The 20 best (and worst) spinoff films

Sometimes a sequel just isn't good enough. Every once in a while, a film features a breakout character who simply deserves his or her own story. However, for every good spinoff, there's an awful one waiting to be unleashed, or vice versa. But you get the point. Just in time for Christmas, "Bumblebee" a spinoff/soft reboot from the mega-popular but critically panned "Transformers" series, hits theaters. In honor of the latest franchise spinoff, we share our list of the 20 best (and worst) spinoffs.

Following up surprise hit "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Get Him to the Greek" spins off the imagined antagonist of the first film, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), into something even more slapstick than the original romantic comedy, and somehow it just works. Although Jonah Hill plays a completely different character than in the previous film, this time taking straight man duties as the harried talent scout tasked with corralling Snow to a concert performance, the chemistry between Hill and Brand is good enough to count "Get Him to the Greek" as a better spinoff than most.

While the modest success of pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe entry "Daredevil" wasn't enough to spawn a sequel, Fox decided to capitalize on the success by spinning off Jennifer Garner's seemingly deceased ninja assassin into a film of her own. Unfortunately an incoherent story mixed with the lack of detail that would become a hallmark of Kevin Feige's MCU led to this misfire of a film — one so bad that it all but guaranteed that fans would never see a cinematic version of the character for well over a decade.

The second and still most successful spinoff from star Sacha Baron Cohen's "Da Ali G Show," "Borat!" employs the same sort of gotcha fauxmentary whose subjects never realize they're a part of the joke while happily offering up some of the more darker aspects of humanity to great comedic effect. And while Cohen could've done fine doing that and only that, he succeeds in crafting solid comedy without hapless subjects, largely through the antics of himself and his fellow countryman and producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davidian).

It's hard to imagine what was on the minds of executives at Warner Bros. when the decision to greenlight this disaster spinoff was made, but the end result probably should've culminated in firings. Halle Berry stars as the shy and sensitive Patience Price, an artist who suffers a similar fate to that of Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) n 1992's "Batman Returns," as she is resurrected from certain death by a roving pack of cats. It's at this point where all comparisons end as the newly christened Catwoman leaves kitty litter in her wake instead of anything resembling a decent film.

One of the more ironic things about this spinoff from the "Star Wars" franchise is that "Rogue One" possibly features more war than any of the previous films. And while that seems like a weird point to make in a film series like this, it speaks to the fact that "Rogue One" delivers something new to the 40-year space saga other than fantasy and melodrama. The film, covering a time period just before the original "Star Wars," is a much darker affair, showing the moment the Rebel Alliance began to turn the tide against the Empire, thanks to a group of mercenaries with a specific and fateful task.

More feckless spinoff than sequel, this ill-advised extension of Jim Carrey's career-making role as Ace Ventura is far less funny when the gross-out gags don't come from Carrey himself. The film stars Josh Flitter (who?) as the Pet Detective progeny who must follow in his father's footsteps to keep his mother (Ann Cusack) out of jail when she's framed for a crime she didn't commit. The end of the film, summing everything up as a hallucination from Ace Jr. as the result of an acid trip gone sideways, makes us only wish we were hallucinating the fact that this film even exists.

Director Judd Apatow trades in the story of a stoner who has to grow up in the wake of a one-night stand in "Knocked Up" to the reality of trying to maintain a sense of self with the pressures of parenthood in "This is 40." Starring Paul Rudd, reprising his supporting role from "Knocked Up," "40" takes a humorous dive into the realities of a couple's descent into their 40s as life and marriage begin to lose their luster, and the two have to determine what it's going to take to keep that love alive and whether or not it's even worth it.

During a career filled with hits, Jim Carrey has participated in only two sequels. "Evan Almighty," a sequel turned spinoff, was not one of them. Taking the place of Carrey is Steve Carell, who parlayed his segue from leading comedic actor status into a well-intentioned yet poorly scripted follow-up, which finds former anchorman Evan Baxter entering political office when he is recruited by God (Morgan Freeman) to prepare for an upcoming flood. Audiences weren't nearly as taken with "Evan Almighty" as they were "Bruce Almighty," with the film failing at the box office despite practically no expense being spare.

To be sure, Pixar has a license to print money, and in the case of this spinoff from the wildly successful "Finding Nemo," inherent success was no barrier to delivering yet another solid film that does exactly what it wants to do by mixing comedy and heartwrenching moments. This time the focus shifts to absentminded Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) as she searches for her long-lost parents in a way that mirrors the original film while also offering something completely different, as some of the better elements from the original are matched with all-new and equally endearing elements.

When the original "Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975, it was swiftly dismissed as a failure. However, the cult fan base, one that exists to this day, formed quickly enough, selling out midnight screenings of the film and pushing executives to go after a sequel. Unfortunately, no one, especially much of the cast, seemed interested in a follow-up. What remains is a reworked film that although some consider it ahead of its time, so much of it is too boring to be enjoyed on future viewings.

Spun from the wildly successful big-screen version of classic TV's "The Fugitive," "U.S. Marshals" follows the best part of the previous film. Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his team track down a new fugitive (Wesley Snipes) who, like in their previous quarry, is more than what he seems. While the film was battered by critics, audiences loved the chemistry of Jones and his team and made the film a sleeper hit, although not enough to garner further sequels, which is a shame.

In 2002, Dwayne Johnson was still relatively green as an actor, but in the wake of his mostly CGI performance in "The Mummy Returns," the desire for a spinoff film was there. Unfortunately, someone forgot to bring the story along for the ride. The result is a wholly mediocre affair: a standard sword-and-sandals action flick that ends up far more boring and uninspired than it should be, given the action-packed series it spawned from. Interestingly enough, although the original film was buried by critics and audiences alike upon its original, direct-to-video entries in the spinoff series are still seeing light of day today.

2012's "The LEGO Movie" took audiences by surprise by delivering humor and nostalgia in a way accessible to both children and adults. One of the breakout performances came by way of Will Arnett's tongue-firmly-in-cheek take on the comically broody Batman, making him one of the most popular characters in the film that was tailor-made for a spinoff of his own. The film, while not as fresh or surprising as the original, brought more than a little magic of its own, as "The LEGO Batman Movie," feels as much a love letter to what we love about the character as much as the LEGO universe itself.

When is a Pixar movie not a Pixar movie? When it's shunted off to Disney's regular animation studio in the form of "Planes" a spinoff to Pixar's lesser effort, "Cars." While not officially a Pixar release, audiences were led to believe as much, especially when the film, which was originally designated for release on DVD, somehow managed a theatrical release as well. The result was that it was one of the lesser-grossing entries from Disney Animation in quite some time.

Part spinoff, part prequel, "Bumblebee" succeeds where so much of the original "Transformers" series simply fails. By giving fans and audiences a simpler, more linear experience, focusing on the relationship of a robot with that of a young girl (Hailee Steinfeld), the film manages to make a smaller story feel much larger, with defined characters and coherent action sequences. It could be said that "Bumblebee" is exactly what the first "Transformers" should've been, with 100 percent less Michael Bay, whose kinetic action sensibilities and more adult humor never really fit the material.

In an attempt to capitalize on the success of 1983's "Superman III," the Salkind family decided against another sequel to the main franchise in favor of this odd spinoff starring Helen Slater as the titular super cousin; it's equal parts sloppy and undercooked. Slater was relatively light on acting credits when she was cast, but she would have done better by taking a few acting lessons. The rest of the cast is rounded out by esteemed actors like Faye Dunaway, Peter Cook and yes, Peter O'Toole, who spends every moment on screen practically phoning it in. 

Where "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was a massive failure, "Logan" serves as a polar opposite. Set years after the "X-Men" fall apart, "Logan" is an elegiac affair; a sendoff of sorts for the mutant with a seemingly endless ability to heal from any wound, that is, except for time and tragedy. Hugh Jackman puts on the claws that made him an international star one last time, as he says goodbye to the ragged hero with equal parts melancholy and hope, delivering a powerful film that manages, for the most part, to transcend its genre into a truly great film in its own right.

An atrocious film that barely scrapes by on the star appeal of Hugh Jackman, the heart and soul of the "X-Men" franchise, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is a pure victim of too many cooks, as director Gavin Hood, fresh off the Academy Award-winning "Tsotsi" is tasked with bringing in the most popular X-Man and giving him an origin story. While there are some bright spots, such as the casting of Liev Schreiber as nemesis Victor Creed/Sabertooth, most other decisions were awful at best and heretical at worst, including Ryan Reynolds' first appearance as Merc with a Mouth, something that Reynolds would later parody in his own "Deadpool" series.

With six entries in the "Rocky" franchise, "Creed" succeeds in breathing new life into what was clearly a tired storyline, as the focus shifts from everyone's favorite punch-drunk pugilist to the illegitimate child of fallen Rocky Balboa frenemy Apollo Creed (Michael B. Jordan). The ultimate success comes from the choice not to remake "Rocky" under a new name. Everything about "Creed" is fresh and timely, and it gives the audience a markedly different take on the "hero's journey" by making Adonis "Donny" Creed into a far more layered and nuanced character than Balboa ever was.

The worst of our list of spinoffs, and yet another example of 2005's "Son of the Mask," could be considered the worst of the bunch. Starring Jamie Kennedy as the son of Jim Carrey's original character, it's a clear cash grab by New Line to create what it hoped would be a successful continuation of the potential franchise — one that would be declared dead forever more upon the release of this wholly detestable film.