Sequels that have ruined the original.. (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

Someone asked "how can one film (sequel) ruin the original"
It's like this:
I love Highlander (the original) but I cannot discuss with anyone Highlander without either thinking of the crappy sequels myself or having someone reference it. A sequel builds on the good will of the original, and a bad sequel can taint that original because it can change the way you view the original film.
Some sequels cna change the meaning of the original film (see Back to the Future) which is sometimes OK (I liked the way Back to the Future did it) sometimes not OK (see: Gremlins sequels, Highlander) in which you now know more about the purported "history" of a character and so now they have, in effect, changed the point of the original (in some ways, the same could be said of 2010)
Some sequels amount to going back and drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa, IMHO That's the point of the thread.. what sequels do that for you

 

[Roberto Carlo]

Someone asked "how can one film (sequel) ruin the original"

It's gratifying to find that others feel about Aliens3 the way that I do. To answer the question, a pure exploitative sequel probably can't ruin the original. But if the original, like Highlander or even MIB, had a self-contained story that came to a satisfying and logical, within the film's narrative universe, ending, sequels can undo the entire story. For instance, there's only one immortal and K should have stayed on the Vineyard forever. Instead, he not only was brought back, they had to make his wife leave him to make the story work. Of course, getting back to her was the reason he recruited J in the first place!

Aliens3 was even worse because, in the first five minutes everything that Ripley went through to save Newt was overturned. It was fitting and condign punishment that in Alien Resurrection everything that Aliens3 did was also overturned in a few minutes.

AFAIC, there are 2 Alien films, two Terminator ones, one Highlander and one MIB.

 

[Jan Strnad]

I don't find that a bad sequel ruins the original for me, any more than a bad movie ruins a good book. I just block 'em out mentally.
Return of the Jedi? What's that?
Jan

 

[JustinT]

Tremors 2

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the first one. The sequel is just garbage.

 

[Anders Englund]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the first one.

That make's two of us.

--Anders

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Return of the Jedi? What's that?

I'd hate to live in your universe, Jan -- where Han is still frozen in carbonite, Luke has a missing hand and a severe case of depression, Lando's lost everything he owns, millions of people have died for nothing and we still don't know if Vader was lying (as a seven year old, I was positive that he was, for nearly three years until Jedi was released). How can you stand the suspense??
Well, I liked Jedi, and I hate to admit this on a public forum, but I was really entertained by much of Tremors 2. I felt that it had the same goofy spirit of the first, along with some neat new ideas.
And how much do I love Tremors? Well, I waited in my favourite LD shop the day the Signature Series LaserDisc was to arrive, to get it as soon as physically possible.
I agree that Highlander 2 was steaming poop, though I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the original. Same with Wayne's World 2.
Godfather 3, while not totally necessary, does bring the saga to a proper close. If it were not held up to the standard of the first two, I think it would be considered a better film. I also imagine that if Tom Hagen had been in it, as originally planned, that it would be much better. While I am disappointed by it, I don't feel that it tarnishes the first two films.
Jaws 3-D (which I saw in 3-D last year at The Bloor) I cannot take seriously as a film. I really hope that it was intended to be just as goofy as it is, more a parody of the genre than just another entry in it.
I loved Back To The Future Part II's re-imagining of the first film. I found it exhillarating (though overall I thought it was weaker than 1 and 3).
I'm sure that if I wrack my brain hard enough I'll think of a sequel that really did in the original for me, but none are instantly springing to mind. I think I've managed to avoid seeing most of the crap, somehow.
I never saw Hannibal, because when I finished reading the book I was so angry at it that I threw it against the wall. I think Thomas Harris hated that he was pressured to write a sequel, and said "I'll show them -- I'll take all of their beloved characters and utterly humiliate them, and then laugh! Hahahahaha!" (or words to that effect). That book is the closest to an original-wrecker that I can think of, for me.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Tremors 2
I'm probably in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the first one. The sequel is just garbage.

C'mon, who doesn't love the first Tremors? It's a classic!

 

[Alicia Sigal]

Jurassic Park: the Lost World. I'm a BIG JP fan, and I was really escited about the sequel (although I had read the book and didn't like it much), but I was sooo disappionted :frowning: . To me the only JP is the first one. I didn't even watch JP3

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Gee, usually I have to wait until a film is finished and I see it before I can know that.

Paul, have you watched that trailer? Everything surrounding the movie, from the fact that Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong QUIT once they got scripts to the fact that Claire Daines is in it (after someone ELSE quit mind you) SCREAMS shit at the top of its lungs.

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo really shot a classic franchise down... Although Gandhi II was a classic.

 

[DonMac]

EricW wrote:

how can a bad sequel ruin the original?

I liken a bad sequel to food poisoning. Say there's a food that you love eating. But then one day, you get food poisoning from eating a bad portion of that particular dish. Now the thought of eating it again not only isn't appetizing, it makes you feel sick to even think about it!

That's basically what a bad sequel can do to a favorite movie. True, like food poisoning, you may get over it with time and be able to again enjoy the original film. But the damage has been done and it'll possibly never be as good ever again.

.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yes Justin, many of us here love the original Tremors, it's a classic!
Jeff,
I knew none of what you said about T3. My suspicions about this film are going to be realized, i've always been against this blatent attempt to make more $$$. As sure as the sun will rise tommorow, this film is GOING to be bad, and any hopes that I MAY have had for it vanished like a fart in the wind when I read your post Jeff.
Now, how about Robocop 2 & 3? The only thing 2 had going for it was that Murphy looked all gleaming and pretty. Oh yeah, Cain was an improvement over Robo alright, he was so freaking big that he couldn't even fit inside a building to arrest anyone!
And as for part 3...folks, I just can't bring myself to be afraid of the main villian when he bears a scary resemblence to Steve Martin!

 

[Keith Paynter]

Ah yes, Ghandi II...
"No more Mr. Passive Resistance - he's out to kick some butt!"

 

[Francois Caron]

For 2010, the main problem with this sequel was that it didn't properly respect the contents of the book. In the book, the USA and Russia were at peace although there was still a minor political "game" going on between them. But in the movie, the cold war was still going on. Arthur C. Clarke's depiction of the future was much more accurate in his book than it was in the movie. In fact, I'm still startled by how closely today's political atmosphere has such a close ressemblance to the book. And this is not the first time Clarke has made accurate predictions even if they weren't always intentional.

 

[Dick]

It's one thing for a film to be nihilistic. Happy endings just don't always ring true. On the other hand, to subject Ripley to the death of the little girl she risked her life - and spent half of ALIENS - saving by casually killing her off at the beginning of the third film is to me completely wrong-headed. It left me in a foul mood for the rest of the film and I am sure was largely resposible for my resisting any intrinsic quality that film might have. Perhaps if they'd brought Carrie Henn back for this dumb sequel and had her killed late into the film, it would have seemed more tragic than arbitrary. As it stands, the third Alien film established for me a dislike for David Fincher movies which I've yet to shake. The man seems to have serious psychological issues.

 

[MarcinL]

DIE HARD 2, what an unbelievable piece of garbage, so many plotholes, planes not diverting, just flying overhead, and many more, just plain garbage.
and you know what
THEY MAKING THE SEQUAL TO
dude, where is my car!!!!! WTF, someone is seriously ill
just seen BAD BOYS 2 trailer, looks better than original
ALSO CHECK OUT NEW TRAILER FOR
TEARS OF THE SUN
www.comingsoon.net/trailers
also DIE HARD 4 and UNDER SIEGE 3 on www.imdb.com in 2004, come on give up already!!! what can you come up with

 

[James T]

Hilander sequels, yet I still went to watch the 4th movie in the theater.

Schumacher's Batman. For some reason I liked it as a kid(Forever, at least), but now, it's like what is this crap?

Robocop 2. The great comic writer, Frank Miller wrote this crap? Then again he did write DKR2.

And just about every horror sequel that had a great first movie.

And although they haven't come out yet, it seems like unnecessary sequls: Rocky whatever, Gladiator 2, Ghostbusters 3, Rambo 4, Total Recall 2, Titanic 2...that's all I can think of right now.

I would have added T3 to the list, but the trailer looks good, although I don't understand it...

So is judgement day somehow postponed from the Augest 97 date to some future 20xx date?

 

[Dean Kousoulas]

Oh yeah, Cain was an improvement over Robo alright, he was so freaking big that he couldn't even fit inside a building to arrest anyone

I didn't understand ED-209 either. What good was that piece of junk? It'll take him 2 hours to get to the scene of a crime, and what else can he do besides pump the criminal with 50 pounds of lead? Imagine him giving out a ticket for double parking. Also I never understood by bad guys never shot Robocop in the mouth lol.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Guys, i've got the ultimate bad sequel...
Let us all take a trip to NILBOG and witness the stinking ball of cheese known as Troll 2!
This film is so stupifyingly aweful that it could strip the rust off steel!

 

[TheLongshot]

is the first american pie all that good that it was ruined by its identical sequel?

That's kinda my point. In this age of poor teen comedies, AP managed to at least be somewhat sweet and enjoyable. AP 2 had nothing to add, and took away from the "friends" dynamic that helped make the first film work.

It is about how I feel about the Austin Powers sequals too. Everything that needed to be said was done in the first film. The rest is retreds of the same joke.

Jason