Worst Sequel
We have always looked at the best, but now lets look at one subject people always talk about quality of sequels and just how bad some really are. I have picked this subject and I expect to see many different interpenetration of what makes a sequel bad.
Rob and myself are running a Stephen King blogathon through October so I think it would only b right for us to have our own Opinion Battle on Stephen King works, if you want to join in email [email protected] by 4th October 2015 with your picks.
Darren – Movie Reviews 101
Saw 6
I personally am picking a film that shattered what was created by the previous film, I am not saying this is the worst film ever I just feel this film doesn’t do the previous instalments the credit they deserve. I am a fan of the idea behind the Saw movies but this one ends up tearing up the rule book Jigsaw has created. I just don’t get how they can have a game where an insurance man can pick or choice which members of his team can live or not, the whole point of this franchise was to make YOU want to live. In fairness a lot of the Saw films could have been picked but this is easily the worst in my opinion and that is the name of the game.
Kim – Tranquil Dreams
Cars 2 (2011)
Some of you out there who know me know that I am a huge fan of animation and for the most part, I enjoy it a lot. I can find the reasons to love it. I was late to the whole Cars fad for Pixar. While Cars is not my favorite Pixar movie, it is a ton of fun. The premise is original and the visuals are nice. The characters and the voice work is also done really well. Except, I went to see Cars 2 in the theatres. Maybe its the fact that I had to pay to see it, my expectations were higher but man, Cars 2 is a snoozefest. Its boring and uneventful and just plain sad to see how low the original concept sunk down to. Maybe its not the worst sequel out there but it deserved a much better sequel and we know Pixar has it in them since they did a great run with the Toy Story franchise, right? Still, maybe the fact that its so disappointing makes this one of the worst sequels I’ve seen. Frustratingly, boring…I think its because of that, I don’t watch Cars anymore. The thought of Cars 2 just makes me a little angry.
Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
What a way to destroy a series. The first three movies were amazingly done by Spielberg and Lucas and all of them are now considered as part of the echelon of movie trilogies. For some strange reason, they chose to revisit the character of Indiana Jones nearly 20 years later and gave us a lackluster story that doesn’t even come close to being as great as the previous ones.
The jokes and puns are stale, the villains are silly and they take the story to places where Indiana Jones should never be anywhere near.
The addition of Mutt (befitting character name for Shia LaBeouf) and return of Karen Allen also didn’t work as well for the geriatric Indy.
Sometimes, things should be stopped when they are ahead, but that definitely wasn’t done in this case.
PITY!!!! L
Ocean’s Twelve
It’s no secret that I absolutely love Ocean’s Eleven. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and I lost count years ago how many times I have seen it. I was excited when I finally was able to watch Ocean’s Twelve. What’s not to be excited about when getting to see Danny, Rusty, and the whole crew together again, this time in Europe, a location ripe with heist possibilities? Apparently there isn’t a lot to be excited about. The idea to set the film in Europe was a good idea, but it wasn’t used to its fullest potential. And the twist ending just leaves you confused. Ocean’s Twelve tried to do too much, a whole wheels within wheels thing, and it falls over itself trying to be too clever. Ocean’s Eleven deserved a much better follow up than this.
Evan Almighty (2007)
This has been a difficult choice this week as it’s rare that I watch bad movies. My precious spare time is much better spent with movies recommended to me for their greatness. There are those times however, that a movie you expected to be great is just a complete disaster, which was the case with Evan Almighty.
Bruce Almighty is one of my all time favourites, and I loved Steve Carell’s character, so when he got a movie of his own I thought it would be a winner. Sadly, the story was just plain stupid and nearly every joke fell flat for me. I actually had to check IMDB to remind me of the plot, I think my brain banished all memories of this movie for me on my behalf.
Khalid – The Blazing Reel
Batman & Robin (1997)
What can I say about Batman & Robin that hasn’t already been said before? I mean bashing Batman & Robin has become such a common thing that people seem to do it just for the heck of it. I’ll start by saying that it’s one of the greatest atrocities to fall on god’s green earth. It’s a stain on the legacy of the Caped Crusader and it’s simply one of the worst movies ever made.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
As far as sequels go, there’s a lot of schlock out there. Unfortunately, as of yet, I haven’t seen a lot of it, so I have to go based off what I personally know. And what I know is that Terminator 3 absolutely sucks. As a movie on its own, it’s a subpar sci-fi/action film with some incredibly uncomfortable and, most of the time, unfunny humor, but, as a follow-up to T2, one of the greatest sci-fi/action films of all time, it’s complete and utter garbage.
T2 is a masterpiece of 90’s filmmaking, a perfect film, for what it is. It’s groundbreaking in its use of special effects, some of which hold up remarkably well to this day. But T3’s special effects look like complete and utter garbage.
The action in T3 is passable, at best. The stakes aren’t tangible, and there’s very little tension, as Arnold’s T-800 (or T-850, or whatever) has been overpowered to a ridiculous level. He now has super strength on a level that he never displayed in the previous movie. And the villain, the T-X, is just horrendous. She’s a definite downgrade from the T-1000, as what she can do is limited by her metal endoskeleton. Also, I think that her character can be summed up in this gif:
Yeah, that happened.
The writing is crap, the jokes fall flat, the entire set-up is cheap, and renders all the work that Sarah and John Connor did in T2 pointless! Speaking of which, they just kill off Sarah Connor, one of the most badass characters in movie history, off-screen!
Nothing in the film is very memorable, and the ending is based on the logic of, “Well, we’ve gotta keep making these movies forever, and we can’t keep pushing back Judgement Day, so let’s just have it happen! What could go wrong?” Terminator Salvation could go wrong, movie executives. Terminator Salvation could go wrong.
Crank: High Voltage (2009)
I just remember this film was really stupid with outrageous scenes that were made from cartoon and plasticine and shit. It didn’t work. I do actually like the original Crank movie which is oddly fun but this sequel took all the craziness, multiplied it by a trillion and made an annoying, awful film that I turned off before the end. And I hardly ever do that. So whilst there are loads of terrible sequels this still stands out in my mind as a really, really bad movie.
James – Back to the Viewer
Jurassic Park III
A picture says a thousand words:
S.G. Liput – Rhyme & Reason
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is not only one of the worst sequels but one of the lamest, cheesiest films ever made. I love the first two Superman films, which certainly have their corny moments but still can be taken somewhat seriously (thanks to elements like John Williams’ iconic score and Marlon Brando’s overrated cameo), but this…this isn’t worth the film it was printed on. Batman and Robin was obviously meant to be campy, but the fact that all the principal cast members returned for this indicated the filmmakers wanted it to be halfway worthwhile. Even Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman are here, but they all exhibit the worst mentality for good actors, just going through the motions for a paycheck. The plot is nonsensical (a giant net to collect the world’s nuclear weapons?!), the fights between Superman and his ridiculous clone Nuclear Man are atrocious (radioactive nails?!), and the special effects are as laughable and lazy as they come (capes flapping in space? Why’d they even bother to hide the wires or the blue screen?) This is the kind of movie that gave superhero films a bad name. Superman IV was the dying gasp of the original franchise; it doesn’t get much worse than this.
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