Sequels make us forget how great the originals were

[JuntMonkey]

Back to the Future II's plot is insanely twisty and intricate.

In general I'm against the idea that sequels actually "ruin" the originals, although there are a couple that bother me.

One is Another 48 Hrs. Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want major spoilers for either movie. At the end of 48 Hrs. you've got a pretty good feeling...Murphy and Nolte have become "friends" to an extent and will probably see each other in the future, and Murphy has 6 more easy months of jail time to serve and then has half a million dollars waiting for him safely. Then in the sequel it turns out that Murphy got his sentence extended for bad behavior (something like 5 more years), Nolte never visited or talked to him, they're both miserable again, plus I could be wrong but I think one of the nice cop extras from part one turns out to be the secret villain in part two. So it's not the quality of the movie as much as the fact that they destroyed the natural trajectory of where part one was "supposed" to go and they leave you with a bad feeling.

Rocky II-V are borderline, although I will admit that I have not seen any of them in their entirety in over a decade. The sequels completely undermine the meaning of the original. Rocky is a very good fighter, but he is not world-class. He is able to "go the distance" in the Apollo fight largely because Creed was out of shape and had not been training, plus just balls-to-the-wall heart. He was a bum who finally rises to the occasion, but by no means is he a fantastic fighter. Then there's the line at the end of the fight as the fighters embrace, Apollo says "ain't gonna be no rematch..." and Rocky says, "don't want one."

Winning wasn't the point and it never was.

In a realistic rematch against Creed, Balboa would be slaughtered. Beating Drago is completely ludicrous.

However, Rocky Balboa does an excellent job of bringing the series full circle, is largely a remake of the first with the "hook" being "over-the-hill boxer in his 50's gets a shot at the champ" rather than "amateur boxer gets a shot at the champ", treats the fight realistically, and since Balboa can't happen without all the events of II-V happening, Balboa makes them forgivable.

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
HOORAY, beer!

[/ QUOTE ]

HOORAY!

[bernie]

There was a thread, probably around when the trailer for Balboa came out that went into the Rocky movies.

Imo, I'd get 1-2-5-6 and you pretty much get the story. 5, as you say, was just ridicoulous and 3, although flashy, was sort of a throwaway for the story.

I was very suprised at how much I liked Balboa. It was like going through the past with an old friend that I hadn't really seen since Rocky 2.

b

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not saying sequels are a bad thing. I'm just saying that "Police Academy" might be remembered as a comedy classic, if it wasn't turned into a crappy "franchise".

Imagine if there were nine awful sequels of "Animal House". The original would certainly lose much of its luster.

(And now I'm going to have to watch the McFly sequels.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you bring up a great point about franchising. Alot of the whatever part 8s usually had pretty good originals. But then they just turn into parodies of themselves. But once in awhile a good flick sneaks in among them. Like Halloween H2O was suprisingly good, imo. Also had a great spot for an ending to the series. So much for that... [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

b

[Quadstriker]

[ QUOTE ]

(Believe it or not, I never watched any of the "Back to the Future" sequels--and in a way, I'm glad of it.)


[/ QUOTE ]

Then you really should leave it out of your opening statement, because the sequels are great too. Lumping BttF in with others here is silly and weakens your whole point. Go watch them today. I expect a "OMG Back to the Future is awesome!1!11" post later. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[diebitter]

The worst sequel ever just has to be Highlander 2, it's just terrible.

But, to be fair, some sequels improve and expand the original. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (some people say it's not a sequel at all, but we'll not quibble), Aliens, Godfather 2, From Russia With Love (though it's hard to think of Bond movies as 'sequels'), Evil Dead 2 and then Army of Darkness... all fantastic films.

Even some of the cheesy horror sequels are terrific entertainment...Nightmare of Elm St 2 has a massively weird homoerotic subtext that they jettisoned afterwards, but still an interesting film; Jason X is the one great film out of the dire Friday 13th series, Bride of Chucky is pretty good, and so on.


And do yourself a favour and watch BTTF2 + 3. 2 is a little disjointed, but 3 is a terrific movie, just as good as the first one.


PS. I have argued it before so won't go over it again, but Rocky 4 is the best Rocky film. I think Rocky's come it 2 flavours, the character-based good movie, as with Rocky 1,2,6, and the fighting/training the invincible monster type, as with 3 and 4. The less said about 5 the better.

[flatline]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Matrix sequels. Many of the movies being discussed (Rocky, Godfather) had sub-par sequels, but the sequels didn't drag down the original movies in any significant way. However, with the Matrix, the first movie left you with a ton of interesting questions, which you imagined would have awesome answers like things did in the first film. However, the answers that the sequel provided (and the way in which they were provided) were lamer than most could have imagined and it was so bad that it actually makes the first movie worse. This would seemingly also apply to Highlander 2, though, thankfully, I have never seen it.

[Quadstriker]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't believe no one has mentioned the Matrix sequels. Many of the movies being discussed (Rocky, Godfather) had sub-par sequels, but the sequels didn't drag down the original movies in any significant way. However, with the Matrix, the first movie left you with a ton of interesting questions, which you imagined would have awesome answers like things did in the first film. However, the answers that the sequel provided (and the way in which they were provided) were lamer than most could have imagined and it was so bad that it actually makes the first movie worse. This would seemingly also apply to Highlander 2, though, thankfully, I have never seen it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good call on The Matrix. I highly enjoyed the first one, and I think the second could go on that list of greatest disappointments. I was so let down. I couldn't bear to ever watch the third.

[Blarg]

Yeah, the first movie was a huge phenomenon with tremendous presence, and the sequels sank it hard.

[J.A.K.]

Silence of the Lambs fits here, IMO.

That last installment, Hannibal Rising , is not in the same universe. Easily the worst movie I have seen in the last 5 years, if not my life.

Although Hannibal (2nd installment) did give us: "...cornpone country pussy.." and "... good old trailer camp tornado bait white trash..."