is not a lot to think about while watching these movies. This is pretty mindless action but it is very well-made action.
I even gave the xXx franchise a try, which is built around Vin Diesel playing the ultimate meathead. These movies are really dumb but they have a few good set pieces. One of my favorite scenes is in the first movie, in which the protagonist xXx figures out that he is not the only one who has infiltrated some criminal network. There is also a Russian female spy. They have lunch together, and at some point she asks him what he does. Upon telling her that he is a secret agent, she starts laughing, saying something like, “You, a secret agent? I mean, look at you!”. This was excellent acting of that woman, far better than in the rest of the movie, which makes me belie that it was an ad-libbed scene. Yet, this is an outlier. This franchise would be helped if it took itself a bit less seriously. Better do not ask about any deep thoughts you may have after watching any of these movies.
The age of the action hero is over, and so is, apparently, the age of the semi-cerebral action movie. However, I have also been wondering if this change was simply due to movie studios wanting to better target their audience. In the past, movies often attempted to have something for everybody. For instance, family-friendly movies had cute animal or kids, so the kids had something to relate to, there was some romance and drama for the wife, and the husband got to see a bit of eye-candy as well. Perhaps this is why the better action movies of the past were a lot more serious than one may superficially believe as the goal was to address a potentially larger audience. In contrast, today you get pure action because of a belief that this is what the audience wants, possibly based on extensive focus-group testing.
Agree with the text.
I would add taken as brainless action movie of the last 20 years (though I did find the movie entertaining).
an exception might be Christopher Nolan movies, especially The dark knight and inception. Not sure if you count them as action movies though.
The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies, primarily due to character development. You get a good understanding of the motivation behind all the key characters. To mention John Wick once again: in these movies, you learn very little about its characters. Even John Wick’s motivation is not clear. He gets attacked and hits back. These are incredibly shallow movies.
Another important note to is nostalgia: I did not watch the 1980s/1990s movies I praise so highly when they came out. Back then, you did not have easy access to videos. Even video rental stores were not that common. I think I first watched Total Recall in the early to mid-2000s. Probably, this movie made an even bigger effect on people who watched it in a cinema during its original run. Nonetheless, it holds up phenomenally well. On a related note, most of the classic video games I enjoy, I did not play as a kid or teen either. Conversely, some games I played back then and liked I find impossible to get back to. Nostalgia is likely a factor, but it seems overrated. Of course, people who have a vested interest in pushing contemporary garbage are quick to claim that critics are stuck in the past, etc.
The producers got lazy. Spending all of their money on CGI, instead of quality actors, writers and directors. Like Martin Scorsese said, “it’s not cinema. ”
I’m starting to think the production companies overrated their audience before. They are getting away with this because most people are stupid. It started in the 1990s IMO. Twister, Men in Black, Independence Day……..once CGI gained a modicum of success the artistic value tanked.
Well, it occured to me that it’s a combination of laziness, overestimating the audience, and lack of CGI. You couldn’t get away with shitty plots, acting and directing with NES level CGI.
I would add that Men In Black was the first movie I’ve seen where I seriously wanted to walk out of the theatre. Only stayed because my cousin was driving.
About Twister…….they could have gotten away with hiring less talented actors than Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. In that case they OVER-estimated the audience. My cousin said it was the best movie he had ever scene in his life.
That was the beginning of the end.
That second to last paragraph wasn’t worded well. Basically modern directors over rely on CGI because they can get away with it today. In some ways tech sets us back.
This is a very good point. With CGI, acting and directing seem to be a lot less relevant. There are plenty of commercially very successful movies where people just do not care who the director is. This was much different in the past. Does anyone, for instance, care about who directs the next entry in the next The Fast and the Furious, or the next MCU movie?
Yknow, I be had a good think.. and tbh the only amazing one that sprung to mind I thought was 2000s was The Matrix but that’s 1999. (Shocker)
Some I liked
The Nice Guys (2016) buddy movie set 1970s.
Gladiator (2000) – epic but historical.
300 (2006) – epic but historical
But both had great stories on the nature of men masculinity etc etc and excellent action scenes
The Grey Man (2022) Netflix – awesome action movie and sequences
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – awesome sequel , great ideas
But yeah in terms of ‘action hero’.. that’s dead yep. Maybe cos it’s gone more towards streaming and more watered-down these days.
Jason Bourne series? Very good .
But yeah I’m terms of social commentary , psychological ideas and sci fi ideas .. yeah not much tbh.
Related to the fact that the age of the action hero is over, it is also relevant that today’s leading male actors like Matt Damon and Ryan Goslong do not exhibit a lot of male presence. Even Keanu Reeves does not have it. I am not talking about having lots of muscles. The male actors in the MCU look like clowns. Let’s look at a few iconic scenes:
1) Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry: “Do you feel lucky?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjr2hnOHiM
2) Schwarzenegger in The Terminator: Tech-Noir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3hGMgd2X14
3) DeNiro in Heat: “Have nothing in your life you cannot walk out in 30 seconds flat”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3rv0BdxWfM
The acting in that scene is so good it gives me goosebumps. In any case, all three scenes show men who are full of determination and conviction.
In contrast, here is Ryan Gosling in “Drive”, attempting to play a tough guy, This is one of the most incongruous performances I have come across. Of course, Hollywood promotes this kind of faggy man nowadays. Just look at the fist scene! Does this guy come across as intimidating at all? In the second scene, he engages in a wanton act of violence. This scene is ridiculous. At 0:40 he hits the hand of a guy with a hammer, three times, so it seems the director is not very good either, and knows little of anatomy. I am sure that one hit would have been painful and effective enough, and also have caused serious damage if you target the carpal bones. On top, the guy barely reacts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uu96ha8jXk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzN6BI_TnIk
@Sleaxy
I agree – he didn’t work in that role.
He’s much better in The Grey Man and Bladerunner sequel as an action guy.
As an aside some other good Sci Fi flicks if u haven’t seen would be – Moon ( thought provoking) , Source Code (Jake G is a decent action guy in that) and Gravity I thought was well done. And sunshine is also a great older one.
Some gamer chick I’m banging told me Firefly series on steaming was great (?) and she found very hot . sci fi plus sex.
Recent series I liked were Invasion season 1 And definitely Severance ( dark comedy so if and also an excellent satire on office life) both on Apple TV.
For me Aliens is one of the GOATS of sci fi.
I’ve seen probably > 50 times and could quote the whole movie now start to finish. Easily.
I’m curious if you’ve seen the film Nobody and what your thoughts on it are.
I have watched Nobody. The main character, Bob Odenkirk, is no believable at all. I found it quite entertaining but it is a very shallow movie. In particular, I was annoyed at the various botched attempts to get the brain-dead GenZ crowd to share certain scenes. The worst one was probably the “Give me the goddamn kitty bracelet!” scene, which is completely nonsensical (see below). I also recall that the movie was unnecessarily violent.
A movie with a somewhat similar theme is Falling Down with Michael Douglas. This is a very good movie that holds up really well. It also looks like the equivalent of high literature next to Nobody.
Speaking of unnecessarily violent, did you by chance ever catch the Russian made Hardcore Henry? It’s shot with GoPro or something and can be kind of nauseating (I didn’t have this issue), and it seems that the gimmick failed to catch on at all.
I know that movie, too, and I quite liked it. The pacing and theme reminded me a bit of the Crank movies with Jason Statham, which are worth watching. Of course, they lack any deeper meaning but they are entertaining.
Nice. I think one of my favorite sci-fi action movies of all time has to be the original Predator film. I remember liking the first Rambo flick quite a bit too, but it’s been many years since I’ve watched either. The last action-style movie I watched was probably the Bee Keeper with Jason Statham. The premise being he is this retired special ops guy who spends his days making honey and renting from this sweet old black lady. She gets swindled by some scam tech bro operation and kills herself which entices the beekeeper to go on a killing rampage. It gets really ridiculous by the end. I definitely had fun watching the movie, but I remember one scene where the beekeeper is outrunning the gunfire of a bunch of elite mercenaries or whatever in a call center. It’s one of those classic shots where the badass protagonist runs and leaps behind cover at the last second, but it was hard to suspend my disbelief for that one. They would have definitely shot him.
An additional ludicrous trend (at least for the past five years) is the sole female heroine.
It’s one thing if you get someone like Gina Carano to be the kick-ass lady who can take on a bad guy or multiple.
But preposterous is when we have skinny starlets like Charlize Theron or Kate Beckinsale being bad-ass mofos (e.g. films like Jolt or Atomic Blonde). Add Angelina Jolie to the list. These waifs are gonna be realistic action stars? (Well, it’s shoved down our throats that we end up believing and buying into the propaganda / social programming.)
Now we’re getting these female superspy BS like “Erin Carter”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWfY_hB4anc
So as a parallel to effeminate male leads (as Aaron noted), we are getting social programming around strong independent female (who also have a side life of being a mom, the head of the family, etc….)
I would not even pirate this shit, lol!
Gina Carano would not be able to subdue even a man with a below-average build. Nonetheless, I agree that seeing her in a superhero role requires less suspension of disbelief than seeing any of the others you mentioned. “Erin Carter” looks comically bad. I guess for people who watch TV shows like “The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh” that TV show is as good as any other on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
To be fair, even as a non-gamer kid at the time, I remember pretty much a universal acceptance for Jolie’s choice as Lara Croft, a character mostly recognized for being a lean, hot chick with boobs, even if the movie itself was heavily criticized. As has been discussed in this very blog, eye candy trumps realism, be it for video games or movies.
The same would apply for Kate Beckinsale, I think. Things got much worse later, what with the (thankfully, universally panned) female Ghostbusters and similar stuff.
Never heard of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh before, Aaron!
Heh, at least the cultural shift is starting to show in the arts. The trailer starts with the Indian mother basically saying that Indians always lie, while the white agent is dumbfounded by her lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation.
Later on their Indian daughter is grinding up on a white guy, while the Indian son has no girl, and just jerks it to an old white girl on his computer. Kinda nice to see a reverse of the usual interracial crap (not that I would have cried if there were none of it at all, but oh well, one takes what victories one can get).
I would recommend the heroine movie “ Atomic Blonde” with Charlize Theron in the lead. Spy flick set in Berlin 1980s..
There’s a great action sequence in her apartment where she gets her ass kicked quite badly by a gang of Russian men but beats them. Very believable how it’s done,
Her character is v hot and cool, as close to a female James Bond as any will get imo,
there’s a girl on girl sex scene also 🔥
Other readers have already pointed out the most obvious ones, i think. My list would include
– 300 (someone up there called it historical, its not – its an adaptation of a comic with only a slight resemblance to actual history).
– Same with Gladiator, excellent action film in a historical setting, but the more I learned about actual history the more difficult I find it to take the backstory seriously.
– The first Matrix (forget about all the follow-ons)
– Ronin (1998) – I am surprised no one brought up this one. I know, its 1998, but close enough. True Lies was also pretty decent for 1994.
– The Patriot (2000)
– Cristopher Nolan (Batman movies, Inception) have excellent action sequences.
– The first 2 Bourne movies are very good as well,but I find that by the third installment its gotten old.
– The first 2 X-Men movies (isnt it funny how many franchises manage to crack out just 1 good film and 1 decent sequel before going steeply downhill?)
– Same with Mission Impossible, I liked the first 2, stopped watching them after nr3.
– in case of the Fast&Furious and xXx franchises, on the other hand, I find the only decent films are the first ones, and just barely at that.
– Sin City – another adaptation from a graphic novel, which i never read, so no idea how faithful of an adaptation it is, but it includes some good action sequences.
– Would you call Gran Torino an action movie? Clint Eastwood certainly makes it a worthhile watch.
– Black Hawk down – pretty realistic action packed film based on actual events, cuts almost straight to the action without going too much into the background politics, which made it more palatable for me.
– Blood Diamond (Leo di Caprio might not be the most macho guy in the industry, but I find him convincing enough for this film).
– Minority Report (2002)
– Collateral (2004)
– Mad Max Fury Road (2015)
– Master and Commander, the far Side of the World (2003)
Going a little farther back in time
– Terminator 1 and 2 (I prefer to forget that Terminator 3 and beyond ever existed)
– both Blade Runner films
– I dont know that I would count them as action films, but the 2nd and 3rd Lord of The Rings films, even if you dislike the whole fantasy thing, they have some of the best battle sequences I have seen (the battle of Helms Deep, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, plus the battle with the warg riders in the 2nd movie, which was entirely made up by the filmmakers).
This franchise actually serves as a test case to observe the progressive decline of filmmaking over the last decades: the original LOTR trilogy is deservedly regarded among the best films of the century, while the follow on The Hobbit trilogy is a lot more lackluster (and it visibly relied much more heavily on cgi, so it looks a lot more artificial), and the currently airing made-for-streaming Rings of Power series is a burning trashcan of wokeness.
Sleazy didnt mention it outright, but his list (and our subsequent suggestion) are pretty Hollywood-specific, so I stuck to Hollywood as well. I know there are still good movies coming from other countries. As a south american, I would recommend the brazilian film Tropa de Elite (2007), by Jose Padilha.
@shaking: I have not watched those film you mention, but I liked Kate Beckinsale in the first Underworld movie – of course, the idea that she is a vampire with superhuman strength makes it a tad more believable.
Some random thoughts I intended to type early yesterday but lost it by accidental refreshing…
– Gladiator, The Patriot and M&C were probably my late father’s favorite movies, he couldn’t help but rewatch them every time he stumbled upon them on TV, and he was a sucker for good action flicks. I’ve only watched the first one, the others are on my list.
– Good call on Blood Diamond, probably my favorite role (that I’ve watched) by Dicaprio. What he lacked in brawn, he nailed on portraying the jaded individual that I’d imagine his character would be, a white Rhodesian who couldn’t escape the African hell spiral.
– I liked Gran Torino, not only for Clint but also for the Hmong girl (best looking Asian I’ve ever seen IMO). Yet I find it funny that some white alt-righters think the movie sucks because the protagonist betrayed his race by bequeathing his stuff to the church and the Asian kid instead of his estranged family. Would he have done any good by doing so? Did the spoiled white sons and grandsons deserve it?
@Manuel
The ending of Grand Torino was actually my favorite part. His family was absolutely disgusting. He’d be betraying himself if he gave it to them. The fact that he put decency over race was a strong message in the movie. In a PC driven society obsessed with racial issues, even he knew that selfish materialism is more destructive than his perceived enemies. Even though he never changed his bigotry like other Hollywood garbage like American History X. Best ending since It’s a Wonderful Life IMO.
Another few titles came to mind this morning
I had the opportunity to watch 1917 recently, and found it quite enjoyable. I also saw the first part of Dunkirk, and it was decent until I fell asleep (transatlantic flight). Thin Red Line and Iwo Jima also come to mind.
While we are on war films, I found Pearl Harbor to have quite decent battle sequences, if you can ignore the romantic subplot. But at least the aerial combat is realistic, unlike Top Gun (the first one). Dont get me wrong, you can still enjoy Top Gun, as long as you know nothing about actual modern aerial combat, but to anyone with a modicum of knowledge its pretty ridiculous to see late 1980s jets fighting like WW2. Same goes for Behind Enemy Lines, the scene of the SAM missiles chasing Owen Wilsons plane is utterly unrealistic to the point of stupidity.
@Manuel, GLS
I think the message of Gran Torino was racial integration done right. It shows how some cultures can get along and how to integrate (or not), and the fact that you can go a long way to becoming american if you put in the effort.
*warning, spoilers below*
There is one scene, for example, where 3 black dudes harass the “wigger” (white boy acting “nigga” who is dating his asian neighbor). Clint Eastwoods character steps in, calls him out on his pathetic bullshit and sends him home, before pulling a gun on the 3 black guys and send them packing, saving the asian girl.
At another point (i think right after the previous scene) he starts giving them some respect when the girl mentions why her people (Hmong) are in the US – they were allies of the americans in Vietnam and had to escape communism after the US lost and left.
He then proceeds to “adopt” the young Hmong neighbor and teaches him to become a man american style, which he duly follows.
The counter-argument would be why he didn’t raise his children better, so they would be worthy heirs. It’s a complex issue but, as things stood, the Hmong kid earned it. And so did his sister, with her own honor and innocence, let’s not forget.
Big fan of Ronin – thx for the reminder @yarara! Awesome how the film had old school gun battles and car chases.
Infernal Affairs is a good cat-and-mouse film. It’s a Hong Kong film that got remade as “The Departed”. Not a fan of the remake.
The other night, thinking of “cop” related movies… I decided to re-watch Cop Land with Sylvester Stallone. Now have a craving to check out Narc, Training Day, American Gangster.
I saw that there is Gladiator 2 coming out…with Denzel Washington as a senator in Ancient Rome. Uh, ok… guess that’s like the Black Samurai in Japan thing!
The trailer to Gladiator 2 was about as well received as Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed x Urban Gentleman game. It will make money based on name recognition alone but it will most definitely be below expectations.
@Yarara- excellent picks
What about “ Kick Ass” ? That was a pretty original and quite edgy action flick for a superhero movie, I have not seen the sequel but heard it’s very violent. Must check it out.
Bullet Train w Brad Pitt was alright also.
Better than the John Wick’s imo.
Checkout “ Atomic Blonde”!
I recall liking Kick Ass but I wonder how well it would hold up if I rewatched it. Superhero movies do not hold up very well as they heavily rely on special effects. When I rewatched Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002), I was quite taken aback by how bad the CGI looks, from a contemporary perspective. Some effects are absolutely horrible. There is a brief scene where Spider-Man pulls off his mask, but this is just a CGI image that gets shrunk and distorted on a 2D plane. I have rarely seen a crappier CGI scene.
@shaking
I did like the Departed, but I did not mention it because i would not consider it to be an action film strictly speaking. There are a couple of shootout scenes, as far as I remember, but its mostly a mafia thriller? I never heard of the original (better, according t you) version, but now that you brought it up I will try to check it out.
There are other films that I think are at best action-adjacent, like cop films, sci-fi, westerns, pirate or adventure films that have good action sequences, but dont fit the “action film” mold that I think Sleazy was referring to. For example Leo diCaprios The Revenant is another excellent film that I would put in this action-adjacent category. Kill Bill vol .1 as well. As far as TV series go, Game of Thrones is very good during the first 5 seasons or so.
Of the others films you mention, I remember watching Training Day long time ago, I seem to remember it was good but my memory of it is too fuzzy to give an opinion. Same with American Gangster, neither fits the action genre in my mind.
I rewatched Kick-Ass a couple years ago, and I thought it held up quite well. There is little CGI involved in that one. It was a refreshingly irreverent and original take on the superhero genre. The sequel, however, I found atrocious. I remember I stopped watching and dropped it at some point in the middle of it.
I recently watched an action film titled Sisu, which I found too over the top ridiculous to enjoy it. I only saw it to the end because someone was watching it on a big screen in the same room I was having dinner. This reminded my of Inglorious Bastards, another film plenty of people seem to enjoy, and admittedly has some excellent scenes by Christoph Waltz, but I otherwise found it utterly ridiculous.
I just checked out an IMDB list of best action films to see if we are missing something. Looking through it I would only add The Rock to our list, and perhaps the Lethal Weapon series. I was reminded of a film I had once seen but forgotte, Commando, with Arnold, but it was so long ago I dont remember it enough to comment. I seem to remember it was somewhat over the top violent.
@ Yarara
Interesting point about Hmong being on our side during Vietnam. Walt would probably have met plenty of great South Korean allies fighting along side him in Korea. The ROK marines fought as allies in Vietnam as well, and they get nothing but high praise from American Vietnam vets.
@Manuel
Not to give excuses to Walt, but his problems of not raising quality sons could have to do with PTSD, which was not treated back then. Possibly spoiled too, because the sons were boomers.
Another great scene is when the young Hmong dude stared down Walt’s family PRETENDING to cry. As you guys know, funerals are very emotional. And I’ve been in this situation before with my own family. The truth can really come out.
@yarara – yes, I made have made a detour in terms of listing those other movies lol.
Since you saw “The Departed” first, you might not like Infernal Affairs. It’s one of those situations where you prefer the first version you saw versus the version you see after (regardless of which film actually came first!)
That said, hope you can give it a try.
Perhaps the way Infernal Affairs is told reflects Asian culture (or at least Hong Kong culture). I recall someone commenting how the film reflects post-China reunification with Hong Kong tension or something. I didn’t really see that, lol.
In addition to CGI, another problem of modern (action) movies is that many of them are created with the thought of a future franchise in mind. Thus, you have cliffhanger endings and stories that are either shallow or that do not get properly resolved. In the past, sequels were often only thought of once the first movie had turned out to be a success. Oftentimes, these were direct-to-video cash grabs like the sequels to Bloodsport. Then there was the phenomenon that second-tier directors were brought in for the sequel. It was just about squeezing a bit more money out of the audience, with an expectation that the well will eventually run dry. Studios normally did not put up big budgets for sequels. Today, though, we get sequels even when the audience has already lost interest in a franchise as it seems like a less risky proposition.
Some movies tell complete stories such as Die Hard or the more recent John Wick. Their sequels were quite lame. Die Hard 2 tells the same story as the first movie but instead of a skyscraper, it is set in an airport. John Wick 2 is a really dull retelling of the first one. Amazingly, there are five Die Hard movies, and the premise just got worse and worse as time progressed. John McClane just always happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The first Rambo movie was called First Blood, and the first Indiana Jones movie was simply called Raiders of the Lost Ark. Extending both into franchises was quite forced. Arguably, none of the sequels lives up to the first entries of these series.
I recently rewatched Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002). I recall that I quite liked it when it came out, but two decades later, the CGI does not look that great anymore, and the story is quite simple. However, it was more or less a complete movie where the ending only vaguely hints at a sequel when the son of the Green Goblin vows revenge but it is not quite clear how he would carry it out. In Spider-Man 2, the ending is handled in a much less subtle way.