Help me choose a movie franchise

I've recently finished watching all the Bond movies (minus the spoof 'Casino Royale') in chronological order over several months, and now want another franchise to replace it. I've come up with a list of 10 (in no particular order):

1. X-men
2. Alien/Predator
3. Underworld
4. Planet of the Apes
5. Bourne
6. Die Hard
7. Fast and Furious
8. Batman
9. Resident Evil
10. Universal Monsters

Whatever is chosen, I'm going to watch them "in-universe chronologically", as I'm like that.
If I can figure out the 'Post a Poll' feature here, then please vote. If not, comments will do.
Cheers.

For the curious, here's my results for some of the in-universe chronologies:

X-men movies:

1. X-men First Class
2. Origins: Wolverine
3. X-men
4. X2
5. X-men: Last Stand
6. The Wolverine
7. Days of Future Past

Alien/Predator movies:

1. Predator
2. Predator 2
3. Aliens vs Predator
4. AVP: Requiem
5. Predators
6. Prometheus
7. Alien
8. Aliens
9. Alien3
10. Alien: Resurrection

Underworld movies:

1. Rise of the Lycans
2. Underworld
3. Underworld: Evolution
4. Underworld: Awakening

Planet of the Apes movies:

1. Rise of the POTA
2. Dawn of the POTA
3. POTA (1968)
4. POTA (2001)
5. Beneath the POTA
6. Escape from the POTA
7. Conquest of the POTA
8. Battle of the POTA

Fast and Furious movies:

1. Better Luck Tomorrow
2. The Fast and the Furious
3. Turbo Charged (short film)
4. 2 Fast 2 Furious
5. Los Bandoleros (short film)
6. Fast & Furious
7. Fast Five
8. Fast & Furious 6
9. Tokyo Drift

Universal Monster movies

1. Dracula
2. Dracula's Daughter
3. Frankenstein
4. Bride of Frankenstein
5. Son of Frankenstein
6. The Wolf Man
7. Ghost of Frankenstein
8. Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man
9. Son of Dracula
10. House of Frankenstein
11. House of Dracula
12. Return of the Vampire (not a Universal movie, but considered to be, and replaces 'Abbott & Costello meet Frankenstein' which I'm not interested in)

The others are all the same as the release date chronology. Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Garp said:

Planet of the Apes movies:

1. Rise of the POTA
2. Dawn of the POTA
3. POTA (1968)
4. POTA (2001)
5. Beneath the POTA
6. Escape from the POTA
7. Conquest of the POTA
8. Battle of the POTA

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No. 1, 2 & 4 are reboots. And 1 and 2 don't exist in the same universe as 4. For the rest, good luck figuring out the chronology. Release date would be easiest on the brain.

I would recommend that you watch them in order of release date instead of chronologically. But doing it your way sounds interesting.

Yeah, I wanted to include the Tim Burton one just for completion, even though it doesn't really fit. And though 'Rise' and 'Dawn' are reboots too, they seem to fit better in the chronology (plus I haven't seen 'Dawn' yet).

Anyway, my Batman list includes the 1966 film, the Tim Burton ones (and other sequels) and the Nolan ones in release order, which doesn't make "in-universe" chronological sense either!

Garp said:

Yeah, I wanted to include the Tim Burton one just for completion, even though it doesn't really fit. And though 'Rise' and 'Dawn' are reboots too, they seem to fit better in the chronology (plus I haven't seen 'Dawn' yet).

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Rise and Dawn are essentially reboots of Escape and Conquest, but don't fit into the greater chronology of POTA>Beneath>Escape>Conquest>Battle at all. Completely different plot/characters etc. In any case, I'd suggest watching Saga of the Apes by [MENTION=4677]bionicbob[/MENTION] above all else.

Adabisi said:

Rise and Dawn are essentially reboots of Escape and Conquest, but don't fit into the greater chronology of POTA>Beneath>Escape>Conquest>Battle at all. Completely different plot/characters etc. In any case, I'd suggest watching Saga of the Apes by bionicbob above all else.

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OK, that's interesting about Escape & Conquest. I've had the POTA boxset for some time but never watched any of them. I saw & loved Bob's Saga (hope I left a review, sorry if I didn't). I may have to rejig my list now. This is turning out harder than I thought...

If it makes a difference, the only franchise on the list in which I've seen all the movies is Batman. Some I've seen none (Underworld/Bourne/F&F/Resident Evil/Universal Monsters) and the rest one or two in the franchise.

If you really want to digest the entire Apes mythos, go for this order:

1. Original 5 films
2. 1974 TV Series
3. 1975 Animated TV Series
4. 2001 Burton Remake
5. Rise and Dawn

Each of the 5 should be considered its own self-contained universe, all presenting a different version of the same general premise.

Adabisi said:

If you really want to digest the entire Apes mythos, go for this order:

1. Original 5 films
2. 1974 TV Series
3. 1975 Animated TV Series
4. 2001 Burton Remake
5. Rise and Dawn

Each of the 5 should be considered its own self-contained universe, all presenting a different version of the same general premise.

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I recently watched the animated series, and started to watch the TV series. I remember loving the TV series when I was younger (and collected the trading cards), but nostalgia is an interesting thing and I'm finding it difficult to find the enthusiasm to continue. The animated series, I have to say, I thought was terrible. I like your chronology, though. Makes better sense.

POTA isn't the only franchise you'll run into problems with.

For the X-Men movies, I sometimes wonder if there is any continuity at all between any of them. That's as fair an order to watch them in as any, but be prepared for a lot of things to not line up or make any sense (particularly in regards to Origins: Wolverine, and not just because of continuity issues on that one).

For the Alien and Predator movies, Prometheus contradicts the AVP movies, and, really, are you sure you want to watch the AVP movies?

Who knows if the new Bourne movie next year will even recognize the existence of Legacy.

I'd actually suggest you watch the F&F movies first as Furious 7 is out right now (and is awesome) so you'll get the chance to see it in theaters (where it's meant to be seen) if you watch all of those ASAP. Better Luck Tomorrow isn't really part of the series, though, and the short films and Tokyo Drift are all pretty unnecessary and 2F2F isn't that good, but if you're trying to be a completionist, go for it. But I would certainly recommend the franchise as the last few installments have been some of the most fun action movies released in recent years.

I love APES and always recommend the original 5 movies to anyone interested. The two recent reboots RISE and DAWN are imo absolutely BRILLIANT and worthy of the APES brand. The Burton film, other than incredible production design, is complete rubbish. The TV series, which I still like, sort of missed the point of the Apes franchise by making Humans the heroes and solving all the problems each week. The animated series, story wise I thought was very interesting, but the animation and narrative felt very ponderous.

Of the other franchise titles in your list, my top picks would either be UNDERWORLD or RESIDENT EVIL, as they hold up pretty well continuity wise and are fun silly B-movies.

X-MEN would be next on my list. Great movies (even the often slammed Last Stand) though the continuity is conflicting from movie to movie.

DIE HARD is a very uneven franchise and the last movie is pure unwatchable crap.

BOURNE -- good movies but they all feel and look the same to me.

FAST & FURIOUS -- I am a late coming to this franchise, but I really enjoy it. It probably the has the best continuity of all the franchises you have listed.

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS -- everyone should watch these. I think the best of the bunch is the Wolfman movies and the Dracula are the weakest.

ALIEN/PREDATOR -- even more disjointed than the Apes films, what makes them interesting, particularly the Alien films, is each is a unique interpretation of the same universe.

BATMAN -- what makes these interesting, especially if you start with Adam West (though I recommend you find the 1940s serials too), is you see how the concept of Batman evolved through pop culture. Though if you want to see the best representation of Batman on the screen I recommend the Animated Series.

DominicCobb said:

For the Alien and Predator movies, Prometheus contradicts the AVP movies, and, really, are you sure you want to watch the AVP movies?

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The first AvP movie isn't that bad really. I actually enjoy it more than Prometheus, which mostly just pissed me off.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

bionicbob said:

BATMAN -- what makes these interesting, especially if you start with Adam West (though I recommend you find the 1940s serials too), is you see how the concept of Batman evolved through pop culture. Though if you want to see the best representation of Batman on the screen I recommend the Animated Series.

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I wanted to add that, actually, I'd forgotten that I had chosen one animated film to include in the Batman franchise - 'The Dark Knight Returns'. I haven't seen it but the premise sounds interesting. It would be after the Nolan films in my self-imposed chronology. If there's another/better one to include, please let me know.

I take it you've never seen any of these series? X-Men might be very interesting to experience in that order, especially for a newcomer. Without spoiling any specifics, starting with First Class and concluding with Days of Future Past may be very satisfying. Note than an extended version of the later is due out later this year. May be worth waiting for that, as it'll include scenes featuring a character that was important to other films that's otherwise absent in that one. And the symmetry of having the wolverine movies second and second-to-last could be interesting, especially considering how very different those two movies are.

I'm going to throw in another vote for Planet of the Apes (though it won't let me actually vote in the poll because apparently I haven't posted enough in the forums). But yeah, your order is off. The original five movies in release (and far and above best viewing) order are:
Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Technically speaking, chronologically, the order would be Escape, Conquest, Battle, Planet, Beneath, but please, please do not watch them in that order. I am also a chronology nut, but once you've watched them all in release order, I think you'll totally agree that it's the best way to watch them.
Chronologically, after these five movies, next would be the Planet of the Apes live-action TV series. I've watched half of it, and it's slow, but I've enjoyed it so far. As for Return to the Planet of the Apes, the animated series, I haven't yet watched it so I don't know exactly where it fits, but it is in the same universe as the original movies. It came out last though, so I'd probably just watch that one last if you're still interested.

If you'd like to watch every movie (which I think is a great idea), the next one to watch would be Burton's Planet of the Apes from 2001. It is a remake of the original Planet of the Apes, but it takes place in a separate universe and is completely incompatible with the others. I'm not a fan of this one, but it is interesting to see.

Finally, watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (whose titles really ought to be swapped, if you ask me). This is a fresh reboot of the series, though, as another stated, they most closely align with the plots of Conquest and Battle from the original series. They are both excellent, though very different than and entirely incompatible with the original series.

Have fun! Though some are certainly better than others (please don't give up after Beneath - it may be terrible, but Escape is so good!), I think you'll enjoy the ride. It's a fantastic series.

Garp said:

. If there's another/better one to include, please let me know.

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Mask of the Phantasm is a must. Besides being the only theatrically released animated Batman movie, it's phenomenal. I like it better than every live action movie other than the Nolan trilogy. And even then, perhaps a notch higher than TDKR.

I'm going to agree with matrixgrindhouse on watching the X-Men series in chronological order--though there are glaring continuity issues in the series, nothing is experience-breaking, and I think that those films are best viewed in chronological order today. That's how I watched them most recently and I was very satisfied with it.

veering, because i like to veer:

sympathy for mr. vengeance
oldboy
sympathy for lady vengeance

matrixgrindhouse said:

I take it you've never seen any of these series? X-Men might be very interesting to experience in that order, especially for a newcomer. Without spoiling any specifics, starting with First Class and concluding with Days of Future Past may be very satisfying. Note than an extended version of the later is due out later this year. May be worth waiting for that, as it'll include scenes featuring a character that was important to other films that's otherwise absent in that one. And the symmetry of having the wolverine movies second and second-to-last could be interesting, especially considering how very different those two movies are.

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I've seen 'First Class' and 'Future Past', that's all for X-Men so far.