Sometimes we see a movie that has such a compelling story and a great cast behind it that we want to see more. This is where sequels come from. And they don’t always live up to expectations. Why is this? The reason is kind of the same as why remakes don't work. We’ve built up so many expectations that don’t really live up to the original, which is why sequels don’t do very well. The other reason is simply because there are idiots in the world who think that we should get a sequel of something and screw it up five ways till Sunday (I’m not a big fan of sequels if you couldn’t tell). The truth is that sequels should just be a continuation of the story that we all know and love, but we don’t get the exact same characters or moments that we got from the first movie.
Don’t get me wrong, there are sequels that I think are amazing and sometimes better than the original, but there are other sequels that I think should never have been made. The main source for this is comedies. They just spent the whole movie going from one wacky situation to another, building up the story and the character development, and finally finishing off with closure for everyone. So where do you go from here? No, seriously where? Because that’s the question you have to ask if you want a remake, and it doesn’t translate well with comedies.
The first “Scary Movie” was hilarious, but after that we just got a long list of sequels and spin-offs (“Epic Movie,” “Disaster Movie”) that just didn’t translate well. And these were just spoofs. “The Mask” was a hilarious movie, starring Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, about a cartoon loving loner who finds a mask that brings the wacky side of him to life. This was a really funny movie that they decided to do a sequel of in 2005 called “Son of the Mask.” Essentially, a guy finds the Mask and somehow it gives his kid the supernatural powers. This was not only not funny, but a very dumb plot. Not even Jim Carrey wanted to return for it, which is kind of a big deal since it was his charisma and personality that brought The Mask to life. Another disappointment was “Teen Wolf, Too” (see what they did there?). The original “Teen Wolf” starred Michael J. Fox as an unpopular high-schooler who suddenly discovers his genetic family trait to become a werewolf and gains instant popularity. The sequel starred Jason Bateman in an almost exact copy, just in college with the guy’s cousin. The lack of imagination and direction is very obvious in comedy sequels. I’ll admit that animated comedies are an exception because they’re able to go beyond the realistic boundaries that non-animated movies have (although I’m not really looking forward to Space Jam 2, if that’s still a thing). The only comedy that actually had a successful sequel was “22 Jump Street” and that was because it was self-aware that it was a sequel and continuously made fun of the fact.
The worst is when the studio forces a sequel to happen, even though everything was tied up in the previous film, which just proves they want money as fast as possible. What’s really terrible is sometimes the actors are called back in because they have to appear in the sequel that they don’t want to do, or the studio said that since they did one movie with them they have to do another, even if it’s completely different. So in the end, we get to look at an actor who would really rather not be there the whole time, like Willem Dafoe in “Speed 2: Cruise Control.” Studios really try to rush these out as well, so they end up making terrible choices for director, script and casting, and end up crushing our dreams.
Like I said before, I don’t think sequels are a complete loss. I just think that there are some that could have been handled better, or some that didn’t need to be made in the first place. There are still some amazing sequels out there that surpassed the original, like “The Godfather Part 2” “Terminator 2” and most movies in the superhero genre. The superheroes, I feel, have a necessity for sequels because they’re comic book sources and personalities demand more stories to be told on the big screen. As long as Hollywood sticks to the source material (*cough* “Spider-man 3” and “Fantastic 4” *cough*) I think that as long as the story is good and the characters are likable, then a sequel can definitely work, but only if it matches up to the right standards.
