The Great Sequel List!

Sequels. They’ve often been the butt of many jokes because many of them are made badly. In an effort to cash in on a good idea, sequels are often poorly written and directed. The idea is to get the audience back into the theater based on the name only, rather than the continuation of a compelling story. And now, in an entertainment industry that seems propelled by the “three-play”, or movie franchises in three installments, the second movie is often overlooked in regards to the story as a whole. But they are not all bad. A few sequels have shown us that, not only was the first movie a great idea, but that the story can be carried on.
Here is my top five movie sequel list, in no particular order:

ALIENS
While Alien, a surprise horror hit, created a new kind of monster, Aliens took everything great about the first movie and took it in a whole new direction. Not only did James Cameron change the genre from horror to action, but he created a new action character that we had not seen before- the female action hero. Not only was Ripley recreated as a strong action character, but Cameron surrounded her with a great supporting cast. This is one sequel that was definitely better than the first.

LETHAL WEAPON 2
Sure Mel Gibson has gone off the rails now, but back when he played Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon, he was still the good guy. The buddy action adventure created in Lethal Weapon carried into Lethal Weapon 2, but Richard Donner did something much like Cameron did with Aliens. He gave us more reason to like the characters. Rather than just throwing more bad guys at the duo, Donner gives the characters depth, especially with Riggs. We know from Lethal Weapon that Riggs lost his wife, but in Lethal Weapon 2, Donner tells us why. And it was brilliant all the way to the end.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Yes, Empire was the best Star Wars movie. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets. Even though the Star Wars series was planned from the beginning as a “Three-play”, Lucus didn’t skimp on the story with Empire. Taking a darker turn and letting us see that things don’t always go right for the heros, Lucus gave us plenty of reasons to love the stories he was telling. And no one who saw those movies during their original run in theaters will ever forget the shockwave that rolled across the universe when we found out who Luke’s father really was.

STAR TREK 2: THE WRATH OF KHAN
Widely regarded as one of the best Star Trek movie ever made, The Wrath of Kahn followed the odd and disjointed Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Such a change was created between that first movie and Wrath of Kahn, that I can only imagine a meeting where someone said, “Look. The first one didn’t make any sense. People love Star Trek for the characters, not for all of this garbage.” If a meeting like that did take place, they were right. Not only does the Wrath of Kahn bring back the focus to the characters, it connects directly to the original series by re-introducing Kahn into the mix. I would be willing to say that without The Wrath of Kahn, the Star Trek universe would have faltered greatly, if not died altogether.

THE ROAD WARRIOR
Taking a small independent movie from Australia and making a sequel to it is a risky proposition. Making that sequel for an American audience that had largely not seen the first movie is almost unheard of. But make it they did, and gave America and the world our best image of a post-apocolypic world. Transformed from police officer to wasteland warrior, Mad Max became one of the 80’s most popular action heros (not to mention catapulting Mel Gibson into stardom.) The Road Warrior did the same thing that all of the other movies on this list did- gave us a reason to continue rooting for the hero. While we learn little about Max’s past (we don’t need to, we saw it in Mad Max) we do get to see Max develop as a character. And The Road Warrior gave us one other thing, Bruce Spence, playing one of my favorite characters.

That is my top five list. However, since I actually have six true favorites in the sequels catagory, I am going to add an honorable mention for one other movie:

CLERKS 2
Kevin Smith, after almost ten years, returns to the convenience store that started his career and shows us what has become of Dante and Randall. And what he creates is pure genius. The way that Smith ends both the movie and the Clerks franchise is one of the best endings that I’ve seen for a movie in a long time. If you haven’t seen this one, go and rent both Clerks and Clerks 2 and have a look. It’s well worth it.

So that’s it. That’s that’s my list. However, if this one is popular, there may be a Sequel’s List 2. You never know!