10 Movie Franchises Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Could Improve

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has developed a habit of stepping into established series/franchises. He’s become – as director John M. Chu puts it – “franchise Viagra.” Between this week’s G.I. JOE: Retaliation, Fast Five, The Mummy Returns, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island he’s making a career out of injecting waning franchises with renewed life and interest by taking over as the main character or a prominent new one. With that in mind, here’s a list of other struggling franchises The Rock could help re-inspire and improve.

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Air Bud

Look, we all know the Air Bud series has been producing diminishing returns since Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch. Even re-imaging the series with adorable puppies (aka eight Air Buddies movies) couldn’t halt the downward turn of quality. What the series could use is an increased human element to help revitalize the franchise, and The Rock is just the guy to save the series from the pound of creative bankruptcy. He’s already great with dogs. He knows how to star along young pups. He’s a family film veteran. And you know we’re all dying to see if one of his biceps is actually bigger than a Labrador puppy. With The Rock involved, the Air Bud series could finally be on track again to becoming the next Beethoven.

Crank

Creatively there’s nothing wrong with the Crank series, but Crank: High Voltage only earned half of what the original film did (which wasn’t much to begin with). The Rock is exactly the jolt the series could use to expose its genius insanity to a wider audience. Now, I’m not saying he should replace Jason Statham. That would be like replacing Bruce Willis as John McClane. It would also be depriving ourselves of the pleasures of discovering how Chelios finds himself in yet another biologically implausible life-or-death situation. No, Crank 3 should have whatever happens to Chelios happen to Johnson’s character and have the two team up to save themselves in what would be the nuttiest buddy action movie ever made.

Final Destination

I would consider it Hollywood’s greatest failure if they let the Final Destination series peter out. It might be a possibility given that Final Destination 5 was the lowest grossing of the series despite demonstrating a critical renaissance. What once was a dependably modest cash cow is losing its steam. The perfect time for The Rock to step in and provide the franchise the biggest star it’s ever had. You can’t tell me people wouldn’t want to see a Final Destination movie with him in it – whether he’s the series’ requisite “We’re all going to die!” vision person, an Ali Larter-like long term survivor of Death’s plan, or perhaps an avatar of Death finally wanting to get more hands on.

Jurassic Park

If Jurassic Park 4 hadn’t abandoned its human dinosaur hybrid idea, Dwayne Johnson could have easily lent his human scorpion hybrid experience to the series. No use crying over spilled development plans. The man should have a chance to tackle some more grown up dinosaurs instead of the ones in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The series could also use some bigger star power (Jurassic Park III wasn’t exactly made of A-listers) to help temper skeptical thoughts as to why this series needs to go on. The series could also use someone that could actually engage in fisticuffs with some raptors. If Arnold got to punch a camel, it’s only fair The Rock gets to punch a dinosaur.

Paranormal Activity

The Paranormal Activity series needs some new life. Paranormal Activity 4 was the lowest grossing of the series and made half as much as the previous film did. They’re also running out of stories and ways to use a video camera. So you need something to distract from all that. Like a big hulking man who looks invincible and like nothing could scare or hurt him. Put The Rock in Paranormal Activity movie and you get the amusing scenario of his size and strength doing him absolutely no good, and making him as vulnerable as anybody else. Of course this would turn the movie into a comedy, but that’s at least more honest than the series continuing to play its absurdity straight. (I’m actually only insulting the franchise because against my better judgment it still scares me, and having The Rock in it would make me feel safer).

Pirates of the Caribbean

Somebody keeps seeing these things, so Disney keeps making them. If the world has to put up with another one, at least throw The Rock in there as Jack Sparrow’s newly adopted sidekick or something. Honestly though, I’m only making this suggestion because I really want to see The Rock in a pirate hat.

Terminator

Once upon a time The Rock was on the path to becoming the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was even a passing of the torch to commemorate that possibility in The Rundown. Instead, Johnson skipped too quickly ahead to Schwarzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop career stage and lost all of that momentum. Lately he’s been thankfully working his way back to becoming Arnold’s “No. 1 Action Star” heir. The best way he could skip right here would be not to take Arnold’s mediocre scraps (again, The Rundown), but to take on his most iconic role and film. Between the lackluster Terminator Salvation and the perpetual rights problem the series suffers from, The Rock is exactly the kind of franchise revitalizer the franchise needs to make it cool again. I’ll let someone figure out the logistics of what point in the John Connor chronology it should take place (if at all), but I’ll just put this out there: Johnson should play both the good and bad Terminator.

Transformers

The Transformers series is in the process of rebooting itself sans previous leads (who no one will miss), and at this point only has Mark Wahlberg on board. I’m frankly shocked The Rock hasn’t been cast already given that he worked with Michael Bay on Pain & Gain and seems to have great chemistry with Wahlberg. Having Johnson in Transformers might actually help us care more because unlike LeBeouf, he’d actually look like he deserves to be standing and fighting next gigantic robots. Plus, if Jurassic Park 4 doesn’t let him punch a dinosaur, maybe we could hope that he gets to punch a Decepticon.

Underworld

The Underworld franchise has always been one anchored by a worthy idea perpetually squandered by each film. Hell, Twilight accomplishes the core concept better than the Underworld films do. The series is mostly lousy Romeo & Juliet melodrama punctuated by the occasional decent action set piece. The franchise has run itself into the ground, but if it ditches Kate Beckinsale and everything but its fundamental werewolf against vampire concept, there might be hope. Then cast The Rock (I vote werewolf) and he could drive the series to be more action oriented, bad-ass series it should have always been.

Universal Soldier

This is actually one series that isn’t running stale. John Hyams – with the one-two punch of Regeneration and Day of Reckoning – has been quietly elevating the Universal Solider series to being one of our greatest action franchises. Sadly, not many people have noticed. Which is The Rock could help drive attention to it. One can only imagine what Hyams would accomplish if given access to Johnson, but the one guaranteed thing that would happen is that the series would be saved from being a bad direct-to-DVD joke to widely regarded action series.