Arnold Schwarzenegger came back to the Terminator franchise after a decade-long drought (if you don’t count that CGI abomination in Salvation) and was supposed to bring the whole series back to glory, right? From most accounts, the intent missed the goal by margins, though not nearly as badly as the McG catastrophe. But this marks not the first, nor second, but third failure to relaunch the signature franchise (and as there are only 5 films so far, that’s not boding well). Even if the film does well internationally (and after a $20 million first weekend, it HAS to be), future plans for Terminator sequels will most likely be reconsidered if not completely quashed. But that leaves many questions to be asked as to why make this film in the first place if all they could come up with was a generic and overly complicated story, a boring villain and dull, pointless action sequences?

The answer might seem to come from another Paramount franchise, Transformers. After completing a trilogy of films that ended with the vanquishing of its main antagonist, they and director Michael Bay wanted to keep the billion-dollar train rolling even though they had no good idea of what to do with these characters. So they sold audiences on a change-up (Dinobots) and made a story that might utilize them. But not just that, they needed to sell this internationally (especially China, a market known to save underperforming films like Pacific Rim), which also means that the story needs to be secondary to flashy visuals. And not just that, there needs to be room for sequel building and if possible, Expanded Universe potential. None of them cared that critics and fans panned the film furiously, or that North American audiences made this the less-successful film in the franchise, it made more in China enough to make it one of the most successful globally. All that matters that it keeps going, keeps making money, keeps existing in the conscience of enough paying audiences.

Hence, the birth of zombie franchises. The zombie franchise has no further purpose of existing than to keep the franchise going. Their aims is not to take the stories in that series into new directions or to tell compelling new chapters to engage audiences. They only have to provide an adequate level of cheap thrills that remind audiences why they like said franchise and should keep watching. They even factor in the hate watchers who pay in order to rip the films apart, therefore spreading word of its awfulness like a disease that infects others who want to see just how bad it is. But the most important aspect is that it must work well in highly populated countries with large populations of easily entertained individuals.

In a way, the person we can thank for this is none other than James Cameron, who perfected international mass appeal through use of classic tropes and stunning visuals. The only difference between Cameron and Bay is that Cameron is a perfectionist who desperately tries to equalize dramatics with action whereas Bay prefers to keep hitting the explosion button until the planet is rocked off its gravitational trajectory. People like Alan Taylor, director of Genesys, are in the middle. Taylor takes to a workman style of filmmaking which puts more pressure on the screenplay as he doesn’t try to put his own spin on the material. And if the screenplay is subpar, which most franchise screenplays are, this drags the film further down. But since most zombie franchises don’t care about neither, more attention is put on special effects and stunt work.

Bear in mind that not all zombie franchises are universally panned. Take Jurassic World, which is doing very well at the box office is a huge favorite for the multitudes of audiences who see it as a simple fun film. That said, talk to the fanboys of the franchise or the critics who see this is nothing more than filler for a franchise that once housed large ideas about evolution, biology, ethics and Barbasol canisters. But for the most part, zombie franchises aren’t so well-received. Take Oz: The Great and Powerful, meant to be the groundwork for an expanded universe based on the 1939 classic Oz film and the works of Frank L. Baum. And what’s worse is that Hollywood is dredging up decades-old films and franchises to revitalize in order to make easy money. Independence Day: Resurgence, anybody?

Hollywood’s obsession with billion-dollar profits are giving us some very epic tales and there are those who are eager to see those fruits. But the problem is that many of these having nothing to say and nothing to offer besides just more of the same. Terminator Genesys is best example as it literally takes most of the best stuff from prior films and created a Greatest Hits compilation in order to keep the franchise moving without giving us a reason to care if it does. And it is fair to say that Hollywood doesn’t owe quality to anybody as long as what they offer gets people to pay as it is (though I would disagree, but that’s for a different article). What I would like to see are filmmakers who are allowed to mold unique visions in these franchises, to be allowed to look in the roads less traveled and give audiences a reason to take the ride other than more of the same. Or perhaps even better; a completely new thing not yet seen before. I mean how are you supposed to build new franchises if you don’t?