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Flying successful the look of the aged adage that “wanting more” is however immoderate worthwhile entertainer should “leave ‘em,” Hollywood has ne'er been shy astir churning retired a sequel. And so, successful the ever-present midst of Part 2s and 3s and shared universes and spin-offs, it’s clip to look astatine the 10 champion sequels of each time!
Sequels are a unusual proposition; successful a batch of ways, they’re the lowest hanging effect determination is. If a movie makes money? “Well, spell marque 3 oregon 4 much of ‘em,” they yell, clamoring successful the streets. By that aforesaid token, however, they’re besides immoderate of the hardest movies to propulsion off, and from a definite constituent of view, they’re really acceptable up to fail. They people person large shoes to capable based connected the elemental information that they lone beryllium due to the fact that the archetypal installment was fashionable – so popular, successful fact, that a gathering afloat of executives decided to descend a boatload of workplace resources into making different one. As a result, a decently bully sequel is really a small hard to travel by.
“But determination are a assortment of ways to try,” helium says, segueing into his archetypal category...
10. A Straight Continuation of the Story
The archetypal and astir evident benignant of sequel-ing is the continuation of a story; these are movies that prime up close wherever their predecessors near off. If audiences liked the characters from the archetypal movie enough, it’s a just stake they’ll privation to spot what happens to them next. These are sequels that, successful theory, you could stitch unneurotic to marque 1 large movie.
This is however The Raid 2 works, taking spot the adjacent time with Rama’s cheeks inactive bloody. It’s Quantum of Solace opening connected a car pursuit with Mr. White inactive successful the trunk from the extremity of Casino Royale, oregon The Incredibles 2 starting with the conflict against The Underminer teased successful the closing moments of the archetypal film. Kill Bill: Volume 2 doesn't needfully number present due to the fact that it was primitively expected to conscionable beryllium 1 movie, arsenic per The Whole Bloody Affair.
As for an aboriginal illustration of a “picking up wherever we near off” sequel, the 1935 follow-up to 1931's Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, opens successful a delightfully meta way. Mary Shelley, her hubby Percy, and the writer Lord Byron are enjoying a roaring occurrence connected a stormy night, talking astir what an awesome communicative Frankenstein is. It allows Byron to recap the events of the archetypal movie and Shelley to driblet a 1930s mentation of “if you similar that, wait’ll you get a load of this sequel!” One dolly retired and cross-dissolve later, we’ve got 1 of the archetypal blockbuster sequels, picking up from the smoldering ruins of the aged mill and adjacent backing up a fewer moments to amusement a small much of Henry Frankenstein’s recovery. It’s a fascinating model into however they thought astir sequels successful the '30s, a format that’s held up good implicit the years; successful fact, my fig 10 prime owes a just spot of its operation to The Bride of Frankenstein. I’m talking astir the overlapping scenes of Back to the Future Part II.
What’s large astir Back to the Future Part II is that it didn’t conscionable prime up wherever the archetypal movie near disconnected narratively, it besides picked up wherever it near disconnected thematically. If Back to the Future pulled connected the thread of “What if your parents didn’t meet,” the adjacent logical question to inquire is: “What does the aboriginal clasp for my kids?” It was a brazen question to inquire astatine the extremity of the archetypal film, precise presumptuously mounting up a sequel that wasn't adjacent planned astatine the time, but past Part II opened with the nonstop aforesaid scene...with 1 twist.
Director Robert Zemeckis reshot the country to grip the recasting of Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue replaced Claudia Wells successful BTTF Part II and III). The edit and changeable compositions enactment up astir impeccably, which should astonishment nary 1 fixed the method hurdles cleared by the remainder of this accumulation (such arsenic Thomas F. Wilson’s Biffs handing things to each other), but opening the sequel by repeating the past country of the archetypal movie to acceptable up adjacent much clip question shenanigans is thematically cleanable arsenic well.
Back to the Future Part II is famously convoluted, precise intentionally pulling connected the confusing threads that clip question presents. What happens to the aboriginal if you alteration the past, oregon the contiguous for that matter? The opening country isn’t the only spot of the archetypal Back to the Future to beryllium recreated, of course, but those scenes are from a antithetic perspective. And adjacent though the recasting wasn’t the filmmakers' prime – Claudia Wells turned down the sequels to attraction for her ailing parent – it’s a lawsuit of utilizing the concern to your advantage. By recreating this opening country changeable for shot, it preps the assemblage to look for subtle changes successful the remainder of the film, getting jokes to onshore that overmuch amended and filmmaking wizardry to play that overmuch much impressively.
9. A Second Story
The different broadside of the sequel coin from the continuation of a communicative is simply a second, wholly antithetic story. This is simply a harder enactment to propulsion off; fixed the premise that sequels lone beryllium to travel palmy films, 1 wouldn’t privation to task too acold distant from what made the archetypal movie work. But what if an archetypal was so good, the champion thought is to spell successful a wholly caller absorption lest you beryllium compared unfavorably to the first?
This is Aliens famously switching gears from Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic monster movie to an all-out enactment flick starring abstraction marines. It’s Batman Returns cycling retired the full supporting cast, adding a caller emotion involvement and doubling the villains, and The Road Warrior escalating the archetypal Mad Max from a budget-friendly dystopia afloat into the post-apocalypse. This is The Godfather Part II, due to the fact that it has its sequel barroom and eats its prequel excessively with flashbacks to a young Vito Corleone successful the past portion continuing Michael’s communicative successful the present. Frankly, The Godfather Part II is the reply here; it’s an all-timer of a sequel, but conscionable arsenic frankly, if you request another monolithic film-nerd effort to archer you however large it is...c’mon, man. Instead, I’m going with a sequel that perfectly illustrates the powerfulness of telling a antithetic communicative each together: George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.
Romero waited astir 10 years to travel up Night of the Living Dead, a movie that developed an iconic presumption agelong aft its sequel. While that movie was a contained, mostly single-location indie phenomenon, its sequel landed a chopper connected apical of a mall. Dawn of the Dead is genuinely an enlargement astatine standard of Romero’s archetypal ideas, and astir importantly, doesn’t diagnostic immoderate of the main characters from his archetypal film. Of people they were each dormant – spoiler alert! – truthful that was a spot of a necessity.
But the bigger situation for Romero, aft efficaciously if not officially inventing the modern zombie subgenre of horror, was showing what else could beryllium done with the shuffling flesh-eaters. As groundbreaking a movie arsenic Night of the Living Dead was, it was Dawn of the Dead that afloat established zombie films don’t person to conscionable beryllium astir the monsters; they tin beryllium astir what the monsters accidental astir us. They tin germinate with the changing societal landscape, from making statements connected the civilian rights question of the precocious '60s (although Romero ne'er claimed to person done that intentionally) to commenting connected the rampant consumerism of the precocious '70s.
Dawn of the Dead looked astatine the absurdity of modern conveniences, accepted sex roles, and toxic masculinity among different things done a blue-faced undead lens; it besides gave america rad visuals similar a sports car driving done an bare mall. Dawn of the Dead proved a constituent astir an full subgenre of horror, and it's been thriving ever since.
8. A Middle Chapter
The mediate portion of the aforementioned coin betwixt the 2 sides that we’ve already mentioned is conscionable arsenic important. A batch of Part 2s are lone arsenic bully arsenic the Part 3s that follow, and often immoderate of the sheen of a bully mediate section tin get mislaid if section 3 sucks. As bully arsenic Spider-Man 2 is, it loses immoderate points for an unfortunate 3rd outing from Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi; ditto for The Dark Knight, due to the fact that The Dark Knight Rises didn't emergence to near the heights of its predecessor.
But immoderate trilogies are truthful coagulated throughout, their Part 2s look adjacent amended for reliably bridging an opening and closing chapter. Before Sunset, for example, is the nutrient successful the sandwich of possibly the astir astonishing trilogy ever made. Pusher is simply a trilogy that’ll marque your chemoreceptor bleed with a mediate section that made a prima retired of Mads Mikkelsen, portion The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers redefined epic-scale enactment with the WETA-fueled conflict of Helm’s Deep. In fact, Peter Jackson’s 2nd helping of Tolkien mightiness beryllium the eventual mediate section if it weren’t for our fig 8 pick, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
For determination to adjacent be a class for mediate chapters successful this movie list, the conception of trilogies has to exist. You tin number The Golem films, adjacent though two-thirds of the soundless German Expressionist films person been mislaid to time, and of people Frankenstein technically became a trilogy (and past some), but The Empire Strikes Back ran with the thought of a continuing communicative similar thing earlier it.
As a sequel, it was a astonishing departure from Star Wars, featuring precise small that looked oregon felt similar the four-quadrant popcorn thrills of George Lucas’ abstraction opera. It dared to unfastened with our heroes – Leia, Han, and Luke, on with the full rebellion that, past we saw, struck a large stroke by exploding that full Death Star – connected the backmost foot. In the abstraction of an opening crawl, they’re abruptly outgunned, outmanned, and scampering from 1 hideout to the next.
But the mode the movie ended connected a down bushed is its existent publication to cinema. The rebels didn’t get a azygous triumph passim the full movie, and the credits commencement rolling similar it’s nary large deal! There’s zero volition connected the portion of The Empire Strikes Back to beryllium the extremity of the story. It wasn’t changeable back-to-back arsenic a planned trilogy, however; Back to the Future would propulsion that instrumentality aboriginal successful the decade, and The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t bring it into blockbuster vogue for different 20 years. Even with the occurrence of Star Wars, George Lucas had to combat to get The Empire Strikes Back made the mode helium wanted it, and determination was nary warrant of a 3rd installment. Still, helium had the chutzpah to propulsion disconnected that ending, a gutsy determination that made Empire 1 of the champion Part 2s of each time.
7. A Franchise Entry
When is simply a sequel not a sequel? When is simply a mediate section not successful the middle? Now we’re talking franchises, and what is simply a bully franchise introduction if it doesn’t bash a small of everything we’ve already said we request from a bully sequel?
There’s nary tiny magnitude of “moving the shot forward” needed from a franchise entry, and Marvel was the modular bearer for a coagulated decennary of satellite building. Captain America: The Winter Soldier narratively made waves passim the remainder of the films and TV bid portion doing it with heart, portion Guardians of the Galaxy introduced a full caller squad that acceptable close into the universe’s code and moved the larger Thanos crippled ahead. Logan wasn’t technically portion of that satellite until overmuch later, but it showed what you could bash to an assemblage that had grown up with Wolverine and didn’t privation to accidental goodbye.
DC didn’t person overmuch luck worthy mentioning with the Snyderverse, and interconnected world-building is simply a beauteous uncommon happening connected the large screen. Kong and Godzilla person versus’d and X’d into New Empires successful caller years, but our fig 7 prime goes to the longest-running franchise not astir an atomic kaiju, the James Bond bid – and successful particular, 1964's Goldfinger.
Bond, James Bond has been going beardown (a fewer pigeons double-taking aside) since the 1960s, and is 1 of the astir bankable franchises of anything, cinematic oregon otherwise. It's present due to the fact that close up until Daniel Craig’s entries, determination conscionable isn’t capable connective insubstantial betwixt the films to suffice arsenic sequels. Love interests are swapped retired each time, the histrion is recast each fistful of films, and there’s practically nary shared past betwixt them extracurricular of a notation oregon 2 to a dormant wife.
It wasn’t until the 3rd 007 film, Goldfinger, that the series' creators thoroughly hashed retired the formula. Dr. No and From Russia with Love came first, but the Bond we cognize officially started with Auric Goldfinger and his crippled to irradiate the golden successful Fort Knox truthful that his proviso would go the astir invaluable successful the world. It was an outlandishly villainous plot, featuring lasers aimed astatine Sean Connery’s crotch, a tricked-out Aston Martin, a quirky henchman with a hyper-specific mode to execution people, globetrotting to luxurious locales, and the iconic representation of a pistillate suffocated by golden paint. Goldfinger molded the franchise into a reliable format that hasn’t changed overmuch since; it’s been worthy making amusive of from French parodies to Mike Myers successful dual starring roles and 1 of the astir iconic episodes The Simpsons ever made, truthful it indispensable person done something right.
6. A Spin-Off
Akin to the franchise entry, we’ve besides got the spin-off, and there’s an important favoritism to marque here. If a movie bid has generated a fewer sequels on 1 storyline, the archetypal clip they task disconnected to absorption connected caller characters, it’s not rather a franchise yet...but it is a spin-off.
Animation worlds grow rapidly, giving america the Minions from the mainline Despicable Me sequels...which I notation archetypal due to the fact that I person children, and Minions are seldom acold from my mind. Puss successful Boots added to the Shrekverse successful wildly unconnected ways, with Puss successful Boots: The Last Wish being a legitimately gorgeous-to-look-at film, portion The Lego Batman Movie showed america much of the bosom that the 2 main Lego movies amazed america each with.
Horror franchises are peculiarly bully present arsenic well, with immoderate fig of Conjuring spin-offs pursuing the exploits of demons and Annabelles and Nuns connected spooky broadside quests. Action franchises person turned successful immoderate bully entries too, with Laika’s Travis Knight bringing his stop-motion expertise to Transformers and Bumblebee, portion Hobbs & Shaw spun distant to beryllium accelerated and furious each by themselves. And though Prey was a fantastic Predator movie cipher saw coming, for our fig 6 pick, I’m going with different Dan Trachtenberg movie that took america by surprise: 10 Cloverfield Lane.
10 Cloverfield Lane is benignant of the eventual spin-off – the opening of a would-be anthology bid that sputtered retired beauteous hard its adjacent clip out. But the movie besides began its beingness arsenic thing other entirely, a spec publication with a antithetic rubric and a antithetic ending. Seeing that the communicative shared DNA with the city-stomping kaiju recovered footage gem that came earlier it – a movie besides shrouded successful a just spot of enigma earlier its merchandise – inspired the determination to marque it a Cloverfield introduction of sorts.
That real-world discourse aside, 10 Cloverfield Lane is besides a cleanable spin-off due to the fact that it pulls connected the aforesaid threads arsenic the original, but from a wildly antithetic perspective. Instead of seeing the devastation wrought by the invading kaiju first-hand, we’re near to stew successful the paranoia of whether oregon not it’s really happening. Dan Trachtenberg traps america successful a basement and uses an adept fluency successful the connection of thriller cinema to acceptable up obstacles, displacement the absorption of the danger, and yet uncover the truth, each successful a modestly budgeted movie contained to a azygous location. There are nary cities destroyed oregon chaotic camcorder footage of the Statue of Liberty’s head, but the small-scale havoc successful a doomsday bunker is nary little impactful.
5. A Changing of the Guard
There is simply a antithetic spirit of spin-off that features a subtle capable hallmark to merit its ain category; this is the changing of the guard. This is not, caput you, simply recasting a caller histrion successful the pb relation of a movie bid oregon rebooting the happening each together; rather, this is erstwhile a torch is good and genuinely passed to a antithetic character.
Having said that, I volition people springiness Batman Forever a shout-out present arsenic the objection to the rule, arsenic the caller Bruce Wayne AND caller manager AND enlargement of the Bat-family counts for something. Ghostbusters: Afterlife had the close thought to alteration the full mounting of its long-range sequel successful summation to its protagonists, leaving New York City for the plains of agrarian Oklahoma. The caller acceptable of Dwayne Johnson-led Jumanji films did the same, arsenic did Ballerina successful the John Wickverse. Wes Craven’s meta-as-hell New Nightmare tried a overmuch much unorthodox passing of the torch from fabrication to “non-fiction,” and for the astir part, it worked retired to beryllium a batch of weird fun, if for nary different crushed than it was intelligibly laying immoderate groundwork for Scream. But cipher rather truthful efficaciously handed the baton from 1 procreation to the adjacent similar Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan did with Creed.
Creed would animate 2 of its ain sequels, neither of which were atrocious by immoderate measure, but Coogler and Jordan’s archetypal circular pursuing the illegitimate lad of an all-time large who died successful the ringing reconnecting his father's erstwhile rival-turned-friend – whew! – would person been a large movie connected its own. It’s a survey of bequest and inheritance, and however to incorporated the shadiness you unrecorded nether into your ain story. Creed was intelligibly made with a genuine emotion for the archetypal bid and an knowing of not lone what made them great, but besides however to bring a caller position to the series. Plus, it’s got immoderate unthinkable combat choreography to boot.
But it’s not a stand-alone movie; it’s a sequel to six movies successful which Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky fought good past his sell-by date. Stallone’s Oscar-nominated tally arsenic the aging boxer transitioning into a mentor makes the movie literally astir 1 procreation letting spell of the past and embracing what the caller procreation tin offer, which is simply a meta communicative we tin get behind. It's not rather the New Nightmare marque of meta, caput you, but inactive a bully dose of discourse with which to bask the movie that overmuch more.
It besides features 1 of the astir incredibly timed blasts of nostalgic euphony successful movie history. The Bill Conti horns from Rocky’s archetypal soundtrack coming retired of perfectly obscurity go Adonis’ taxable arsenic helium stands up for his last round. It’s a azygous infinitesimal successful the full film’s runtime that cements Creed’s bequest arsenic the champion changing of the defender sequel successful rather immoderate time.
4. A Long-Range Sequel
Similar to the guard-changing sequel, these are reboot-quels...or legacy-quels...ugh, determination are two cutesy names for the aforesaid thing. While they’re neighbors to the constituent of sharing a partition successful a duplex, the long-range sequel doesn’t endeavor to make a caller series. It’s not telling a antithetic communicative oregon pursuing a broadside quest similar a spin-off; instead, it picks up the aforesaid communicative from years ago. While this seems similar a newer improvement fixed the nostalgia fervor of the past respective years, it’s important to admit that determination are older examples. Scorsese’s sequel to The Hustler, The Color of Money, finds an aging Fast Eddie taking a young Tom Cruise-looking billiards endowment nether his wing, and adjacent Ingmar Bergman revisited his epic enclosure piece, Scenes from a Marriage, with Saraband 30 years later.
Mad Max: Fury Road counts present alternatively of arsenic a changing-of-the-guard sequel due to the fact that Tom Hardy was technically playing Max. But Top Gun: Maverick, T2 Trainspotting, and 2018’s Halloween from David Gordon Green each did the bequest happening well. And adjacent though Keanu Reeves has helped bring backmost some Bill and Ted and the Matrix aft lengthy layoffs, the king of the long-range sequel seems to beryllium Harrison Ford, from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to 2 precise unnecessary Indiana Jones sequels, to our fig 4 pick: Blade Runner 2049.
In 1982, Blade Runner changed the mode subject fabrication looked for an full generation, and arsenic the archetypal big-screen adaptation of a Philip K. Dick work, it raised ideas that writers are continuing to grapple with today. It besides truly didn’t need a sequel; successful fact, a sequel truly shouldn’t marque sense. The movie was precise overmuch not a commercialized success, but the decades-long statement arsenic to whether Deckard was a replicant oregon not added to the film’s mystique, arsenic did the galore iterations of the movie that person been released since its archetypal theatrical run.
What makes Blade Runner 2049 superb is that it continues its predecessor's ambiguity; it some answers and doesn’t reply immoderate of the original's biggest questions. No substance how you travel down connected the Deckard replicant question, you’re capable to ticker 2049 and proceed believing immoderate you like. Director Denis Villeneuve seemed to beryllium nether nary work to clarify thing astir the archetypal oregon capable successful the nitpicky gaps that truthful galore legacy-quels get fixated on. Ryan Gosling’s K is not the caller modular bearer for the franchise, nor is helium adjacent the Luke-Skywalker-style chosen 1 connected whom the crippled hinges; he’s a cog successful a bigger communicative – 1 that’s not his, which allows Blade Runner 2049 to research the questions of humanity that the archetypal Blade Runner raised truthful ambiguously and intriguingly a procreation before.
3. A Spiritual Sequel
We’re down to our last 3 categories, truthful it’s clip to stray a small further afield into what is traditionally my favourite portion of movie listing. Let’s get a small weird and transcend the communicative to get successful the astral level of the spiritual sequel. These are the movies erstwhile a filmmaker revisits an thought oregon a taxable alternatively than stories oregon characters; they're often recognizable successful a director's benignant much than the substance connected screen, which makes them other amusive to spot.
This is Richard Linklater’s casual hangout connected the shot diamond, Everybody Wants Some!!, arsenic the successor to the landmark precocious schoolhouse slice-of-life, Dazed and Confused. It’s Robert Rodriguez' Desperado pursuing up El Mariachi. You tin besides marque an statement for astir each of Hayao Miyazaki’s enactment but I’ve ever felt similar Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke person ever shared much DNA than the rest. Ridley Scott’s The Duellists and The Last Duel stock a spot much than conscionable that 1 connection successful their titles, and they marque for absorbing partners. Carlito’s Way is Brian De Palma maturely looking backmost astatine Scarface’s greedy, never-gonna-die vigor from 10 years earlier. But wherever transgression epics are acrophobic – and spiritual sequels, for that substance – nobody’s done it rather truthful good arsenic Martin Scorsese successful Casino.
Whether you judge it oregon not, and if you perfectly have to instrumentality a hard stance connected this benignant of thing, Casino mightiness really beryllium amended than Goodfellas; astatine minimum, the mode it volition ever beryllium the latter’s small member is the existent crime. Casino digs into a transgression endeavor crossed decades, consuming shady characters of each sorts successful its vortex of glamour, greed, and violence. The movie has endured its stock of unfavorable comparisons to Goodfellas erstwhile it was archetypal released and successful the years since...but Marty is conscionable truthful goddamn good astatine this.
With the glittering lights of the mob-run Las Vegas strip, Scorsese painted his organized transgression canvas with a full caller setting, and from a antithetic position arsenic well. Where Goodfellas followed a antheral successful emotion with the beingness afforded by the mob, Casino was astir a antheral obsessed with bid and control. While Casino mostly follows the rise-and-fall operation of astir of the champion transgression movies, Robert De Niro's Sam "Ace" Rothstein can’t power the downfall of the omniscient guys' racket successful Vegas. But still, nether the brutality of the beingness they’ve each agreed to, there's a benignant of nostalgia – adjacent an admiration – for the mode things worked nether the mob. They had a bully happening going, and the communicative of however adjacent they couldn’t marque it past is simply a fascinating representation that deserves to beryllium alongside Goodfellas. One doesn’t request to beryllium amended than the other; we’re fortunate to person both.
2. A Thematic Trilogy
Now that we’ve decently slipped the surly bonds of sequel gravity, let’s tack connected a full different movie. You cognize what? Let’s tack connected two full different movies! When a spiritual sequel conscionable isn’t enough, and an thought is so worthy exploring, a filmmaker mightiness revisit the aforesaid thought 3 times successful a thematic trilogy.
Some are rather obvious: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy, for example, digs into the metaphors down the colors of the French flag. There’s the curious, sensory extravaganza of the Qatsi trilogy tied unneurotic arsenic a survey of man’s obsession and ambition, and there’s Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy connected by genre parody and throwaway references to crystal cream.
While Roy Andersson’s Living Trilogy took 15 years to complete, arsenic did Wong Kar-Wai’s Love trilogy, determination are thematic trilogies that get successful speedy bursts of creativity, similar Ingmar Bergman’s Silence of God films, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Alienation trilogy successful the aboriginal '60s, and Yasujiro Ozu’s Noriko Trilogy successful the precocious '40s and aboriginal '50s. That each 9 of those films riffed connected the taxable of traditions chafing against the mid-century's oncoming modern manner honestly makes them each related, astatine slightest successful my brain. But for my fig 2 pick, it's hard to bushed Park Chan-wook and the Vengeance Trilogy.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance comprise 3 chapters of warped revenge tales. The 3 films are consistently difficult, offering nary existent catharsis for their revenge-minded characters. It’s a challenging postulation of tortuous intelligence thrillers, each executed with a unsocial noir-ish benignant and a comic small spoonful of sweetener that helps the bleak, convulsive medicine successful the remainder of the movies spell down. Each of the 3 movies presents a antithetic communicative with the aforesaid results, focusing connected an obsessed protagonist violently seeking revenge that it’s hard to reason they don’t deserve. The effect is simply a consciousness of relatability to the characters, and the realization that unspeakable things tin hap to anybody, and that anybody is besides susceptible of unspeakable things successful their hunt for retribution.
With his Vengeance Trilogy, Park Chan-wook presents a twisted position that doesn’t permission galore connected surface untarnished. Buoyed by the cult-classic masterpiece presumption of its mediate installment, Oldboy, it’s a trilogy that’s arsenic accordant successful style, tone, and communicative arsenic immoderate start-to-finish three-part communicative could anticipation to be, making it 1 of the champion thematic trilogies cinema has ever seen.
1. Better Than the Original
What is simply a sequel’s intent if not to grow upon the original? Well, however astir “be better than the original?” What genitor doesn’t privation to spot their children bash greater things? These are a rarer breed of sequel to beryllium sure, but for our past spot, we person to grant those sequels that saw what their predecessors did and thought, “nah, I tin bushed that!”
The Bride of Frankenstein, arsenic we mentioned above, is amended and much lasting successful a batch of ways, arsenic galore of the tropes we subordinate with Frankenstein really travel from Bride arsenic opposed to the archetypal film. I’ll besides spell to bat for Paddington 2 arsenic 1 of this century's top movies, period, until I gully my past breath; writer/director Paul King doubled down connected everything that made the archetypal movie charming arsenic hellhole successful precisely each the close ways. Ditto for Hot Shots! Part Deux...but I won’t explicate myself connected that one.
To beryllium honest, astir of our different picks successful this list, it could beryllium argued, also surpassed their predecessors and would beryllium rather astatine location successful this class arsenic well, but I’ve saved the champion for fig 1 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Terminator 2 is simply a sequel that’s amended than the archetypal connected each level. James Cameron wrangled a convoluted clip question crippled into thing manageable, efficient, and with an outsized heart. If 1984’s The Terminator was a elemental sci-fi thriller machine, T2 adds nuances of destiny and destiny, arsenic good arsenic the unspeakable load of knowing however things are going to crook out. Arnold’s T-800 learning to beryllium much quality on the mode is simply a fantastic acquisition for sequel-ers everywhere, who excessively often autumn much successful emotion with crafting mind-blowing communicative mythologies than they bash creating involving characters connected screen.
James Cameron’s method innovations took leaps and bounds arsenic well. Inventing caller ways to diagnostic realistic machine graphics successful the aboriginal days of the CGI revolution, the movie besides boasts applicable effects that would astonishment you for a movie with a estimation for being truthful machine FX-heavy. It's the blend of the 2 wherever Cameron’s brilliance lies, and inactive does each the mode done to the motion-capture tech connected Avatar.
T2 should also, rather frankly, person been the extremity of Terminator arsenic a franchise. Judgment Day wrapped things up truthful perfectly that it has to beryllium astatine slightest part of the crushed nobody’s been capable to springiness a damn astir the movies that person followed, making it not lone amended than the first, but intolerable to apical and possibly the top sequel of each time.
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