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It's often taken as gospel that sequels are never as good as the original, but that's not always true. Let's list some film franchises where the sequels are as good (or even sometimes better) than the original.
As always, opinions will vary.
I'll start off with both a sequel and a third movie from a franchise that I like better than the first film: Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. I never really cared for Mad Max, but I really like both sequels.
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I agree about mad max.
Empire strikes back is a popular choice.
Robocop II works for me.
Terminator II also fits the bill.
My controversial pick is Conan the destroyer. I think it works well as a representation of the classic D&D adventure party.
Speaking of D&D, the movie was so bad the made for TV sequels are better.
In Daniel craig era james bond lots of people dog quantum of solace but i enjoy it more than casino royale.
Nolans Dark Knight I felt was as good if not better than Begins. Though I think dark knight rises is pretty boring.
Thats what I got right now.
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The Raid 2 - seriously, I like the first movie, but it is surpassed by the second one.
Captain America - Winter Soldier
Considering Bond, From Russia with Love is, imo more enjoyable than Dr. No.
That is all I got for now (I am sure I forgot some).
I agree about Road Warrior and the D&D Movie.
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Terminator 2
Aliens
Dark Knight
Robocop 2
Beyond Thunderdome
Captain America 2
Harry Potter 2-8
Tinkerbell 2-6
The Mummy 2
American Tail 2
F/X 2
The Naked Gun 2-3
Airplane 2
Rush Hour 2-3
Hellboy 2
Toy Story 2-3
Back to the Future 2
Addams Family 2
Superman Batman Apocalypse
Despicable Me 2
Conan The Destroyer
Shrek 2
Wayne's World 2
Indiana Jones 2-3
Under World 2
For a Few Dollars More
The Human Condition III
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I have to agree with Dark Knight.
I haven't liked any of the D&D movies, myself. I'm surprised to see Conan the Destroyer on lists though. I was much more impressed with the first one. (Also, the audio commentary on Conan the Barbarian is hilarious, Arnold sounds like an excited kid.)
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I never said I liked them in particular but the D&D made for TV movies are better than the theatrical release IMO.
I haven't liked any of the D&D movies, myself.
I understand what you're saying.
To me it's just a "choose between amputation of your left hand or right" type thing. I might prefer one to the other, but I prefer neither much more. :P
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I never said I liked them in particular but the D&D made for TV movies are better than the theatrical release IMO.
I haven't liked any of the D&D movies, myself.I understand what you're saying.
To me it's just a "choose between amputation of your left hand or right" type thing. I might prefer one to the other, but I prefer neither much more. :P
Like playing pick your favorite Uwe Bol movie. :)
Like playing pick your favorite Uwe Bol movie. :)I never said I liked them in particular but the D&D made for TV movies are better than the theatrical release IMO.
I haven't liked any of the D&D movies, myself.I understand what you're saying.
To me it's just a "choose between amputation of your left hand or right" type thing. I might prefer one to the other, but I prefer neither much more. :P
Exactly like that.
On the topic of sequels, can you believe he's made two sequels to his Bloodrayne, and one to his Dungeon Siege? Another case of neither sequels nor firsts.
I actually enjoyed the second D&D movie to a degree...can't watch the first one and don't like the third one.
Some other sequels that are good (but not necessarily better than the original).
First up would be Return to Snowy River. I really like it a lot.
I enjoyed The Black Stallion Returns MORE than the original Black Stallion, probably because it seemed to move faster and have a stronger story I enjoyed. The first was kind of boring during a lot of it (but the race at the end is better then any race in the second one...that end race of the original is intense!).
I admit, I enjoy the direct to DVD Aladdin King of Thieves more than the original (though I can't stand the second in the series, Return of Jafar).
Bill and Teds Bogus Journey is as fun as the first for me, though it isn't better then the first.
I also like Toy Story 2 better then the first Toy Story.
I think those are a bunch of movies that really haven't been talked about here yet.
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Agree with most of what has been said. Also:
Wraith of Khan far better than the first Star Trek movie.
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Godfather Part II (not III)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (which is a semi-sequel to A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few
X-Men 2
The Two Towers
I, too, agree with most of the movies mentioned, as well as mention:
Spiderman 2
X-Men: First Class... and even better, X-Men: Days of Future Past
Cars 2 was "good" in a very different way from Cars, so I really don't know where that one should go.
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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.
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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.
Hmm.. this I will never understand. When I read LOTR I loved Fellowship it was a great book. I eventually got pretty bored during Towers and found it an absolute chore to finish Return. The movies pretty much followed the exact same experience.
Hmm.. this I will never understand. When I read LOTR I loved Fellowship it was a great book. I eventually got pretty bored during Towers and found it an absolute chore to finish Return. The movies pretty much followed the exact same experience.I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.
Entertainment can be a pretty individual experience. I frequently find myself disappointed with movies and shows that people assure me are excellent. It's usually about what you're looking for.
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Entertainment can be a pretty individual experience. I frequently find myself disappointed with movies and shows that people assure me are excellent. It's usually about what you're looking for.Hmm.. this I will never understand. When I read LOTR I loved Fellowship it was a great book. I eventually got pretty bored during Towers and found it an absolute chore to finish Return. The movies pretty much followed the exact same experience.I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.
Yeap just noticing i'm on the odd side of the fence with LOTR fans. Kinda like when my Trekkie friends called me a "niner" and anti-trekker because I think DS9 was the best in Trek franchise.
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Star Trek 2 was the only decent film of the pre-Abrams era. The others ranged from passable as extended episodes to outright painful to watch.
And the first was just.... awful.
Terminator:Judgemnent Day was a considerable improvement on both the original, and the film that followed it.
See I think T2 was the best executed but its my least favorite. The original was just a classic boogeyman film. Its a bit dated but it still has the right feel. I thought the storyline of T3 was much better than T2 though much of the scenes felt redundant following T2.
On trek i'm in agreement with you completely.
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I rather prefer Star Trek IV to the submarines in space movie.
Stargate the TV series beats the movie (although the movie has a nicer wormhole special effect).
The Dark Knight was better than Batman Begins.
The Godfather part 2 has already been mentioned, as has the Empire Strikes Back.
Back to the Future III improved on the second movie in the series.
Die Hard III is the best in its series.
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Entertainment can be a pretty individual experience. I frequently find myself disappointed with movies and shows that people assure me are excellent. It's usually about what you're looking for.Hmm.. this I will never understand. When I read LOTR I loved Fellowship it was a great book. I eventually got pretty bored during Towers and found it an absolute chore to finish Return. The movies pretty much followed the exact same experience.I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.Yeap just noticing i'm on the odd side of the fence with LOTR fans. Kinda like when my Trekkie friends called me a "niner" and anti-trekker because I think DS9 was the best in Trek franchise.
We can agree on that, DS9 was my favourite as well. :)
Star Trek II and IV were better than the preceding ones, definitely.
Yes.
I'll have to disagree with those who feel that Terminator II, CA:WS, Indiana Joneswere better than the first instalments.
It took me the longest time to figure out what this meant. Heh. (Sorry.)
T2: Bigger and more showy and better action and effects, certainly but the first one really captured the feeling of desperate struggle against an unstoppable foe for a vague chance of stopping a future catastrophe better.
To me, the reason T2 was so good was, at least in part, due to the power of T1. Terminator 2 would not have been that good without a solid first movie... but because the first movie was so solid, the second got even better... when it handled the subject material properly. What Judgement Day did was take the first installment's end and actually follow through... in both in-world and in-character reactions.
Sarah Conner changed. In the first film she was ordinary. Normal. But then she saw the truth. This was terrifying to her, and she changed... changed to be what she believed she had to be to save the world.
CA:TFA - apart from a stupid end it was a beautifully campy film and perfectly in keeping with WWII propaganda and 'innocent fun', if we can use that term about such a period. WS was more serious, spy based movie. It was good, but not as entertaining as TFA.
This is strictly subjective. I'm willing to go on record as saying that I love the first Captain America - that film was one of my favorites of the "first run" of marvel films for the reasons you give as well as the fact that Cap was presented in The First Avenger as an excellent guy all-round. I loved it. Still do.
What Winter Soldier did, however, was show, again, how he reacted to a world that was different from his own. The world changed, even while he stayed the same. He adapted, but didn't alter. And that's awesome to me.
IJ: I....I don't even..., I won't quibble too much on liking TLC better than RotLA, but there's no way ToD is in any way superior. Heck, ToD isn't that much better than KotCS.
Okay, yeah. I wasn't even thinking of Temple of Doom when I broadly agreed. The Last Crusade was definitely the pinnacle, but Raiders of the Lost Ark was fantastic. Temple of Doom... not so much. I really think that if we had a Raiders'- or 'Crusade-style film as the fifth installment things would turn around and the franchise would be loved again. On the other hand, had the franchise stopped at 'Doom, I'm certain it wouldn't have been as popular as it is now.
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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Two Towers. Yes.
I even liked Return of the King better than Fellowship.
I on the other hand thought Fellowship was by far the best movie Peter Jackson ever produced.
Star Trek 2 was the only decent film of the pre-Abrams era. The others ranged from passable as extended episodes to outright painful to watch.
And the first was just.... awful.
I actually really liked the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Very on the nose with the Cold War stuff, but still an excellent movie in my opinion. Kind of touched all the bases I'd like to see touched.
Terminator:Judgemnent Day was a considerable improvement on both the original, and the film that followed it.
Hum.... hard to call. I really like both the original and T2. They are very different movies, sort of like Alien vs. Aliens, and I think both are excellent examples of what they are.
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The sequel to John Carpenter's The Thing (which, funny enough, is also called The Thing), is actually a prequel, which shows what happenned at the norvegian arctic camp before the events of the first film. It actually leads to the helicopter (chasing the dog) scene...
Cool stuff...
:)
Ultradan
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Predator 2, with Dany Glover, was pretty good. And I also liked Predators, which came out just a few years ago.
Aliens 2 must be one of the best sequels out there... :D
The Dark Knight is also up there, at the top of the list...
Die Hard 3 has to be my favorite in the series...
Superman 2, at that time, was pretty awesome (although now it's almost un-watchable... lol)
Ultradan
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Superman 2, at that time, was pretty awesome (although now it's almost un-watchable... lol)
Despite the "twist ending", I liked Man of Steel's depiction of Zod and Faora much better than Superman 2.
Besides, Superman 2 made me ask so many questions... cellophane emblem, multiman powers, really?
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Toy Story II, and III for that matter
Back to the Future II and III aren't quite as good as I, but they are really good sequels nonetheless
Aliens of course. It has been stated, but it's worth repeating.
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Back to the Future was really one movie done in three parts.Toy Story II, and III for that matter
Back to the Future II and III aren't quite as good as I, but they are really good sequels nonetheless
Aliens of course. It has been stated, but it's worth repeating.
Yeap, if made today the movies would be, Back to the future, Back to the future; marty goes home part 1, and back to the future marty goes home part 2.
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I know I'm not in majority, but I really Love Chronicles of Riddick, which is kind of a sequel.
Empire Strikes Back. Most sequels reuse the same music or variations of. The musical themes of Star Wars really come into their own in Empire, a rare feat in any sequel.
Shrek II. One of the only sequel that really holds to its original IMO (along with Aliens)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Temple of Doom is a good sequel, but Last Crusade is magnificent.
oh, and Army of Darkness, if we can consider it a sequel to Evil Dead.
The sequel to John Carpenter's The Thing (which, funny enough, is also called The Thing), is actually a prequel, which shows what happenned at the norvegian arctic camp before the events of the first film. It actually leads to the helicopter (chasing the dog) scene...
I didn't know that existed!
I know I'm not in majority, but I really Love Chronicles of Riddick, which is kind of a sequel.
I'm with you on this, I liked it better as well.
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I have a love hate relationship with chronicles of Riddick. I love the Riddick character and could watch him escape prisons and kill ruthless bounty hunters forever. The whole necromonger thing wasn't great at all. I'm not sure if it needed to be developed more or just dropped completely. For chronicles, I think it was a real weak point of the film. In fact, the only parts I like are bounty hunter Tunes(sp?) and the prison escape. The third movie Riddick is a complete rehash of Pitch but I loved it because they stuck to the basics which in my opinion made it better than Chronicles.
Army of Darkness
X-Men 2
Star Trek 2-6
Superman 2
Madagascar 3
Star Wars episode 5&6
Spiderman 2
American Pie 2-4
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Hot Shots 2
I have a love hate relationship with chronicles of Riddick. I love the Riddick character and could watch him escape prisons and kill ruthless bounty hunters forever. The whole necromonger thing wasn't great at all. I'm not sure if it needed to be developed more or just dropped completely. For chronicles, I think it was a real weak point of the film. In fact, the only parts I like are bounty hunter Tunes(sp?) and the prison escape. The third movie Riddick is a complete rehash of Pitch but I loved it because they stuck to the basics which in my opinion made it better than Chronicles.
Whereas I liked Chronicles because it used Riddick from start to finish as a fully fledged antihero, as opposed to the will he/won't he tension from Pitch Black. I enjoy the character best as an antihero, thus I preferred Chronicles.
The Necromongers were set up as cult-like, brainwashing, planet killers. That was enough for me to see them as villainous.
I didn't see the newer Riddick, although you're the first person I've heard that said something good about it.
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I have a love hate relationship with chronicles of Riddick. I love the Riddick character and could watch him escape prisons and kill ruthless bounty hunters forever. The whole necromonger thing wasn't great at all. I'm not sure if it needed to be developed more or just dropped completely. For chronicles, I think it was a real weak point of the film. In fact, the only parts I like are bounty hunter Tunes(sp?) and the prison escape. The third movie Riddick is a complete rehash of Pitch but I loved it because they stuck to the basics which in my opinion made it better than Chronicles.
Whereas I liked Chronicles because it used Riddick from start to finish as a fully fledged antihero, as opposed to the will he/won't he tension from Pitch Black. I enjoy the character best as an antihero, thus I preferred Chronicles.
The Necromongers were set up as cult-like, brainwashing, planet killers. That was enough for me to see them as villainous.
I didn't see the newer Riddick, although you're the first person I've heard that said something good about it.
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One popular choice I'm gonna disagree with is Army of Darkness. In fact, I'll extend that further and say that the original The Evil Dead is better than both of it's sequels.
I also like the original films in the Terminator and Alien franchises better than any of their sequels.
On the other side of the coin, every single Star Trek movie (as well as every single episode from ANY of the series) is better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Most movies are better than their sequels. The question isn't whether the sequel is better, but whether it is good enough to be remembered and appreciated for a movie in its own.
Evil Dead and Army of Darkness are so different that it is hard to judge one against the other. As a farce and a satire, Army of Darkness is one of the best in its category IMO
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On the other side of the coin, every single Star Trek movie (as well as every single episode from ANY of the series) is better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture.Two words: "Spock's Brain"
It's bad, but at least it's somewhat entertainingly bad. TMP is just soul-crushingly BORING. Which is the worst sin a film can commit, in my opinion.
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In my opinion, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the best of the Sergio Leon spaghetti western trio. The others lean more heavily on , while intensifying the violence of, standard western tropes -- but TGTB&TU expands outwards and builds this whole fantasy west in an almost archetypal pastoral that is like no other western.
The "Ecstasy of Gold" theme, "The Good's" theme (Dadadadada...Wa-waaa-wa), and the standoff scene are right up there with the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin as a defining moment of cinema.
I also agree that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is better than the other two films that precede it. The 4th Indiana Jones film...<shudder!>
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I have a love hate relationship with chronicles of Riddick. I love the Riddick character and could watch him escape prisons and kill ruthless bounty hunters forever. The whole necromonger thing wasn't great at all. I'm not sure if it needed to be developed more or just dropped completely. For chronicles, I think it was a real weak point of the film. In fact, the only parts I like are bounty hunter Tunes(sp?) and the prison escape. The third movie Riddick is a complete rehash of Pitch but I loved it because they stuck to the basics which in my opinion made it better than Chronicles.
Whereas I liked Chronicles because it used Riddick from start to finish as a fully fledged antihero, as opposed to the will he/won't he tension from Pitch Black. I enjoy the character best as an antihero, thus I preferred Chronicles.
The Necromongers were set up as cult-like, brainwashing, planet killers. That was enough for me to see them as villainous.
I didn't see the newer Riddick, although you're the first person I've heard that said something good about it.
I love the entire Riddick series, each for their own reasons. All of them are really individual pieces that have story lines and sub-genres of their own. The links between Pitch Black, Slam City, Into Pitch Black, Dark Fury, Chronicles, and Riddick were all made with only the main character in similarity (that, and his killing people and escaping places). Same with the two video games. Each installment belongs in a different sub-genre of the scifi action flicks. From suspense to world saving to survivalist to standard action to revenge flick to American amine - each one really is its own thing. And I do love them all - ever since I saw Pitch Black in the theaters 15 years ago and recorded on VHS the Into Pitch Black scifi channel special released a week before the movie premiered in theaters (that's the SciFi channel, before they became the SyFy channel).
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In my opinion, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the best of the Sergio Leon spaghetti western trio. The others lean more heavily on , while intensifying the violence of, standard western tropes -- but TGTB&TU expands outwards and builds this whole fantasy west in an almost archetypal pastoral that is like no other western.
The "Ecstasy of Gold" theme, "The Good's" theme (Dadadadada...Wa-waaa-wa), and the standoff scene are right up there with the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin as a defining moment of cinema.
I also agree that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is better than the other two films that precede it. The 4th Indiana Jones film...<shudder!>
I agree the The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was the best in the trilogy. However, Fistful was an adaption from Japanese story Yojimbo which made it uniquely not typical western trope. The sequel Few More though fits that description well. Also, agree with your assessment of TGTBTU.
While I really enjoyed the first three Indy films, I still feel like Raiders was the best. I enjoy Temple and while not the best Indy film it takes more flack then it deserves. There is no amount of vitriol that is too much for crystal skull.