Making movies require a lot of thought process and a careful narration of the story. These elements come together to form a movie that either is very clever or extremely simple and able to captivate the audience. But post the success of the first movie, it often becomes a tedious process for actors or directors, if the next storyline does not up to its antique in the coming sequel. Which often leads to a very dull and slow sequel, sometimes even making the oncoming plot predictable. There have been several instances in Hollywood film history, where a sequel has been named without much thought to it. And in most cases ends up just like the heading of the movie itself. Here is a list of movies that had the worst title and, in some cases, even a bad narrative.
The Final Destination
The last and final sequel of the “Final Destination” franchise did not get a very appealing name for its closing chapter. The initial idea was to include the numerical 5 into the title which would read ‘5nal Destination’, but the idea looked more like a marketing gimmick. So, they decided to stick with ‘The’, and the movie still came out to be the worst productions in the entire franchise.
Terminator Genisys
The fifth sequel of the movie franchise witnessed the use of the word ‘Genisys’, which was certainly going to create a wave of unsettling emotions. The implication of the word ‘Genisys’ was a reference being made to the toddler version of the Skynet, which was called ‘Genisys’ in the movie before the system became self-aware. The idea behind the title was clever but was not able to attract the crowd.
Speed 2: Cruise Control
The title itself was a complete contradiction to the entire plot of the movie. The Cruise control refers to a steady & safe pace, which gave no intentions to the matter escalating. The shift of the venue from a moving bus to a cruise ship was itself a very risky proposition. The addition of the word ‘Cruise Control’ did not make a good impact on the movie’s performance whatsoever. The movie bombed at the box office and barely managed to make even its own budget of $160 million.
Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull
The 4th sequel of Indiana Jones was kind of a weird title compared to the previous one. Starting from Riders of the Lost Ark to Temple of Doom and The Final Crusade, all of these were fairly understandable. But, the Kingdom of the Lost Skull was kind of misleading. There was even an idea by George Lucas to name the film “Indiana Jones & The Saucer Men”, like really?
Fast & Furious
The 4th installment of the Fast & Furious franchise witnessed the most absurd title amongst all the previous titles. The movie was just named “Fast & Furious”, which kind of never made any sense. The movie was as bland as the title, but it was surprising to witness the franchise pick up its tempo in the installments to come, especially in ‘The Fate of the Furious’ and not to mention “Hobbs & Shaw”.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
The movie’s title kind of left a lot of viewers in a tizzy, as the title read ‘The Final Friday’, which literally translates to the last chapter of the franchise. But then the viewers got hit with Jason X, Freddy vs Jason, and Friday the 13th. The world final has been used twice in the movie franchise, but it never stops at that sequel.
Die Hard 4.0
The movie was called “Live Free or Die Hard” in the states, but for the rest of the world, it came to be known as Die Hard 4.0. The reason this happened was that in the states, in the New Hampshire region “live free or die” is the city’s motto, but did not manage to make sense even then. The movie itself sounded like a cheap video game sequel with a plot to wreak havoc.
Quantum of Solace
The second sequel to the Casino Royale movie was predicted to be a mind-bender. But, the title of the movie kind of put off several bond fans across the globe. After the loss of Vesper Lynd in the previous movie, the next one could have been something related to revenge but was rather focused on a criminal organization called Quantum. Kind of lost the entire gist there did they not?
Star Wars: Attack of The Clones
The movie cradled between ‘The Phantom Menace’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’ had a title that was not expected from George Lucas. The movie clarified the plot, but kind of gave away the actual intent of the entire movie and misled many die-hard fans.
Jason Bourne
There should be a directive that should be charted out, for prohibiting the use of the protagonist’s name as the title of the movie. From the using ‘The Bourne Identity,’ they have switched to naming the movie Jason Bourne, which does not seem to set up any prelude of the narrative.
