Film Sequels as Good as (Or Higher Than) the Unique

Creator: Simon Braund

Edited By: David Reddish

Broadly talking, moviemakers can strategy film sequels in one among two methods: both a welcome alternative to savor the antics of beloved characters in a contemporary setting or a cynical ploy to exploit a money cow till its udders give out or filmgoers develop lactose intolerance.

So why do audiences endure so many terrible film sequels? Repetition performs an element, as does stretching materials too skinny, subbing in “alternate” (i.e., inferior) expertise, waning inventive momentum, and the entire cow/udder/intolerance factor.

Often although, film sequels escape the shadow of their forebears, pinpointing what made the unique tick and refashioning it into one thing glowing and new. Within the restricted sphere of honorable sequels, it commonplace for a down-the-line franchise entry to prime a mediocre #2 or #3.

Some (because the record beneath reveals) even go the additional mile, thumbing their noses on the legislation of diminishing returns to finest the unique itself.

The Godfather Half 2 (1974)

The fundamental brilliance of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather lay in remodeling novelist Mario Puzo’s overwrought mafia potboiler into an epic household drama. The movie’s story wrestled with the large problems with energy and corruption whereas preserving the sensationalism and mob-movie clichés firmly on the down-low.

Freed totally from the supply novel (though Puzo co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola) Half 2 expands the saga’s scope in all instructions, introducing a lethal rift throughout the household because the Corleone empire branches out into the powder keg of pre-revolution Cuba. It additionally juxtaposes the narrative arcs and inverse ethical imperatives that drive Don Corleone’s rise to energy in turn-of-the-century New York along with his inheritor Michael’s descent into paranoid megalomania in Fifties Nevada.

Toy Stoy 3 (2010)

There’s nothing improper with Toy Story 2; it’s humorous, intelligent, and transferring. It might’ve cruised onto this record if not for Toy Story 3, which is even funnier, cleverer, and intensely transferring.

Saved from straight-to-DVD ignominy by Pixar honcho John Lassiter taking the reins at Disney Animation, it finds Woody, Buzz, and the gang deserted at a sinister daycare middle when Andy leaves for school. Decided to flee, they embark on their most ingeniously plotted and threatening journey.

Issues get so furry that at a sure level, viewers actually consider the top for the toys is at hand. And with no foreknowledge of the (wholly pointless) fourth installment, it makes good, horrible sense. It’s a devastating second, bringing dwelling simply how emotionally connected audiences develop into to those characters. Name it one of the crucial astonishing film sequels ever.

Aliens (1986)

The right way to comply with Ridley Scott’s faultless haunted-house-in-space flick? Extra of the identical can be most filmmakers’ M.O.

James Cameron, nonetheless, just isn’t “most” filmmakers, and nor have tense claustrophobic thrillers ever match his sensibility. However nonetheless, the Terminator director’s determination to make his Alien follow-up an unabashed motion extravaganza – as sprawling and cacophonous as Alien was downbeat and self-contained – counts as a stroke of genius.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Boris Karloff reprises his iconic function because the Monster on this unusual and great sequel to James Whale’s seminal 1931 Frankenstein. Right here, he brings but extra pathos to the unlucky creature, cruelly spurned even by the mate who was actually made for him.

Elsa Lanchester cuts nearly as iconic a determine as “the bride,” her ear-piercing shriek when first laying eyes on her betrothed a traditional second in horror historical past.

The Empire Strikes Again (1980)

Episode IV is the place all the things started, the wellspring for each aspect within the huge and ever-expanding Star Wars Universe. However the follow-up outranks it. Darker, leaner, extra emotionally partaking, the saga takes maintain right here.

Attracting combined opinions on launch, critics now rightly regard it as a masterpiece. Empire not solely launched Yoda, Lando Calrissian, and Boba Fett (not counting the SW Vacation Particular, and why would anybody?), but in addition options the awe-inspiring Battle of Hoth, arguably the best motion sequence in the complete franchise, and  Vader delivers his shattering revelation to Luke.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

As soon as requested by a journalist whether or not he’d ever heard the phrase “much less is extra,” James Cameron roared again: “Extra is all the time extra, and an excessive amount of isn’t sufficient!” (or phrases to that impact).

A sensory onslaught of cutting-edge digital results and jaw-dropping old-school motion – together with the preposterously formidable truck/Harley chase sequence within the dried-up mattress of the L.A. river – T2 makes that maxim flesh.

The Darkish Knight (2008)

Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins sequel set the superhero film on a brand new footing. A tough-edged crime drama with a satirical, political backdrop, its portrayal of the Caped Crusader as a flawed human being. Within the sequel, Nolan’s Batman turned a dispenser of brutal vigilante justice relatively than a sainted avenging angel, and the director mined the anomaly of the character greater than any display screen model – even Nolan’s personal – had dared to do earlier than.

The comic-book film got here of age with The Darkish Knight – and that’s with out even mentioning Heath Ledger’s definitive flip as The Joker, a one-man tour-de-force that steals the present even on this firm.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Described as a “Cathedral” of a film by Harrison Ford himself, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner sequel is, certainly, one thing miraculous: a movie that totally evokes the spirit of its forebear, matching, if not outstripping it in each visible magnificence and philosophical complexity.

Name it the most effective sci-fi motion pictures of the century.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star Trek The Movement Image may’ve set the bar low, besides, Khan smashes it due to a stronger storyline, a sharper script, and an unforgettable efficiency from Ricardo Montalban because the genetically engineered warlord of the title.

Wrath of Khan improved a lot on its lackluster predecessor that it not solely ensured the way forward for the big-screen franchise however in all probability saved the TV present, too. It paved the best way for the wealthy bounty of spin-offs and reboots that adopted. Very a lot a case of Khan-do!

Evil Lifeless 2: Lifeless by Daybreak (1987)

Much less a second chapter within the Evil Lifeless trilogy and greater than an embellished remake, writer-director Sam Raimi’s demented horror-comedy ramps up each parts to fever pitch and past.

The film retains the ultra-gory gags coming thick and quick, every one topping the final.

“There are horror motion pictures,” wrote Hal Boedeker in The Miami Herald. “After which there’s this factor.”

Batman Returns (1992)

Gotham goes full gothic in Tim Burton’s macabre follow-up to 1989’s Batman.

With Michael Keaton’s ever-underrated Caped Crusader takes on Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, a feline femme fatale in spray-on latex, and Danny DeVito’s vile but oddly sympathetic Penguin–a extra rounded and satisfying villain than Jack Nicholson’s pantomime Joker.

Paddington 2 (2017)

Each bit as charming and enjoyable as the unique, Paddington’s second chunk on the cinematic marmalade sandwich has an ace up its sleeve. He’s Hugh Grant, leaning laborious into his post-heartthrob sleazeball persona as washed-up-matinee-idol-turned-camp-as-Christmas-baddie Phoenix Buchanan.

That includes excellent plot and bodily comedy our ursine hero will get falsely accused of stealing a priceless artefact meant as a present for Aunt Lucy’s 100^th birthday. “The Godfather Half II of Peruvian bear motion pictures,” as The Wall Road Journal’s Joe Morgenstern put it.

Mad Max: The Highway Warrior (1981)

Throwing typical notions of plot, character, and film sequels to the wind, writer-director George Miller takes the most effective auto-destruct bits of 1979’s Mad Max, injects them with a man-sized dose of steroids.

That Miller’s terrific 2015 reboot, Max Max: Fury Highway, owes extra to The Highway Warrior than the unique speaks volumes.

Earlier than Midnight (2013)

The third installment of Richard Linklater’s decades-spanning romantic two-header finds Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) in a chatty and contemplative temper, this time amid the visible splendor of Greece.

The undertow of melancholy and remorse that solely develops after a relationship has been across the block a number of occasions units Midnight aside from different film sequels. Taken collectively, Linklater’s trilogy constitutes a masterpiece, however that is the heartrending cherry on the cake.

Mission: Not possible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

The later Mission: Not possible film sequels (Rogue Nation, Fallout, Lifeless Reckoning, et al.) are all ingeniously well-plotted, action-packed, and paced at breakneck velocity.

Nonetheless, Ghost Protocol stands out if just for the scenes in Dubai of Tom Cruise clinging to the surface of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest constructing, and a stringent check of 1’s mettle even on the proper facet of the glass. Name it one of many tensest, most brilliantly staged and executed set-pieces in fashionable cinema.

After the Skinny Man (1936)

Cocktail-swilling society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles are as urbanely amusing as ever on this glowing murder-mystery follow-up to 1934’s The Skinny Man.

It doesn’t enhance on the unique, however solely as a result of no one can enhance perfection.

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

One other case of third time’s a attraction, Paul Greengrass’ movie sees all the things proper in regards to the Bourne collection coalesce. Criticized on the time for perceived over-use of “shaky-cam,” rapid-fire modifying, and the staging of the motion (significantly the bruising, staccato battle scenes) it nonetheless modified the sport perpetually.

The movie additionally boasts a robust contender for the most effective automobile chase ever dedicated to celluloid.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

A continuous parade of eye-popping set-pieces, Sam Raimi’s excellent sequel earns its stripes for a wonderfully judged balancing act, inserting equal emphasis on Peter Parker’s irksome non-public life (he’s failing at school, he can’t get a date) and the workaday pressures of adolescent superherodom.

Within the first rank of contemporary comic-book motion pictures, Spidey 2 feels all of the extra treasured in mild of Raimi’s overstuffed crash-and-burn third installment.

The Good, the Dangerous and the Ugly (1966)

By the point Sergio Leone received round to this, the third in his seminal {Dollars} Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns, he had honed his signature model to some extent simply shy of self-parody.

The longueurs are longer, the close-ups nearer, the stylization extra excessive, and the stress, particularly within the climactic three-way Mexican stand-off, extra agonizing. The general impact, enhanced by Ennio Morricone’s haunting rating, replete with whistling, yodeling, and ricocheting gunfire, feels gloriously immersive.

The Colour of Cash (1986)

Martin Scorsese’s follow-up to 1961’s The Hustler finds pool shark Quick Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) thirty years on from his glory days, seeking to get again in motion by mentoring a cocky upstart (Tom Cruise) in whom he sees a lot of his youthful self.

If not Scorsese’s finest movie, Cash nonetheless makes a main instance of a long-distance sequel. It views the identical underworld of gamblers, hustlers, and lowlifes as the unique by its personal modern lens. The performances from Cruise, Newman (bagging his solely Finest Actor Oscar), and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are excellent, the camerawork stressed and ingenious, and the motion on the tables mesmerizing, even for viewers that wouldn’t know a nine-ball from a nine-inch nail.

—

This publish was beforehand revealed on Wealth of Geeks.

***

—

Picture credit score: iStock