It’s pretty much a given in this day and age that cinematically we live in a franchise friendly world. We can only Marvel at the amount pumped out every year, DC trying to get their movies off the ground, Mario and Sonic movies, I mean without looking it up I am not sure if there are more than 8 Resident Evil movies and I pay attention to this stuff. Superhero and video games aside we have Impossible Missions to complete, you can say that franchises are movie landscape Transformers, that these new franchise movies are coming in Fast AND Furious.

Puns aside (I mean, if you have been reading me this past almost year then you know puns will never be ‘aside’ and there are more coming) franchises are here to stay and there is no sense really complaining about it I personally get way more excited when something new and original is great and awesome and might also one day become a neverending franchise of it’s own, but until it does I can just love this new awesome thing for a bit. However maybe once a year or so something amazing happens. The stars of the universe aligns and inspiration hits its stride and we get the unicorn level rarity event of something new and interesting and awesome that is also part of a franchise* henceforth revitalized and ready to have new take(s) on it’s source material. Something fun and innovative and fresh that makes us look at everything that came before in a new light or from a new angle. And when this works it really works.

So a bit of an easy prompt this week as we are in summer movie season and this is prime franchise release territory, what is your favourite movie that revitalized a franchise? It should be something you love/loved, and made you fall in love with a franchise all over again (or love at first sight, i’m not picky). Or maybe something that was successful enough/something that was just all around great. I have stayed away from mentioning examples in the body of this post so as not to accidentally steal someone’s answer. For me it is the header image this week. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a really good fresh take on the franchise that was a thoughtful sci-fi movie dealing with a few themes well and also having good action scenes to keep it interesting. The following movies in the franchise were also better but this one gets credit for the revitalization.

*It may sound like I am dumping on franchises but I really am not. I go to most of these movies as well even though I recognize franchising in general may have gotten out of hand I do participate so am partly to blame myself. A good story/movie is good no matter if it is a franchise or an original.