The List!!!: Five Notable Fourth Movies

                                     
In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of a fourth Transformers movie being unleashed onto the world, I take a look at other notable movies that were the fourth entries in their respective franchises. Just a heads up; to be in this particular list, you have to be the fourth movie released in a franchise, not fourth chronologically. 

1. Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol: Brad Bird brought this franchise and Tom Cruise back to life with an endearingly relentless sense of fun that was given extra heft due to the awesome cast involved. Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton joined Cruise for the movies many inventive sequences that are just unbeatable. Bonus points for one of the best uses of IMAX ever. Seriously, I'm still getting over my dizziness from that scene where Tom scales that building!

2. Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace: Technically the biggest Star Wars movie of all-time (not adjusted for inflation of course), this one was decreed to be a failure on an unthinkable level upon its initial release. 15 years later, the movie is still flawed, deeply so in some cases, but it does have its moments of wonder. At least this one has Darth Maul, which is more than can be said for the forthcoming Star Wars entry, Attack of The Clones.

3. The Amazing Spider-Man: Rebooting Sam Raimi's rightfully beloved trilogy of Spider-Man fims was a risky move, but this one actually managed to justify its existence and then some! Some of Garfields Spider-Man moments could have been better, it was overlong and The Lizard (despite looking cool) needed more depth, but there was plenty that worked here, namely Gwen and Peters relationship, as well as my personal favorite cinematic Spidey suit. Yes, this was a good, even great for many parts, film. Too bad it had that sequel...

4. Batman Forever: Adam West did a movie, Michael Keaton got two tries. Now Val Kilmer went up to bat with director Joel Schumacher as pretty much everyone and their grandmother from the Batman comics was tossed in here. Robin, Two-Face, Riddler, their all introduced and given plenty of screentime, which just results in mediocrity. It's not bad, per se, but it remains little more than a curiousity 18 years later. I mean, can you believe they let Jim Carrey be a Batman bad guy? What a world!

5. Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: At one point, Pirates of The Caribbean was Disney's bread-and-butter, their ultimate moneymaking franchise. After all, what other PG-13 tentpole franchise did they have? Well, after Disney bought Marvel in 2009, they now had plenty of PG-13 moneymakers on their watch, meaning this entry would have to really prove itself to advance the franchise. In terms of quality, this was an awful film lacking in fun, but it did OK box office wise domestically and wonderfully internationally. But it does appear Disneys concentrating on Star Wars and Avengers now, as progress on another Jack Sparrow adventure is minimal right now.