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Jaws, Alien, and Indiana Jones. The originals were all truly fantastic cinema, but eventually the franchises were reduced to nothing but hollow clichés.
The Jaws movies went from tense character drama to roaring and flying shark. In 3D.
Alien went from terrifying to the point of art to just another alien monster movie.
Indiana Jones, which I perhaps lament the most, managed to remove the imagination and adventure from perhaps the most imaginative, adventuresome series of movies ever made. Raiders of the Lost Ark was perhaps the perfect adventure movie: from Indiana Jones' dashing, yet wonderfully human archeologist-adventurer to forgotten tombs full of asps (very dangerous) to the wrath of Yahweh. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull featured cardboard enemies, boring mythology, and the horrible idea to make Shia LaBeouf Indi's son and possible successor in the franchise. I went into the movie and watched it with the most rose-colored glasses imaginable, but since then I've come to realize that the one and only enjoyable moment in the film is less than a minute long during the film's climax.
I'm glad that the James Bond franchise was rebooted, otherwise it might have found its way onto my list and off of my avatar.
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