You summed them all up nicely. The first one was also FUN. They killed it with the second one, sucked all the fun out of it.
The third one was stupid and the 4th (who cared by then)?
It was just well made. Everything worked. The plot made sense, the jokes worked, the action worked, the characters were great. It just clicked.
Not so with everything which followed. The plots stunk, the jokes didn't work, the action scenes looked contrived and fake, they tried to do too much with special effects rather than just making a better movie.
They killed it with the second one, sucked all the fun out of it.
Yup.