20 sequels that were better than the original

[Forkboy]

Sequels are all too often dismissed by cineastes as being recycled piffle for the great unwashed. Movies with a number in the title rarely win awards, but we, the great unwashed, keep going to see them. Why? Because they’re great: Here are 20 movies that were at least as good as, if not better than, the first in the series.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5614273.ece

[blue_onyx]

1. One they didn't mention...

I think Toy Story 2 was better than the original.

[Deja Q]

2. Why?

Bill& Ted were crap to begin with.

Superman II was good, but has a few more plot loopholes than I had. I seemed to have a little more depth. Still, II is not without its merits. Pity III and IV were such garbage. :(

No arguing "From Russia with Love" or "Star Trek II" or "Aliens" or "Terminator 2". Or "The Empre Strikes Back".

What makes sequels so much better than their progenitors? Simple: Something new, innovative, and confident. Not more of the same. Superman IV was II remade. III was garbage. Trek V was as campy as Trek IV, without a proper fish-out-of-water context, much less anything innovative. The original Star Wars only had pretty effects; the actual plot was very heckle-worthy. T2 added a lot of innovations to the lore, and convincingly.

[frylock]

3. i couldn't help but notice that meatballs ii was missing from the list..

that should be corrected.

[exboyfil]

4. Done right Wall Street 2 is going to make a mint

I love the title, "Money Never Sleeps".

Spider-Man II was better than I (II is the second best superhero movie ever made next to Dark Knight)
X-Men II is better than I (this is close though)
Whatever came before Thunderball is weaker than Thunderball (the best Bond flick). Of course if we only had Sean Connery in Her Majesties Secret Service that would be the best Bond ever

I don't agree with some of the sequels

Back to the Future II is not better than I - I thought II was the weakest of the bunch
Godfather II is as good as I but not better
Magnum Force better than Dirty Harry??? What the villian in Dirty Harry may be the greatest one ever
Dawn of the Dead better than Night??? Night is the only movie that truly scared me as a teenager

Alien/Aliens is a push. They are entirely different movies, but equivalent in quality
Star Wars/Empire - Empire is the best Star Wars movie of the six but Star Wars is the second best.

I would measure by the biggest improvement between two movies:
Star Trek I/Wrath of Khan (I was not very good)
Mad Max/Road Warrior (1 was made on a limited budget but still a good flick)
Terminator I/Terminator II (alot like Mad Max with the original being a good flick but limited budget)
Dark Knight/Batman Begins (only because Dark Knight is the best superhero film ever and possibly one of the best action movies ever made - Begins is a great movie in its own right)

[YOY]

5. Well apparently I'm not the only one who liked "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" better than the first.

Then again the lampooning of Seventh Seal and Dante's Inferno were more than the average watcher caught.

"This is Hell?"
"Dude we got TOTALLY lied to by our album covers."

Perhaps the perfect role for Keanu...sad that you don't see Alex Winters in much any more. Funny guy...about 100 times more than Keanu.

[4lbs]

6. I agree with "Aliens", but the extended DC of that movie was even better still!

An extra 20 minutes of storyline that really fleshes out the movie.

[Onceuponalife]

7. that list is crap

Bill & Ted, Superman II, BTTF 2 all wrong. Bogus Journey and BTTF 2 are garbage. The original Superman is a classic. The original Terminator also is best of that series. Godfather part II is an obvious pick. And Army of Darkness was the best Evil Dead flick.

[Scatterheart]

8. ALIENS better than ALIEN?

Heresy!!!

BABE: PIG IN THE CITY is one of the best examples of a sequel that surpasses the original, but no one seems to remember it anymore. Alas...

I wonder if Forkboy would agree with me that Shusuke Kaneko's GMK surpasses--or at least equals--its original film? :P

[Forkboy]

9. It doesn't equal or surpass it, but it is my 2nd favorite of them all.

This pains me to say as a Godzilla fan, but parts 2 and 3 of Kaneko's Gamera trilogy from the 90's are better than GMK. Shinji Higuchi's special effects are fantastic in all three parts, but especially in 2 and 3. The only thing he did in GMK was the part where Godzilla blasts the fighters out of the sky. GMK still has the best effects in the entire G series, but I wish Higuchi could have done it all.

I do love the fact that Godzilla is an evil prick in GMK, and I'd love to see that taken even further. Loved the all white eyes! This pic used to scare my ex-wife. :evilgrin:



I still have to put the original Gojira above them all. It works on more levels than just a horror/sci-fi movie. It's one of the first real anti-war films, and the Japanese version is great. GMK is better than the American version with Raymond Burr though.

A cool pic from Gamera 3, just because it's handy. :D

[Scatterheart]

10. Oh, yes--GAMERA 3 is brilliant.

Not much of a kaiju eiga fan myself, but I am a big fan of director Mamoru Oshii, and his frequent writer Kazunori Ito, who wrote the GAMERA trilogy, so I had to see it. GOTU was fun, ADVENT OF LEGION was thrilling, but when I got to GAMERA 3, I just had to sit back and go :wow:. You know a film is brilliant when the ending is powerful enough to move you emotionally, even though it's centered around a giant fire-breathing turtle... that flys. So naturally, I had to see GMK, which doesnt compare, but is a very entertaining film on its own. I respect the original GOJIRA a lot--it actually took me by surprise and frightened me during the initial landfall in Tokyo, with the trains. It has brilliant cinematography and a great score, but the characters are cardboard and the science howlingly bad. Kaneko fixed both problems, which kill most of the series before and since, by creating characters you can care for and replacing bad science with a fantasy element.

[Forkboy]

11. Have you seen the original Japanese version of Godzilla?

40 minutes of it was cut out to make room for the Raymond Burr scenes in the American version, and almost all of that footage is the three main characters (almost all references to the atomic bomb were excised as well, in what many feel was a political move). The characters get fleshed out a lot more, and when Emiko has to betray Dr. Serizawa and reveal his secret it packs more of a punch because of it. In the American version all the characters are basically what you'd see in any big monster on the loose movie. It's still a good movie, but the original version is a lot more somber.

Gamera 3 is probably the best one I've seen, if for no other reason than the special effects match Hollywood (with the exception of Iris as a small alien, which was ok). The girl in the series who can communicate with Gamera is Steven Seagal's daughter. Go figure. The final battle is amazing, and like you say, when you feel emotion for a flying turtle the filmmakers had to have done something right. :)

[Scatterheart]

12. Oh, yes, I was referring to the original version.

I even got to see GOJIRA in the cinema when Rialto rereleased it a few years ago. It's an excellent film, but I cringe whenever the older scientist says dinosaurs lived 3 million years ago, and at the circular dialogue, and the wooden performances. GAMERA 3 has excellent effects, but it also has a complex, interesting plot, characters with depth, and a thematic richness the Gojira films lack. It's also refreshingly female centric--all the principal characters who move the plot forward are women (and Asakura Mito's rather effeminite assistant!). I used to have the mediocre boxset ADV put out of the trilogy, before this wretched economy forced me to sell my DVD collection. I miss it so!

[Forkboy]

13. Yeah, the science is hilariously bad.

I miss the fifties where radiation caused everything. :)

I agree about the females in the Gamera movies. Many of the newer G films have had strong female leads too (G vs Megaguiras, G vs Mechagodzilla), and through the 90's run of G movies they had a running character who was a female psychic, sometimes playing a small role in the film and other times the main role. Her character was the only string that tied all the 90's movies together (and is still my favorite character from the run).

One of the Classic Media Godzilla DVDs has a feature on the woman in G films, and one of the commentaries go into it as well. In many ways Toho was ahead of the game, and they often had stronger female characters than many other pictures at the time. Even when the female character isn't necessarily a "strong" female role, they often do something in the movie that saves the day. In Mothra vs Godzilla it's the inexperienced female photog that convinces the natives to let Mothra help after the men's argument fails, and in Invasion of Astro Monster the female alien gives the humans the secret to defeating them.

I'd love to see an actual run down of female characters in sci-fi throughout history. It tends to have stronger female characters than other genres as a whole, at least to me.

[onager]

14. Have to Strongly Quibble with one choice.

From Russia With Love wasn't a sequel, just the second James Bond film (and novel). It was completely severed from the first, i.e., absolutely no story elements carried over from Dr. No. The first movie was classic mad-scientist-run-amok, the second had the Russians embedding...cough...a female spy with Bond.

As opposed to Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace, where you really needed to know the Vesper Lynd back-story in the first movie to appreciate the second. Making QoS a definite sequel, at least IMO.

For a great book about the Bond novels/movies, pick up The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond by Simon Winder. A hilarious, affectionate and often scathing look at Bond-World through the eyes of a young fan, looking back as an adult in the 21st century.

[Forkboy]

15. That book sounds good.

I'll look for it.

I read a ton of the Bond books as a kid (even many non Fleming ones later on...some aren't too bad), but never in order so I wouldn't have known which was a sequel or not anyways.

And I have more than one quibble with the list, but that's what these lists are for. :)