I stopped reading here. Are you serious, really? The first one was the shit, one of the best thrillers ever.

The two sequels destroyed everything mission:impossible stood for, like espionage and teamwork. The were just Tom Cruise showcases.. YUCK!!!

I would like to add a special dishonorable mention for Mission Impossible, whose first installment disposed of its long-time fans by turning its TV hero into the movie traitor, thus clearing the way for Tom Cruise to continue to play the Tom Cruise role in yet another Tom Cruise vehicle, insert [Tom Cruise] title here.

But it is startling to omit the only movie that actually saved a major series, “Diamonds are Forever.” Yes, Sean Connery sleepwalked through his mercenary return as James Bond, but the facts are clear. Unadjusted US box office: $63.6 million for Thunderball, $43 million for You Only Live Twice, $22.4 million for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, $42 million for DAF.
Aside from the bus-plunge receipts for OHMSS, Connery quit before that movie and George Lazenby quit afterwards. Many critics (as well as the ticket-buying public) agreed with the leading men’s assessment that the Bond series was dead on its feet.
If Connery had not agreed to return, James Bond today would be vaguely remembered along with our man Flint and the Matt Helm movies as camp period pieces.
Instead, the series has made billions. Yes, buyers have resisted some products, like the Man with the Golden Gun or License to Kill. But the response has simply been to rearrange the showroom floor, out with the Dalton model and in with the Brosnan etc.
DAF isn’t a great movie, but with Connery’s self-satisfied smirk, Jill St. John’s cleavage front and rear, Bambi and Thumper, gay killers and an amazingly benign take on crazed Howard Hughes, it has everything that On Her Majesty’s Secret Service lacks.
In constant dollars, the series never recaptured the peak of Thunderball, as the US box office shows. (The domestic figures parallel but are more reliable than the global receipts, particularly for the earlier films.) Translating their receipts into 1965 dollars, Diamonds did a hair under $29 million in the US, while Casino Royale took $26.8 million. Sorry, Moonraker’s adjusted figure is $30.4 million.

Batman Begins - I think everyone agrees with this. Though Nolan took the entire franchise to an entirely new direction (and created a much different product), Batman fans struggle through the Schumacher films almost universally, which, continuity aside, made mockeries of Burton’s original wash.

Goldeneye - I think most people agree with this. There are actually some stalwart Dalton fans (though, let’s face it, his Bond films are mostly uninteresting). As to Casino Royale, I’ve heard nothing but mixed reactions; although, I haven’t heard much positive about Brosnan’s last two, so this is probably feasible.

Harry Potter POA - So flawed. One person hit it right by saying that this franchise was never doomed financially, even if it’s received an average or lukewarm critical reception. Another person hit it right by saying that if not for Columbus’ pedestrian but otherwise enjoyable adaptations, Cuaron and subsequent directors would not have the appropriate visual groundwork to create their darker, more visually complicated entries. Another person hit it right by noting that the evolution of the visual complexity only mirrors the increasingly dark tone of the novels. And still another person (or maybe it was all the same people) noted that most fans of the books find POA to be the most offensive entry of the film catalog in that the adaptation from the original source, a fan favorite (and one of Rowling’s too) was horrible, neglecting important revelatory details that actually come into play later and also undermining the emotional substance of the third volume — and the point for its existence to begin with. Though, I am aware that the fans of the films (only) seem to appreciate the visual stylings of POA more than the other films, to suggest that POA saved the franchise is specious at best. And second to the commenter who expressed a lack of appreciation for Michael Gambon’s depiction of Dumbledore. I’m a bit afraid of HBP (the 6th movie) because he’s more central in that one than in all of the others.

Star Trek IV - This is also a flawed entry. All trekkers (me too) agree that the even numbered entries are generally more superb, and even if Star Trek III (The Search for Spock) was not the greatest, it was not the worst film of the series. Also, Star Trek has a firm and generally stable fan base. Now, you’re absolutely correct that IV made the Trek films more accessible to non-Trek fans, but that doesn’t mean the series was crying out for a revamp only to be cured by the whales. As to First Contact, the same argument holds; Generations isn’t the worst, though FC validated the Next Generation cast as a bona fide movie-making franchise for the naysayer loyalists to the original cast. Of course, then along came Insurrection and Nemesis.

Star Wars: AOTC - For crying out loud. If it weren’t for Jar Jar Binks, this would be the worst entry of the entire six films series, including Phantom Menace, which had an infinitely more interesting plot, even if the continuity between the original series and the prequel series was severely lacking. The gooey love scenes penned by George Lucas in AOTC play off worse than any Ewok-hater could opine, and most of the dialogue (and CGI Yoda) was laughable at best. I don’t think the Prequel trilogy can be classified as a reboot - the original series, including Jedi, are venerated so highly that it was almost blasphemy to consider a continuation, but considering that story (and good writing) were sacrificed to CGI spectacle and George Lucas’ facist need to control the property, the prequel trilogy was actually an abomination to the entire series, and despite opinions to the contrary, Jedi was not exactly a series killer. Some people like the teddy bears (count me among them). Besides, the best of the prequel three is ROTS - if only Hayden Christiansen had been directed better.

Star Trek II was also the film that saved the Trek series in every way (commercially, critically, fan reaction, etc.) and also cast the mold that future Trek films and tv series would follow in. Trek IV might have brought in a broader audience for that single film, but it was hardly a film that “saved” anything.

Mission Impossible III? I liked it quite a bit, but it got very mixed reviews, and its disappointing box office led to the termination of Tom Cruise’s development deal with Paramount. It proved J. J. Abrams could helm a mega-budget picture, and surely led to his being asked to take over the Trek series, but, so far, it’s saved nothing.

Batman Begins and Goldeneye are pretty legit examples; otherwise, the only criteria seems to be films that saved the author’s interest in a given series.

I mean, you don’t really have a rule going here. When I consider a film saving a franchise, I think of a film that was made years after the initial films that restarts it…like Batman Begins…so you seemed to understand that until you got to Halloween 20 Years Later.

H20 didn’t do anything to the franchise, it was just a cash in film to popularize on what Scream was already doing. (I mean H20 came out ONE year after Scream 2, which means it was in production before 1998).

Then, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, while I agree it’s the best sequel after New Nightmare, it didn’t reboot the franchise…it just continued it. Same goes for Harry Potter (4th one is my favorite), it doesn’t really save the franchise when your first films are just as successful. So, no you lost me at this point.

Can’t say anything about MI3 or Star Trek because I’ve never watched them. And I don’t intend to anytime soon. However, Attack of the Clones was part of a trilogy which again was not REBOOTING the franchise just continuing it. ROTS is the only one I remember watching anyway.

Bad list man.

I’ll give you Batman and the 2 James Bond movies, but that’s about it.

Props for mentioning Dream Warriors, though.

Also, Brian DePalma’s Mission: Impossible is a great film, and no question the best of that franchise. If it was too confusing for you, then you’re a moron. I did like the third one, however. It was very cool, but the first one is a much smarter movie.

When C3PO screams a Planet of the Apes quote, and R2 can suddenly fly, if you listen closely you can actually hear the integrity burning.

Clones was so bad I almost skipped Revenge Of The Sith. Almost.