Almost as certain as the summer following the spring, sequels are usually disappointing. The list of bad sequels runs as deep as the mighty river my friends. However, every once in a while a sequel comes out that not only meets the quality of the first film, but by far exceeds it.
I started thinking about this earlier when I saw The Chronicles of Riddick in the video store. I absolutely HATED Pitch Black. I thought it was pure garbage from start to finish. So imagine my surprise when I ended up not minding Riddick. Don’t get me wrong, Riddick isn’t exactly a great movie… but it was much better than it’s predecessor.
Some other films that for me fall under the category of sequels that clearly exceeded the originals are:
Toy Story 2 – I did enjoy Toy Story 1 quite a bit, but 2 just outdid it in almost every aspect for me. No contest to me which of the 2 was better.
Rush Hour 2 – I didn’t really like the first Rush Hour too much… I didn’t hate it, but didn’t dig it either. Rush Hour 2 had me howling the whole time despite the fact that I find Christ Tucker almost as annoying as the Scottish. :)
Blade 2 – The ending of the first Blade totally ruined the film for me. I was quite pleased to see Blade 2 realized all it was good for was hackin slashin fun…. and it delivered.
X-Men 2 – Ok, now some would say that the first X-Men was too good to fall into this category, and I agree… but I just think X-Men 2 was that much better. I’m nervous to see where it will go without Bryan Singer at the helm
Aliens – Ya ya I know. Many of you are swearing at me. But seriously, while the original Alien was kinda neat, and pretty scary, I would say it was a decent 6 out of 10. But holy smokes Aliens blew your socks off right from the opening frame. Still one of my favorite Sci-Fi flicks.
Ok, so that’s my little list for your approval. Agree? Disagree? Wht are some other good ones that belong on this list?
Pitched Black was the best movie iv ever seen Vin Desil in, there wasnt a single part of it i didnt like. But the Chronicles of Riddick was horrendous. I wouldnt have even watched it if it didnt have VD in it. It had almost nothing to do with the first one, even the human space ships didnt look anything like the first, and Riddick is way to soft in the second one,AND WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE NECROMONGERS, HOW DOSE IT GO FROM MOSTERS TO BADGUYS WITH SUPERNATURAL DEMONIC POWERS!!!!!!!!
HOW THE F*** COULD YOU NOT LIKE PITCHED BLACK, I EXPECTED MORE OUT OF YOU JOHN!?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!???!!???
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BTW Chun, yes. I am one of the few who thinks that Spiderman 2 is suprisingly better than the first. What I thought was really interesting was that Raimi found a way to dig deeper into the characters. So much so, that as a grown man, I actually felt a tear in my eye when the people on that train carried Spiderman’s body, cared for him, returned his mask, and let him know that they would all keep his identity secret. Man, that was almost too much for me. So I really felt for the characters much more than I did in the first one.
Well, I thought the Exorcist 2 was much better than the first one…………. ok, i’m not that retarded. However, might anyone here think that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was better than The Fellowship or is it too close to call?
Also, I thought the Bourne Supremacy was slightly better than the Bourne Identity. Some of the sequels are just too close to call.
I thougt Spiderman 2 was better than the prequel.. Anyone agree?
I agree about the Drunken Master..
Alien is in another league. Aliens a good action flick but far far from the quality of mr. Scotts movie.
Sister Act was absolutely dreadful, but Sister Act II was only moderately appalling. Does that qualify?
John, why did you leave out Empire Strikes Back, unless of course you didnt feel it was better than A New Hope?
I agree with X-Men II. What about The Godfather II?
Hey Tom.
My problem with the ending of the first Blade was it went all to Hell and away from the feel of the rest of the film.
Blade was the first movie (that I’ve seen anyway) that explained Vampires in scientific terms. It’s a virus… and they explained the needs for blood in scientific way… it was REALLY cool… and then they got into all that “Blood God” stupidity and they totally lost me.
Meh… oh well… that’s just my opinion.
What the hell’s wrong with the end of Blade?
Blade was clearly better than Blade 2. Somehow Blade was the first “Matrix” movie even before the Matrix. Seen from a stylistic standpoint.
know what I mean?
I also think that Alien is way better than Aliens and that X-Men was a more intimate film than X-Men 2 and therefor better. The original Toy Story is better than Toy Story 2 and Riddick looks like some D&D wanna be movie that surely isn’t going to be much fun as Pitch Black. And while we’re at it. I even thought that Rush Hour was more entertaining that its sequel.
Wow… I don’t agree with a single statement you made within this post
blade 1 was better than blade 2 in my books.
The ending of blade 2 was the worst.
Romance with a vampire – – ouch.
I like the road warrior far better than mad max.
The road warrior is one of my favorites.
Two miles down the road I saw a rig big enough to haul that tanker. You wanna get outta here, talk to me.
I know that everyone thinks The Incredible is setting up a franchise. Of all their movies, this one sets up for sequels best. It is hard to imagine anything being better than The Incredibles except, maybe The Incredibles II.
jen
Also, if you liked either of the Riddick movies, you may also like Dark Fury – the animated short film by Peter Chung (yes, Aeon Flux) that fits between the two movies. It’s really good.
Riddick is biggest pice of SHIT to ever be seen on big screen. I’m trying flame, I really mean it they renamem the movie to The Chronicles of plot devices. This movie doesn’t know if it wants to be jail break movie or a save the planet movie. Then it ends pretentiously and I wasted two hours of life. However you are right about Toy Story 2. It’s the perfect movie
Yeah, I’m with everyone else about the Pitch Black thing. I loved that movie. I liked Chronicles of Riddick, but Pitch Black was better.
I completely agree with you about Aliens, though. However, there’s something to be said for Adam Fields’ assertion that Alien was a completely different kind of movie. But I can still say I like apples better than oranges (except with juice, then switch em), so I like Aliens better than Alien.
As far as superhero movies go, Spider-man 2 might have been better, but it’s really close. X-men 2 was better than the first, though.
Star Trek 2 was way better than the first one. And Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Star Wars films.
I say BS, Pitch Black was darker, scarier, had more sense of being lost, with no hope, which made for a great movie, plus along with that Riddick was a lot darker as a character.
Evil Dead 2
Really, John, you don’t watch many movies, do you?
Well, Spiderman 2 is clearly better than the original.
I obviously disagree on the Alien one. The first Alien surpasses all sequels by far.
Attack of the Clones is better than the Phantom Menace… though I find BOTH funny and entertaining. Episode III wil kick ass.
Going back to the past… Ivan the Terrible II was somewhat better than the first, and that also goes for Testament of Dr. Mabuse, from Fritz Lang, which was better than the original Mabuse.
Scary Movie films are funnier with every sequel. The third one is actually the best of the series.
I found Dr. Quatermass sequels even as interesting as the first one.
Bride of Frankenstein, by James Whale, is definetely better than the first.
And clearly Older Women Younger Women 2 is the best sequel ever made.
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Oh, and I don’t even know where to begin to start with the fact that you didn’t like Pitch Black.
Hey! I liked Drop Dead Fred!
I think the main post is confusing “bigger” with “better”. Aliens was not “better” than Alien – it was a totally different kind of movie.
Same thing for X-Men 2 – while they were both superhero ensemble movies, the second had to do much less setup, by virtue of being, well, second.
You forgot Poland, er, The Godfather II.
Also Evil Dead 2.
Ok…I love your blog you are on my rss reader. Thanks for all the great work.
First I totally think you have got to stop and check your carbon monoxide monitor because you are obviously altered! :) J/K
Blade 2 was a steaming pile of doo doo. First off, do not make me mad and kill of Donny Wong before I get to see his awesome greatness fight and fight again.
It was gross and bleh. The story was horrible and I was majorly let down. The end of the first one was not great, but the rest of the film was so great. I loved Deacon Frost and that is what was missing in the second film. There was no Deacon.
I totally agree with you on everything else. I loved Aliens and it is one of my all time favorites as well. I agree with the previous commenter that Empire Strikes back is still to date the Best of the Star Wars.
Kill Bill Vol 2 was better than the first, but the first was brilliant. I have only two words..Hatori Hanzo.
Harry Potter 3 is the best to date if only because it actually has acting in it and Gary Oldman is fantastic.
Jurrasic Park III was as good if not better than the first and well, Barney’s Great Adventure is better than Lost World.
Christmas Vacation is the Best of all the Vacation films.
Also, Terminator II is as good or better than the first. Third one was better than I thought it would be, but not as good. Too long of a gap.
One last film(s): The Pink Panther Movies just got better with each installment.
Last word: In all fairness, i am sort of a weirdo… I liked Drop Dead Fred :)
-jen
Hmm,
To go back into the old asian martial arts films, but
The Legend of the Drunkmaster (Jackie Chan)
far surpased the
Drunken Master.
Though Drunken Master was released to the American public after the LoTDM, in China it came out after DM.
Xun.
Other ones that would seem obvious to me:
Star Trek II Wrath of Kahn and Superman II
Um, you forgot the most obvious one: Empire Strikes Back.