There is a pandemic sweeping the film industry these days, they’re called sequels. Hollywood has a dismally extensive track record of unnecessary and needless sequels that neither build onto nor surpass the quality of the original. Sequels are repeatedly exploited, leaving the few decent sequels a minority and with the recent releases of Grown Ups 2 and The Hangover: Part III, we thought it was time to take a look at ten sequels pointlessly churned out by Hollywood in order to squeeze a few more pennies from its ever-obliging audience.
10. The Godfather: Part III
A follow-up to The Godfather: Part II was always going to be an ambitious, if not an overwhelmingly difficult task, doomed to fail. Unfortunately it did. Comparable to a soap opera, The Godfather: Part III reduces every innovative and interesting storyline of the previous installments to nothing but a conclusion worthy of straight-to-TV release. Gone is the sophistication and intrigue that captivated audiences beforehand. The only redemption of this sequel is that it encourages audiences to pretend that it doesn’t exist; to go on living in a Utopia where Francis Ford Coppola put down the camera at Part II and let everybody live happily ever after.
9. The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix was a near-perfect Sci-Fi film. With an original script, it was undoubtedly a rarity for modern cinema and should have remained a standalone piece of cinematic art. But alas, money talks. Matrix: Reloaded is nothing more than a contemptuous exercise in money making, completely abandoning the concepts of the first installment and instead substituting a decent script for unnecessarily long and unrealistic action sequences. The film bombards us with poorly done special effects that make it laughable and almost cartoonish at times. A redeeming factor of the film however is that it is marginally better than its follow-up, Matrix: Revolutions.
8. Evan Almighty
With a budget bigger than most Michael Bay films and comedic genius Steve Carell leading the charge, Evan Almighty should have been a critical success. Unfortunately, it seems not a penny of that $175 million was spent on a decent screenplay; thus, this sequel should thus be renamed Almighty Mediocrity. This ‘comedy of biblical proportions’ raises barely a chuckle, stuffed full with feigned performances and Christian overtones accompanied by clichéd one-liners. With its contrived and predictable storyline, Evan Almighty effectively flushes its record-breaking budget down the toilet.
7. Taken 2
The only way to truly sabotage a credible and plausible standalone film is to follow it up with a sequel like Taken 2. The first film is unquestionably a modernly terrific gem that doesn’t shy away from gritty themes, and its believability reinforces its greatness. Alas, the sequel takes a nosedive into the realm of the ridiculous. The storyline is so implausible, it’s laughable. Huge plot holes dominate the script from start to finish and when there aren’t plot holes suffocating the audience, there are absurdly long and poorly done action sequences that are edited so rapidly, they could induce epileptic fits. Liam Neeson evidently did the best that he could with such a script, but under a 12A/PG-13 rating, that was never going to be very much.
6. Basic Instinct 2
Sharon Stone is unquestionably the queen of the Femme Fatales. Or at least she was before Basic Instinct 2. She is now known as the ‘risk-addicted cougar’. The film exaggerates and exploits every subtlety of its predecessor, from aggressively sexual outbursts to absurdly over-complex storylines, turning it into nothing but a cliché of everything it hoped to be. There is no doubt that Stone’s Catherine Tramell, although overly sexualized, is as captivating as she was in 1992 but the characters are too limited in the way that they’ve been written to successfully give the film any plausibility. And without the erotic tension of Basic Instinct, the sequel is an extremely dull affair. It may have had a chance with the stunning Sharon Stone accompanied by a decent script, impressive acting and artistic direction but regrettably, Basic Instinct 2 wasn’t so lucky.
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
When watching this film, one must ask oneself: why? Why was this film made? Why was this script approved? Why did Steven Spielberg sign on? Why have army ants suddenly evolved to use each other as a ladder in order to reach their prey? By no means a terrible film but a terrible sequel, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull succeeds in bringing a beloved and impeccable franchise to its knees, trading a solid storyline for CGI gimmicks. Despite the exceptional Harrison Ford maintaining his usual Indy composure, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is nowhere near worthy of its superior pedigree.
4. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
This sequel is guilty of taking a true classic and mercilessly slaughtering it for the world to see. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights isn’t worthy of the first four syllables of its title: despite a brief cameo from Patrick Swayze, this film includes neither the humour, passion nor soul of the original. If it wasn’t affiliated with such a huge hit, with its predictable script and downright terrible acting, it would be another generic dance movie indistinguishable from the next. Although it feebly attempts to imitate its predecessor, it fails miserably to deliver a sore cliché of a dance film.
3. Lost Boys: The Tribe
The Lost Boys is undeniably an unparalleled cult classic, a film that required no sequel in order to be one of the best films of the 80s. It came as a surprise in 2008 that, 21 years after its release, that The Lost Boys was going to be getting a sequel. And what a sequel it was. Lost Boys: The Tribe makes Twilight seem worthy of a Best Picture Oscar. With a script full to the brim of every horror cliché imaginable and vampires as charismatic as brick walls, it comes as no surprise that this sequel was an utter flop.
2. Batman and Robin
What was so bad about this film? Was it the unfortunate nipples on Batman’s suit? Was it the awful Bat credit card scene? The only reasonable and honest answer realistically is: everything. With deplorable directing from Joel Schumacher and set designs that look as though they’ve been stolen from a pre-school play, Batman and Robin is nothing more than a contrived and commercially manipulated product of greedy studio executives.
1. A Good Day To Die Hard
Claiming the top spot is the repugnant and truly dire A Good Day to Die Hard. John McClane, hero and protagonist of some of the greatest films ever made is here demoted to a mere sidekick, at the expense of the film. Even McClane’s witty wisecracks are nowhere to be found; A Good Day to Die Hard is neither entertaining nor humorous. It is a disaster on proportionate levels, possibly caused by the unforgiveable 12A/PG-13 rating that it was awarded and the abysmal direction and script to which it is a victim of. Furthermore, the villains are completely immemorable and the supposedly shocking deus ex machinas can be seen a mile away. It’s a shame that a franchise such as Die Hard should conclude with a film like this, but with a sixth film on the horizon (awfully named Die Hardest), perhaps there is still hope left of redemption.
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