MOVIE SEQUELS that HARMED their FRANCHISES - and maybe shouldn't have been made...

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Mild Opinion Podcast, I'm Luke. I'm Logan. And today we're going to be talking about some movie sequels that we felt harmed their franchises. So, would you like to start us off here with your number one pick for movies that harmed their franchise? I would. Before that though, let me give a little disclaimer. Yes, we are going to be bashing some movies and stuff. That doesn't mean that everything we talk about is necessarily a terrible movie.

[00:00:29] And if you like any of these movies, that's fine. You're entitled to like these movies. We don't really care. We're just saying these movies might not have been necessary, but also we probably will be saying that they're bad. Yes, pointing out their flaws. Yes, but if you like these movies, that's okay. You don't have to be mean to us in the comments about how much you like these movies. Don't have to agree.

[00:00:54] But yeah, how about you start me off here with your first pick? First off, I will start off with one that's pretty obvious. It's made its rounds on the internet about why it sucks and a lot of people think that it should never have been made, which is American Psycho 2. American Psycho in and of itself, good movie, very iconic movie.

[00:01:19] And then they just didn't really need to have a second one. If you think about that movie, you think about that movie in and of itself. You're not like, oh, the franchise potential for American Psycho. It just doesn't... Well, also a lot of people didn't even know there was a second one. Probably because the second one has nothing to do with the first one, really, at all. So just make a new movie and call it something different. It doesn't have to be the same thing.

[00:01:43] Riding the coattails of a movie that was actually really good, and then you make one that's not that good, and no one knows that it exists. Yeah. And yeah, why call it American Psycho 2 if it has nothing to do with the first one? Just make a different slasher movie if you want, because then it is being held down to live up to the first one, which has nothing to do with it. It doesn't make any sense.

[00:02:10] Well, we can segue this into what it... Something that we talked about before that you were going to mention, I know, in this episode. Legacy movies and all that stuff. Yeah.

[00:02:23] It just doesn't need to be... If it's like, you know, something loosely based on the idea of this, or the movie before it, or if it brings back a character that was no longer important to the story or anything like that just for the sake of the fans and what you think would make you money, don't do it.

[00:02:46] Yeah, because it's like... It actually annoys me when we'll be watching a movie, like going to a movie theater and sitting in the trailers and then specifically thinking about the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. It's like, why... It's fine. Okay, it's like, fine. I understand keeping the franchise name and rights and stuff, but it just annoys me that they're like, oh yeah, now here's this actress who's the exact same person from way back in the day.

[00:03:16] When the exact same thing is going to happen, but we got her back. So it's different this time because they're older. It's like... It just happens too much. It happens far and away too much. And I'm not saying there's not a place for a legacy movie because some of them have done fine or like, you've done a good job.

[00:03:37] But it can't just solely be, let's get that same person back and that way we can say it's a new movie. Yeah. Because it's not. It's just the same movie just with a familiar face from way back when. So people are like, oh, it's that same person. Yeah, it's the same thing. Yeah. I love that movie. Just to make a trash movie with the same person in it.

[00:04:00] Yeah. So this actually will... I'll segue off of this into my first pick for movies, movie sequels that eventually harm the franchise, which I'll pick another obvious one here, which is the Star Wars sequels. I think there is a lot of stuff in the Star Wars sequels that you can like and that is redeemable.

[00:04:25] Like, you know, Kylo Ren, good character. Force Awakens, I'd say, is objectively a good movie. The Last Jedi, I think, has some good moments in it. The Rise of Skywalker has aged already just horrendously, so I'm not going to get into that that much. But I think the reason I would say that the Star Wars sequels have harmed the franchise is it has muddied the name of Star Wars so hard.

[00:04:53] And it just gave it like a label of accepting mediocre, not thought through storylines for things. And I'm not going to get too far into this because we can talk for hours and hours about Star Wars and we do in other episodes. And that's not the point of this one, but you shouldn't start a trilogy saying that you're going to give complete creative freedom to three different people to write their own stories.

[00:05:19] It should be a team of people, one person or three writers that agree to be on the same track with something. Like, it just, I understand wanting to make something your own. I just don't think following in the footsteps of somebody else completely hinders that. And the Star Wars sequels, like, The Force Awakens came out and it was like a bomb went off of, oh my gosh, Star Wars is back.

[00:05:44] Like, even though people bash on The Force Awakens for being too similar to A No Hope, which it is, it's really similar. But it was a whole lot of new and cool ideas and it was exciting. And it felt like a brief new life into Star Wars and then The Last Jedi came out. It's like, what happened? What happened? And then by the time The Rise of Skywalker came out, like, people had already lost faith. And now Star Wars is just not in a great spot.

[00:06:13] It's been spiraling ever since. Yeah. So, that is one that I think is very infamous at this point. Yes. The Star Wars sequels irreparably damaged the Star Wars universe at this point. I will say, going back to what we were just talking about, though, with the legacy characters. Because you said there are some where they have places. So, I think that was a pretty good one. Mark Hamill coming back as Luke. They might not have done him great justice.

[00:06:42] But, like, him being in the story, I wasn't bothered by that because I was like, well, it makes sense that he's still here. Yeah. Well, also, I think, like, Leia and Han as well are, like, perfect. Especially Han in The Force Awakens is awesome. Like, just as good. But, yeah. Like, there's just, there's just, ah. It's difficult.

[00:07:06] That was, I feel like, the first jump into big legacy movie stuff was the Star Wars sequels set off a timer on everybody else being like, oh, we gotta do this now. But, just with Star Wars, that is as clear a day as how harmful it was to the franchise. That now everything is just like, is it gonna be good or bad? Instead of, it was all pretty great. Yeah. You know.

[00:07:31] I think I will jump back to how, more so, following the lines of what you were talking about, how the blockbuster stuff is kind of, the big blockbuster franchise that's kind of like beating a dead horse. I will say, when I talk about this stuff, I did not mean the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe because those are based off of comics. And anything that's based off of a bunch of comics like that, there's so many different stories that it doesn't really count.

[00:08:00] Because, like, yeah, can they still make slop that is awful and sucks? Yes. But, the reason that they're still going is because there's thousands of stories that have already been told and they're pulling from that. So, that's fine. You know what I mean? That makes sense. Those ones are not what I'm talking about.

[00:08:18] I'm talking about, I'll give a couple specifics here, stuff like the Fast and Furious franchise, Mission Impossible, the later Matrix movies, stuff like that. Where, you know, they had a good run for their first few movies and then they kind of just beat the dead horse. Right. Like, they don't need anymore. They were good. And then it just became trash.

[00:08:43] Just big names, big actors, giant budgets, just slop. No good story. It's too in over its head. Just, how can I make this one look crazier on the screen? How many explosions can I put in this one? Yeah. And, like, from what I know, too, because I haven't watched all of Mission Impossible or, like, Fast and Furious. Like, Mission Impossible has some diehard fans for it. I watched the first one and it was great.

[00:09:12] And then the second one was such a spit in the face of how good the first one is that I don't really have any energy to watch beyond that. Because it was, like, oh, a really actually cool spy espionage thing with a lot of iconic moments. And then the second one was, like, oh, it's a beach motorcycle action movie. Like, what? No. Like, it can be an action movie, but just it got, like, so muddy to a point that it literally made me not want to watch the rest of it.

[00:09:40] So, to me, Mission Impossible has a special place of, like, that personally damaged the franchise in my mind for it to see the second one. Yeah. When I feel the same way about Fast and Furious, like, don't get me wrong. I've seen all of them. And when they come out in theaters, I go watch the new ones just because I've watched all of them. And, I mean, car movies suck that. Like, I'm a fan.

[00:10:02] But, the first one being about street racing and, you know, like, crime, like a little crime syndicate, stuff like that. Awesome. Second one, same kind of thing. Street racing, criminal activity, taking them down from the inside. Awesome. The third one, different characters in a different place. Guess what? Street racing, crime syndicate, taking them down.

[00:10:32] Awesome. All of a sudden, we got the fourth one. It's about the CIA. They're going to, they're taking down, you know, world leaders. You know what I mean? They're going to, and it eventually leads to all the stupid stuff. They're taking down, you know, other countries' submarines. Yeah. They're in outer space. They're taking down world leaders. Like, what are we talking about? Yeah.

[00:11:00] These are people who drive cars and take down low-level gang members. Yeah. The next one will be, like, Don Toretto is being chosen to, like, negotiate with hostile aliens. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm like, dude, these people, these people owned a garage and a small store and stole TVs and raced cars. And now they're taking down world leaders for some reason. Yeah.

[00:11:30] It doesn't make any, but either way, I'm getting too far into it. That stuff needs to stop. Those are the things, these massive companies, they're like, well, now that these have made us money, we're just going to pour infinite money into however many actors and actresses we can get. And then just make everything explode on the screen. Yeah. It's the stupidest stuff you've ever seen. We're just going to throw it on there and see if everybody likes it. Yeah.

[00:11:55] Well, I'll kind of write off of something else you said there, which is one of my picks for just a franchise harming itself is The Matrix. Because the first Matrix came out. It's classic. So iconic. Great action movie, even to this day. And it was so popular that I feel like the writers of it had all these ideas of making it philosophical.

[00:12:26] I mean, if you see the movie, you know how philosophical it can be. But in the second one, that just hits an entirely new level of just prophecy and philosophical mumbo jumbo. Oh, is it my destiny to destroy the Matrix? That kind of stuff. And all the programs and stuff have such weird dialogue. There's really weird stuff going on. But even in the second one, in my opinion, it's tolerable.

[00:12:56] Because it still seems like it's following in the footsteps of the first one. I like the stuff with Smith being a rogue virus program now. And Neo being full power. There's new agents and them looking for this... I don't even remember. But by the end of it, it's just so confusing. And then the third one is like... It's just...

[00:13:20] It crushed itself under its own weight of let's make it insanely philosophical and weird and stuff. And then you think back to the first one. It's like... It executed the concept. Even though it's kind of hard to wrap your head around what would this look like. It executed it so well. And then it just goes... It's like it took off running and got ten steps ahead of itself before it figured out how do I make this...

[00:13:48] You know, clean and nice and like actually a good story that's not too muddy. And then I haven't watched the new one. But I just think the first one completely outdoes the second and third one. And the people don't get excited when something like the Matrix 4 comes out. Because it's like, oh yeah, but the second and third one made no sense. Yeah. Whatsoever. Well, I think it's easy for...

[00:14:16] And this is like the big issue with the stuff that we've been talking about. These giant companies, they're like, well... You know, we're just going to keep making money off of it. People will see it regardless. So then they lose sight of like what everyone actually liked about it in like the first place. Because like everyone, I feel like kind of shares a similar opinion to where they're like, oh yeah, the first one is so good. I love this, this, this, and this. You get to the second one and you're like, I mean, yeah, it's about the same thing. But like, it's not good. You know what I mean? Just too over the top. Too much nonsense.

[00:14:46] Like, this gets muddy. And then when you start, you know, getting muddy with it, you kind of lose all of what made it big in the first place. Because like, I mean, usually that's what happens. Like there'll be one good movie, something like starts the franchise, one or two, maybe even three good movies to start the franchise. And then, you know, after it gets muddy, you kind of just lose it. What was good about it is just gone. So it's too... I mean, you can try to reel it back in, but it's like, what would you even do?

[00:15:16] You know what I mean? Like, it's hard to shut the box on it once you've already opened it. You know what I mean? Like, you can't just be like, oh yeah, by the way, all that crazy stuff happened. Now we're going back to the beginning. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure there's already like a Matrix 5 in development. And I'm sure when it comes out, people will be like, oh, there's going to be one where they get back on course. It's like, what course? Like, it's the fifth one. The first one was fantastic and the other ones have just been mediocre.

[00:15:44] Or, like, the course is gone. Yeah. How do you get back on track? It's gone. Yeah. But what else do we have for picks here? Oh, so, okay. Here's another one. This is a genre-based thing as well. But with this specifically, and I know it can kind of segue into what yours is as well. I have two specifically that I'm thinking about.

[00:16:08] But whenever good standalone comedy movies decide that they start needing sequels, it usually ends up poorly. Such as The Hangover 2 and 3. The second one, kind of tolerable. The third one's awful. But then again, The Hangover didn't need to have any more movies. Especially with the concept of, like, oh, they all go out.

[00:16:35] The weird one who wasn't supposed to be there drugs everyone because he wanted to party. And, you know, like, that's awesome. Yeah. And the movie itself, hilarious. So iconic. Yeah. How do you take that idea and be like, dude, we're going to make two more movies out of this? What are you talking about? Well, it's like the first one sets itself up, pulls it off great, and then wraps itself up really nicely. And, like, nobody, I don't, I don't think anybody would watch that and say to themselves, oh, I need to see what happens next. Yeah.

[00:17:05] No, you don't really need to. I mean, it's kind of, they made the sequel because people were thinking this was, this would be funny and the first one's really successful. Yeah. It just didn't need to happen, you know? And then the third, the third one. Don't even get me started on the third one. Yeah. How, you can't make, it's bad that you made two of them, let alone three of them. Mm-hmm.

[00:17:28] And it's like, how many times do you need to have this exact same concept run through just with, like, slightly different circumstances, like the location? Yeah. But most of the characters are still there. It's like, what? What? Yeah. Come on, we've lost the plot a little bit because the plot was the first thing that happened. It doesn't need to keep happening over and over again. Yeah, and I mean, as far as that goes, I mean, that can be said about a lot of comedy movies. Yeah. There are so many comedy movies that get sequels that's just like, man, why are we still?

[00:17:57] Yeah. Why are we still running this? And I know a lot of people have said that about Scary Movie. I don't think the Scary Movie franchise is that bad. Like, yeah, some of them might be worse than others, but I mean, they kind of pull, like, they play off of, like, current events and stuff like that. So, like, they always have more content. So, I don't think that's necessarily what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, like, just original idea comedy movies in and of themselves. Because, like, spoofs and stuff, that's a little different. Because they're working off of other stuff. Yeah.

[00:18:25] But I know you had some very strong opinions about another comedy movie that would have been perfectly fine by itself. So, one comedy movie that, like, I wish I had never seen the sequel to because it's just, are you kidding me? What were we thinking here? This one's, like, personal for me. It's a mall cop.

[00:18:47] How can you, in about the first five minutes of a movie, completely showcase that you don't understand how to keep a great character? Like, they made it so cartoonishly stupid in the first five minutes of the second one where he's, like, stomping out of the room like a friggin', I don't even know, like, a Looney Tunes character or something. And, like, oh, yeah, his mom gets hit by a truck and, like, the woman he loved in the first one left.

[00:19:16] And it's like, oh, yeah, that's funny. Yeah. No, it's not funny. It's stupid. And then, like, you're watching the movie. It's a completely different character. It's, like, weird villains and, like, this whole thing going on with this daughter. It's like, we already got all of this just ten times better in the first one. And, like, the whole point in the first one is, like, he's the guy, like, everybody doesn't think twice about him. Yeah. And it kind of writes him off and everything.

[00:19:46] And the second one, it's like, oh, yeah, well, that's just the way it is. Yeah. It's like, oh, like, let him be the hero. Yeah. And also, it was just, like, the first one is always funny. I've watched that movie a ridiculous amount of times. But then the second one is just aggravatingly bad and completely diminishes the first one. So, in my own opinion, the second Mall Cop is just not canon. Yeah. That's just stupid. It's not real.

[00:20:15] It's just absolutely incredibly disrespectful to the first one. And so, that, to me, is the biggest, no, Mall Cop 1 could have just stood on its own. And as far as it goes, I mean, the more that I think about it, the more I'm like, wow, comedy movies have done this, like, a ridiculous amount. Like, I can, you know, I can rattle them off now that I'm thinking about it. I'm like, why is comedy so bad at making terrible sequels?

[00:20:45] It's hard to get a good comedy movie to begin with because, like, there's so many different senses of humor. Sometimes stuff comes out and it's just not funny, too. So, I mean, making a sequel and then showing that you completely lost whatever it was that made the first one great is just, it's devastating to see. It's horrible.

[00:21:07] See, and as I was doing research for this episode of, like, things to talk about, like, what movies, you know, because as much as I'd like to, whenever we do stuff like this, it doesn't just come to the top of my head. I'm like, I can think of some things, but I'm like, let's see what everybody else thinks. I'm on the internet looking. A lot of people said about Grown Ups 2, and I was like, well, I don't think Grown Ups 2 is that big. Grown Ups 2 is fine. But especially when you compare it to a lot of the other ones, like, Mall Cop 2, terrible.

[00:21:36] Happy Gilmore 2. A lot of people were talking about when it came out, just came out last year. It was, you know, big, whatever. Compared to the first one, awful. Like, actually awful. I'm like, people are complaining about, like, Grown Ups 2, and I'm like, well, that's actually, like, a decent movie. It might not be as good as the first. It might not need a second one, but it's not bad. I don't know. Some of it, I'm just like, what made you think this is a good idea? Yeah.

[00:22:02] How did we fumble so badly, you know? Yeah. All right, well, I'll jump into another one here that I have in this one. I don't think this movie came out and it was a bad movie. I just think that something they did in the movie completely will ruin the franchise forever, which is Jurassic Park is now, it just shot itself in the foot with Jurassic World Rebirth,

[00:22:30] which, you know, Jurassic World, that's the Chris Pratt one, right? The Jurassic World franchise when that started was, like, a huge, like, reinvention of that franchise and everybody loved Jurassic World 1, at least, and I know the sequels. People are like, what the heck's going on here? But, uh, Jurassic World Rebirth, you watch it, it's not a bad movie, but it can only exist as a standalone movie

[00:22:54] because the whole gist is they write it into the story of Jurassic Park that the world lost interest in dinosaur museums or dinosaur zoos, right? Like, this is lost funding and it's a crapshoot, basically. And now to keep the entertainment going, we're going to switch to genetically mutated dinosaurs. That's the franchise now. It's not even dinosaurs anymore. It's just monsters from dinosaur DNA.

[00:23:24] And now the genie's out of the bottle of, oh, the world lost interest in dinosaurs, so there's not going to be anything new with dinosaurs other than just genetic mutations. Jurassic Park is done for now. You can't undo that. It's ridiculous. Also, not to go on too much of a rant here, the world would not lose interest in dinosaur zoos if that actually was a real thing in 30 years.

[00:23:51] Actual world zoos have been a thing since, like, as long as you can say, and, like, going to the zoo is fun, and you get to see animals that you don't get to see every day. People wouldn't get tired of seeing dinosaurs in 30 years. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Yeah. So. And I agree, too, with what you're saying. It's like, what will you do now? Because, like, I'm sure it won't end up good. I can tell you that much. I mean, what?

[00:24:21] It's going to end up being, you know, these monsters, if not just monsters. I've seen people throw around that they had ideas for, like, dinosaur, like, humanoid hybrids and stuff, and that was, like, one of their, like, pitches and stuff before this even happened, and I'm like, dude. That's just not Jurassic Park anymore, though. No. Like, that's not even. Like, what are you going to do with that? Yeah.

[00:24:45] Well, it's like, like, Jurassic Park is just supposed to be dinosaurs. Yeah. That's it. It doesn't have to be. And, I mean, here's the thing. When it came down to it and they started doing, like, the hybrid dinosaurs and stuff, like, they started, like, the Adamus Rex and stuff like that, I was like, you know, it's a little off the beaten path, but, like, in terms of, like, what they're doing, like, genetically, like, remaking the dinosaurs and stuff and, like, selling it, I was like, well, that makes sense.

[00:25:14] They're like, oh, we can do this. We have the knowledge and power to create these new dinosaurs that are bigger and scarier. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't mad at that. Yeah. But going into this where it's like, well, yeah, but now everybody hates dinosaurs. And there's also giant hideous creatures that are more monster-like than dinosaur-like. That's where I'm like, all right. That's literally, like, the climax of the movie is they're being hunted down by, like, this

[00:25:44] just meshed up, like, weird DNA concoction thing that supposedly is supposed to be some sort of T-Rex but looks like the predator mixed with the alien mixed with Godzilla. Yeah. It's like, you can't undo that you just said. They ruined it in about two sentences that it's been 30 years the world lost interest in dinosaurs. It's like, who wrote that? Yeah. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[00:26:14] Yeah. So, yeah, if you like that movie, that is actually an opinion I will fight people on. Yeah. That is the stupidest thing and so detrimental to that franchise. Yeah, I agree. And also, the other thing that sucks, too, is, like, don't get me wrong. A lot of people look at Jurassic Park with, you know, with fondness. You know, I loved Jurassic Park when I was younger. I thought they were cool. Were all the movies super good? Nah. And that's fine. Jurassic World, I thought it was a pretty good idea.

[00:26:44] It was pretty cool, you know? The first one was pretty cool. The second one, a little worse. The third one, kind of bad. But, oh, oh, well. Yeah. But, having something like Rebirth come in and be a huge movie and then kind of just destroy everything that was already built, whether they were all good or not. Yeah. Like, will the weird thing, too... At least the other... Oh, sorry. Oh, you're good. At least the other ones didn't completely nuke what was a pretty decent, recognizable franchise.

[00:27:13] And the weird thing is, I don't think that movie underperformed. And it wasn't a bad movie. I didn't go see that and was sitting there thinking, like, gosh, this movie's insufferable. It had cool moments. It had, like, callbacks and stuff to all Jurassic Park. But, just, it shot itself in the foot. It's like, yeah, this is the only direction we can go now. Because the world lost interest in dinosaurs and now we have to just keep topping ourselves

[00:27:42] that we introduced mutated dinosaurs that never existed and don't even look like dinosaurs anymore. Yep. That's just... I don't think that was ever a glint in any of the original Jurassic Park writers' eyes there. That's just devastating to me. Ridiculous. Yeah. I think I have two more franchises left. Do you have any more you want to share here? Nah, you can go ahead. Alright.

[00:28:11] There's one here, which is another one that gets brought up a lot, which is Pirates of the Caribbean. Specifically, number five. I'm not going to hate too hard on number four because it just kind of feels like a nice little add-on to it. It has some stuff that doesn't feel like it fits into the lore of Pirates of the Caribbean. But, at its core, it feels like a goofy Jack Sparrow adventure and kind of gives some more context.

[00:28:39] Or, just some interesting world building to that world. So, it's not perfect. Not necessary. Sucks that not all the original characters are in it. But, it is not as bad as Pirates of the Caribbean 5. It's just like... It's like you're watching it and it feels like the franchise ran out of breath while you're watching it. The villain makes absolutely no sense. Oh, he drove his ship into the Bermuda Triangle and now became a ghost. That is evil.

[00:29:11] Why? Will and Elizabeth are in it for about two minutes. Just like, oh yeah. Oh, hey, there they are. Yeah. I'll go spend money on the movie. And, none of the new characters really are interesting at all. And, just the whole story in it feels like somebody was like, oh, this will be an epic moment. But, didn't think through, how do I make it actually epic and a good story?

[00:29:36] Which is horrible because after the first three, the first three are a great trilogy of movies. Like, they're fantastic. The fourth kind of... I've heard people describe it like this. I'm like, that's a great way to describe it. The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean feels like it's just a DLC. Yeah. If it was a video game. The fifth is a thing where people should be like, no, that's the one we don't talk about. Yeah.

[00:30:00] Because it's, how do you fumble having Javier Bardem as the bad guy and then screw him that badly? Yeah. It's horrible. And, it makes, you know, all this discussion about Pirates of the Caribbean 6 where, oh, yeah, we're gonna... The word on the street is like, oh, Johnny Depp will be back. Orlando Bloom will be back. I always forget Elizabeth's actress. But, Keira Knightley. We'll have like Keira Knightley back and all that.

[00:30:27] But, that's gonna run into the same problem with a lot of franchises we talked about here. Where they're gonna get everybody back and then not know how to actually write a good story with them anymore. What are you gonna do? Because, you already, you let the genie out of the ball. You opened Pandora's box already. What are you gonna do? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, like, they, at the ending of Pirates 5, get Poseidon's staff to control the entire ocean. Yeah. Now what? But, yeah.

[00:30:54] And then, uh, the last one that, uh, I will jump into here. And this is, this is one that's kind of, this is a dead franchise now because of this movie. Which is, uh, the Zack Snyder string of Justice League movies died, in my opinion, the moment that the Batman vs. Superman came out. So, it just, that movie wrote a death sentence for that franchise that it never recovered from.

[00:31:25] And, you know, when I saw that movie for the first time, I didn't hate it as much as a lot of people. But it just, it's undeniably messy, doesn't develop the characters right. It's weird, just let's make them as dark as we can. Versions of the characters. And Lex Luthor is just, it's not Lex Luthor at all. Who, why are we casting Jesse Eisenberg acting like a goof as Lex Luthor?

[00:31:53] Um, and, you know, not, not saying that, that DC didn't have some decent follow-up movies to that. Like, the first Aquaman movie I thought was pretty solid and, like, Shazam was fun. But, that, Batman vs. Superman made it that, that version of the, or of DC would never fully reach its full potential there.

[00:32:18] So, that's just a, it's a devastating thing because now that franchise is just completely dead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, too, we've talked about it a lot already, but, like, I didn't hate that string of, you know, DC movies. Like, not all of them are great. Some of them aren't even good. But. Some of them are horrible. But, you know, there were bright spots, you know what I mean?

[00:32:47] Like, those, the characters, a lot of the casting was pretty solid. You know, a lot of the storylines were pretty solid. But, it's just like, man, when you just keep pulling up bad movie after bad movie. And, on top of the fact that the style of all of it was very odd for what it was. You have comic book movies.

[00:33:10] And, one of the main characters of this series, of this franchise, is someone who's, you know, notoriously, like, bright, happy. The hero's hero. You know what I mean? And, every story is dark. You know what I mean? Most of, all of the movies in this franchise, like, the color palette is, like, dark, gray, gloomy. It's, like, gray and, like, desaturated red. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

[00:33:40] I'm like, what makes you think that that's a good idea? And, just, insanely heavy CGI. Yeah. Like, also, just, insanely overpowered characters immediately. Like, you watch Suicide Squad and it's like, oh yeah, here comes some nameless character you won't even remember. And, they're riffing subways apart with their hands and stuff. Yeah. And, yeah, in that color palette, too. Yeah.

[00:34:09] That's the follow-up to Batman vs. Superman. It's like, well, I'm not gonna say this is a bad rendition of this Batman, but we're never gonna get the Batman that this was intended to be just because of how half a thought was put into executing this.

[00:34:25] Also, though, I will say the most redeemable thing about that movie is it has, well, so many people will say to this day, and I agree with, is the coolest live-action Batman fight scene when he's just in a warehouse with a bunch of armed mercenary thugs and is full, not-held-back Batman. Yeah. That's the kind of Batman people talk about when they're like, oh, they should make a horror movie Batman. It's like a Batman movie like that.

[00:34:54] That is a fantastic fight scene, but other than that, there's not a lot you can say in defense of that movie. Yeah. But that's what I have in terms of movies that hurt their own franchise. Yeah. Once again, before we cut out of here, if you like any of those movies, that's fine. Don't come for us in the comments, please. It's okay if you like them, and we do not. Yeah, it's okay. Even though they're bad.

[00:35:19] And I would even say there's redeemable stuff in most of the stuff that we just threw out, except in Moncop, I will not attempt to redeem that. There's nothing redeemable. No, yeah. But yeah, if you like these movies, it's okay. We're not saying you're stupid or anything, because I'm sure we could both throw out a bunch of movies we really appreciate that. People would be like, what are you talking about? But yeah. All right, well, this has been the Mild Opinion Podcast. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll see you next time.