Kevin's Watch

As a rule sequels are nearly always weighed against their predecessor's , and fall short. How about the ones that surpass ? The first one that comes to mind ( in my opinion ) is Aliens. It had a better story, and was far scarier than Alien ( again in my opinion ), can you think of any more ?

I love the first two Godfather films. The first is simply outstanding, but I actually like Part 2 better. I think the only reason I would hesitate calling Part 2 a better movie is that it relies on a knowledge of what happened in Part 1 to get it's full effect.

Those are the two that immediately come to mind.

I liked the second Terminator far better than the first. It was much more epic.

I agree with everything so far, and of course, Empire was much better than Star Wars.

My wife and I liked Matrix 2.0 better than the original - but only slightly, because they both rocked. Matrix Revolutions? Meh...

There are some who believe that Spiderman 2 surpassed its predecessor in capturing the heart of the comic book - but that's a hard one, because both are pretty good movies imho. Spidey III? Meh.

And as I have said elsewhere, I found The Exorcist III to be far superior to the original (which was very good)... we do not speak of the celluloid abomination sandwiched between them.

dw

Meh, not a great fan of Aliens. I'd say Alien 3 - it's basically Alien, but with better pacing.

DukkhaWaynhim wrote:And as I have said elsewhere, I found The Exorcist III to be far superior to the original (which was very good)... we do not speak of the celluloid abomination sandwiched between them.

Yeah, good call.

DukkhaWaynhim wrote:
And as I have said elsewhere, I found The Exorcist III to be far superior to the original (which was very good)... we do not speak of the celluloid abomination sandwiched between them.

dw

Heathen! There is no better horror movie made than The Exorcist!! But, fair enough. Exorcist 3 was very good. Interestingly, everything in Exorcist 2 to do with Reagan was forced in there by the production company against the director's wishes (John Boorman's). Some people who had seen the film before these additions called it one of the most amazing horror films ever made. Certainly, a lot of the stuff in it is very striking. Sadly, the correct version of Exorcist 2 no longer exists, as some of the stuff which was deleted to make room for the ridiculous additions is no longer extant.

Empire Strikes Back is the best example of a sequel which was far greater than the original, in my opinion.

RAMBO : FIRST BLOOD Pt.2 come on you kow you loved it !

Nah, First Blood is superior.

Damn straight.

Cail wrote:

DukkhaWaynhim wrote:And as I have said elsewhere, I found The Exorcist III to be far superior to the original (which was very good)... we do not speak of the celluloid abomination sandwiched between them.

Yeah, good call.

I agree too.

Granted first blood was a better written film, but it only had 1 death, 1 rocket launcher, part 2 no way, more guns , more death , more torture , hell if they could have gotten their hands on a tactical nuke they woulda used it , and it had a hot chick who he gets to kiss before she takes a bullet for him! How touching, when gets done, punches the boss in the face . God I loved the eighties, .......except for the hair, and the clothes, and the music.

Some great choices mentioned. And I won't give you too hard of a time, DW. Although the original is as close to perfect as can be, I do absolutely love Reloaded, too!

The problem with the whole concept of this thread is what Root brings up: You can't discount the fact that the sequel couldn't work at all if the original hadn't given it its foundation. The two can't be judged from the same starting point. It's kind of like olympic figure skating, where some routines automatically get extra points because they're more difficult to perform.

Im not sure what it is you are trying to say, if I like something better, then I just do, regardless of whether or not it is the original.

I bet we can all agree (except Matrixman) that Star Trek II was better than the first film.
I really enjoyed The Road Warrior more than Mad Maxx.
Fantastic Four 2 was better than FF 1 however both films sucked in my opinion.
I thought "From Russia With Love" was better than "Dr. No".
I had more fun watching "Airport 75" than "Airport".

As to some films that have already been discussed I'd say Alien and Aliens are two different kinds of films and it's not fair to compare them for that reason. I think they are equally great for what each one was intending to be.
Terminator only suffers from budgetary issues, old school FX etc. Everything else about the film was awesome. T2 did amp everything up so I suppose I enjoyed the event of watching it more.
Matrix was a terrific film and needed no sequels. Reloaded and Revolutions both seem a little tacked on. I don't think either film was superior to the original.

Matrix was a terrific film and needed no sequels. Reloaded and Revolutions both seem a little tacked on. I don't think either film was superior to the original.

Agreed.

Superman II was better than I.

dlbpharmd wrote:
Agreed.

Superman II was better than I.

I used to think that too. When I watched Superman II at the theater I was pretty happy with it. First real super hero / super villain slugfest on the big screen. However as the years have gone by I've come to appreciate the subtleties of the first film and have been turned off by the idiotic plot, ridiculous dialog and somewhat clumsy direction of the second film.
Superman is willing to give up his powers, disregard his responsibility and passion for the safety and well being of his adopted people for...Margo Kidder? Aaaaa. Sorry. No sale. Can't buy it.

Mr. Broken wrote:As a rule sequels are nearly always weighed against their predecessor's , and fall short. How about the ones that surpass ? The first one that comes to mind ( in my opinion ) is Aliens. It had a better story, and was far scarier than Alien ( again in my opinion ), can you think of any more ?

... ugh, have to disagree there... Unlike other picks, this one is more difficult to be cut and dry about; one of the reasons is that, although both are well made, they are completely different styles, so it comes down to a subjective opinion rather than objective one.
I thought Alien was a great movie, and all Cameron did was add more 'action' and some really annoying characters... <shrug>

I bet we can all agree (except Matrixman) that Star Trek II was better than the first film.
I really enjoyed The Road Warrior more than Mad Maxx.
Fantastic Four 2 was better than FF 1 however both films sucked in my opinion.
I thought "From Russia With Love" was better than "Dr. No".

I agree with all these. including Superman 2.
And the Harry Potter movies just keep getting better and better! I think this is a very unique phenomenon.

I liked 'Sanjuro' more than 'Yojimbo' ...