Movies are likely as popular now as they have ever been. Certain movies are good enough to get a sequel.
Sequels have the opportunity to expand upon the universe of a film and to make a better movie than the last. Movies have sequels when the movie is special and people want to see more, right?
Sequels used to be something special and were often better than the last one. Some notable examples include Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Dark Knight (2008), the second installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
Lately, it seems as if a movie doesn’t have to be good to get a sequel. Sequels have lost their magic and many exist to make money.
Some sequels are so bad that they tarnish the reputation of the original, like Son of the Mask (2005). Some are unnecessary and have no reason to justify their existence such as Cars 2 (2011) and its spinoff Planes (2013).
Too many times, it doesn’t end with one sequel. Take for example, the bloated Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first wave of these movies offered a neat example of a film universe. Almost everything after that just feels like a gimmick with many of the entries failing to deliver an experience as good as the original. Plenty of the movies follow a far-too-familiar blueprint. Things have gotten out of hand. Take the ending to Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which just sets up its two-part sequel. This isn’t the end–Marvel has movies planned up to 2019.
Many filmmakers now split a story into multiple entries, which often feels unnecessary. The 390 page novel Mockingjay (2010) is a two-part cinematic entry in The Hunger Games series. The book isn’t long or rich enough to be divided into two movies. This resulted in the first part of Mockingjay feeling like a glorified trailer just to set up the second part.
There are far too many examples of oversizing a series with too many entries. The Paranormal Activity series contains five films with a planned sixth one on the way. None of them have a score higher than 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes except for the first movie.
Many stories manage to get a trilogy milked from them, Taken being one of these. The final two entries received poor critical reception. There is even a trilogy of American remakes; Case in point, The Grudge (2004) is an Americanization of Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge (2002).
There were three more Home Alone movies after the first two. None of the three had any original cast members and all three received atrocious reviews.
Some series never made it past two but that’s because the sequels were effective series killers. Primary examples include Paul Blart 2 (2015) and Grown Ups 2 (2013). (It’s a good thing cancellation struck them at two, as critics everywhere gave these sour sequels savage reviews)
A sequel used to be a cinematic treat. Viewers explored deeper into the stories of their favorite characters. Nowadays, the surprise is gone much like the thrills within the films.