Double Dipping

From the AV Club, a list of 13 attempts to create film franchises that never took off. Of course, these days, almost any major-budget film is an attempt to create a franchise.  They even do sequels to hits that seemed one-offs--The Hangover comes to mind.  So the boys are going to get drugged and find themselves in trouble again? Really? (I'll probably go see it.)

For that matter, some movies that may seem readymade for sequels--say, Men In Black--should have no followups. The original was complete in itself, with its own arc--Will Smith (along with the audience) learns about this new world and eventually masters it, while Tommy Lee Jones finally gets to retire.  Men In Black II, even if it had worked, was an unnecessary second dip. (And I hear there may be a 3.  Is this trip necessary?)

The Sting was one of the hugest hits of its day.  At the end (spoiler) you had the two leads still alive, ready for a new con.  That first film introduces the characters and has a reason for them to team up and do what they do.  Why should we want a series of films where they do one con after another until the audience feels they're the ones being conned? (There was Sting II a decade later--starring Jackie Gleason and Mac Davis.  I guess Redford and Newman were too smart to sign up for a second.  For that matter, Hollywood managed to squeeze out a prequel to Butch Cassidy a decade later, starring Tom Berenger and William Katt.)

In fact, sequels are often depressing, not just because they're bad movies, but because they deny what happened in the original. We saw the gang in Ghostbusters go from losers to saviors of the world.  To make a sequel, they had to start as losers again, destroying the triumph of the first film.

Anyway, here's the list:

1.  Buckaroo Banzai
2.  Doctor Detroit
3.  The Rocketeer
4.  Daredevil
5.  Dick Tracy
6.  Godzilla 
7.  Master And Commander
8.  Wing Commander
9.  Sahara
10.  The Phantom
11.  The Avengers
12.  The Mod Squad
13.  Wild Wild West

I don't know if this is much of a list.  Can you say Godzilla had no sequel--they just mean this particular line of Godzilla had no sequel, but that's like saying the last Superman had no sequel, even though yet another reboot is being planned.

I also think it's a bit too easy to put TV shows turned into movies on the list--of course they want sequels, that's what TV shows do.  Same for movies based on a series of novels.

A few of these I wonder about.  Buckaroo Banzai was so weird I expect they may have been amazed it was made at all.  Doctor Detroit joked about a sequel, but did they really think it was going to happen?  And I just don't see an indecisive star like Warren Beatty making a series of big-budget Dick Tracy films (though I wouldn't mind a sequel about him suing over the character.)

I would have liked to see films on the list that are desperate if futile stabs at a series, where the ending points to something coming.  A good example that I'm surprised they left off was Remo Williams:  The Adventure Begins (and ends).

A more recent example is I Am Number Four (which should have been called I Am Number Two).  Here's the plot (spoilers): nine good aliens who looks like handsome young humans are hiding on Earth while evil, ugly bad aliens hunt them down.  The first three are killed so Number Four has to fight for his life.  Number Six joins him and at the end they go off in search of the other numbers.

(Spoilers over) So the movie is practically begging for a sequel.  It even seems unfinished without one.  But I doubt there'll be one.  Which brings us to the real lesson. You want a sequel?  Make the first movie compelling and don't worry about anything else.