These Classic Franchises Are Worth A Binge - Opinion
From Shane Conto
Are you hyped with all these Godzilla projects swirling and creating a buzz. Monarch is surprising people on Apple TV+. Godzilla Minus One is blowing people’s minds on the big screen. Everyone and their mothers have an opinion about that trailer drop for Godzilla x Kong. This is an amazing time to be a fan of this decades sprawling creature feature franchise. I have been watching Godzilla films since I was a kid. We have serious and contemplative entries like Gojira (the original film of the franchise) and Godzilla (2014). You can even see the titular creature power-sliding on his tale in some of the sillier entries in the franchise. There is a consistent influx of both Japanese and American created projects over the years. This is a towering and classic franchise that is worth the time to take a deep dive into decades of films.
But what classic film franchises are worth your time to binge through? Well… let’s start with this one! The human characters are not the strongest but the big monster action is when it comes to the Warner Bros/Legendary new Monsterverse. These are the easiest films to find as Warner Discovery has them all floating around on the Max streaming services (which makes a lot of sense). To find the classic entries (when Godzilla was still a man in a suit), you might have to get a little creative. YouTube is a great resource for older cinema and you never know when some of them might be popping up on a channel for free (good luck with the ads though). There are plenty of other sites like Freevee that might make it easier too. The original though? You can find that pitch perfect original entry on a beautiful Criterion physical release (and you can probably find a lot of these on well planned physical media expeditions). These are the most iconic of big monster (Kaiju) films so make sure to have some fun with them…because some of them are just plain absurd.
What is probably the most famous and longest running of film franchises? Bond… James Bond. This suave and womanizing spy has been creating a buzz on the big screen for almost 60 years at this point and they are still going. This franchise is filled with some of the best and most iconic espionage thrillers you will ever find. Sure, many of them are outdated and have aged poorly. Many of them are not great “films” in the proper sense. But these films are fun filled with villains, attractive women, gadgets, and some of the most iconic actors to grace the silver screening. With the Amazon acquisition of MGM, almost every entry in this iconic franchise can be seen right now on Amazon and MGM+. There are certainly films in this franchise worth focusing on first. The first handful of Sean Connery era films are some of the most iconic and high quality of all the franchise. Don’t sleep on George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service which has a great French New Wave tinge to the filmmaking. Roger Moore’s are mostly silly and progressively keep getting there but The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only are a little more gritty and higher quality. But there are so many iconic elements from the Moore era that it is hard to resist. Timothy Dalton is the most under-rated Bond and his outings are solid. Pierce Brosnan (the perfect balance of Connery and Moore) gets the great Goldeneye and then a quickly spiraling bunch of other outings. But the Craig era gave us Casino Royale and Skyfall, arguably the two best films in the franchise, so those are must see entries. You can even be so bold to go back and watch the whole franchise through! Have fun.
Do you like to get scared and feel the suspense? Then Universal Horror certainly has plenty for you! Not necessarily a tightly structured franchise like Bond or Godzilla but one that has a whole host of different characters but with the same mission. What is that mission? To bring the frights. These are certainly early cinema so they might not be “scary” to modern standards of crazy jump scares but they certainly bring the atmosphere and a wide range of creatures from vampires to scientific creations to werewolves and more. Check out Dracula and Frankenstein and The Wolfman and so much more. Many of them are available on Universal’s own streaming service, Peacock. The others are worth seeking out and might even be accessible in some form on YouTube.
Do you want a little more science fiction with your Godzilla? Planet of the Apes is a decades spanning franchise that has been broken up into two major parts. The present iteration is living strong with next year’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes coming to theaters in time for Memorial Day. What Matt Reeves did with this modern take on the franchise is nothing short of remarkable. But you can turn that clock back to the original five film saga starting with the Charlton Heston led Planet of the Apes. Then you can venture with Beneath… Escape… Conquest… and finally Battle. This franchise goes all over the place with time travel, super intelligent mutants with physic abilities, and of course the highly evolved talking apes. Luckily, you can check out all the original series on Prime Video right now. For the more modern entries? You might have to do some service hoping from Hulu to MAX.
Will these franchises keep you busy for a while? I would imagine over 80 films included in all of them! So fill up that watchlist and go enjoy some good old fashioned cinematic fun. You will certainly have your fair share of Kaiju, espionage, horrific monsters, and apes.
