Sequels

Sequels: the movies that come after the first movie. Plenty of sequels are excellent, even better than the originals, but how many sequels are out there that suck? Or that nobody liked because the first movie, the original movie, was so excellent?

Iron Man 2.

Toy Story 2.

Cars 2.

The Lion King 2.

The Little Mermaid 2.

Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland.

Mulan 2.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

Spider-Man 2.

The Matrix Reloaded.

Legally Blonde 2.

Revenge of the Nerds 2.

Caddyshack II.

etc.

Granted, some of the movies aren't actually that bad (personally, I like Iron Man 2 and Toy Story 2 and Die Hard 2 wasn't terrible and I really liked The Matrix trilogy). And I haven't even seen all of the movies I listed. But enough sequels don't live up to the same expectations of the first or just aren't as good as the first one. In fact, I doubt you've even heard of some of those sequels (especially the older ones).

I saw Wreck-It Ralph finally two days ago and I started thinking about how great a movie it was, but then I remembered it was a DISNEY movie, NOT a Pixar movie, and that got me to thinking about how many sequels Disney makes that don't live up to the first one (cough see most of the list above cough). And that made me fear it's possible future. What if Disney created a sequel for Wreck-It Ralph? I hope not, because I loved the movie just as it was.

All this sequel talk has gotten me to thinking about other sequels that people want or don't want... The Incredibles 2. I hang out on tumblr a lot, and tons of people want a sequel to that movie but tons also don't want a sequel. Me? I think that movie is fine without a sequel. I mean, they wrapped up the whole movie really well, even with the introduction of the weird mole thing. Like, that's gonna get handled, why do we need to know how it happens? The super family is back to doing what they do, and that's that. I don't think it needs a sequel that might ruin it. Or it might not ruin it. Let's just take our chances and stick with the first one.

Monsters' University. Okay, so technically that's a prequel, but I've heard mixed reviews about it. Some people are excited and over-the-moon for it (cough my mom cough) but the reviews from the paper are like "oh it's nice yeah sure but blah blah." Of course, who trusts the reviewers?

Despicable Me 2. The first movie, I've heard, went in and out of production because they couldn't get enough funding for it or something, but when it finally came out, wasn't it really good? So how do you think the sequel will succeed? So far it looks good, but no promises, right? Let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best. (below is a trailer for DM2 so you can judge it for yourself)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will appear sometime in the next year or two. Unfortunately for this movie, I heard a couple critics disapprove of the first one, and a LOT more people who were like "Oh Andrew Garfield is a terrible Peter Parker, Toby Macguire all the way" blah blah blah. They give me the impression they didn't appreciate that movie. BUT! Hopefully TAS-M2 will be better, at least for those people.

THE AVENGERS 2!! I don't know about you, but as soon as The Avengers came out I was in a theatre to watch it. In fact, I saw it twice. I mean, what person who loves Firefly and Dr Horrible DOESN'T go out to watch Joss Whedon's newest creation? Now I'm just rambling though... I'm DEFINITELY excited for The Avengers 2, but another thing: will it live up to its predecessor? The Avengers was top notch, one of the best movies (I think it actually was best movie of the year that year... if not the other movie should be shot and The Avengers can take its place)... so can a sequel beat it? Especially with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor 2: The Dark World coming out... Also Iron Man 3, I mean who can forget such a brilliant piece of work? (btw if you haven't listened to the soundtrack for that, you really must, because Brian Tyler is a brilliant composer and the IM3 soundtrack is my favorite soundtrack to date. Listen here for a sample of the closing credits and opening credits!)
Speaking of which...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor 2: The Dark World.
There's a bit of hype for these two, if you ask me, especially CA. In fact, I'm super excited for both. But will they be better than the first ones? In my expert opinion, Thor 2 will definitely beat out Thor for better movie, because I personally didn't like Thor very much -- the story dragged, and I know Thor's backstory is probably really important, but I got bored watching it, and for a superhero movie that is NOT a good thing. And although I would like to say Captain America: The First Avenger was an awesome movie and can't be beaten, I don't think I can... The more I think about it, the more I feel like The First Avenger was just an introduction to Cap, and can definitely be outdone as long as The Winter Soldier doesn't follow the same kind of introduction sort of story. Which I doubt it will, because we already know who Cap is!

So there's a bunch of movies with sequels coming out, some of which were kind of being expected but some of which were not at all one of the things people were expecting. I mean, who knew about Monsters' University, right?

Anyway, I kind of got off topic once I started talking about MU, but some movies don't need sequels, and yet are given sequels anyway just because the producer or the director or blah blah thought the first movie did well. "What? The first movie did well, you say? Let's make another!" Yayyyy--NO.

Make a sequel, they said.
It will do good, they said.
Fans will love it, they said.
Ha ha ha nope.