It’s hard for lightning to strike twice, and many parts 2 and 3 and so on just end up rehashing the first film. But every now and then, Hollywood produces a sequel so great that it’s actually better than the original movie.
How many of these are in your Netflix queue?
Friday The 13th Part III (And Beyond)
There’s no denying that the firstFriday The 13this a classic piece of slasher horror, and certainly the most superior of the series in terms of technical filmmaking and actual horror. Unfortunately,Friday The 13thisn’t a horror franchise… but rather the heroic and comedic tale of a zombified man-bull using his automaton strength to impale aroused 22-year olds.
When you look at the series from this lens you begin to realize that the most memorable kills and moments come from the later films. Even Jason’s mask doesn’t originate until the third installment. Yes, those first few movies are iconic in the slasher genre, but it’s only once our behemoth protagonist begins launching speargun attacks and hackingCrispin Gloverfaces does this series hit its full potential.
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
A lot of modern comedy sequels fall into the trap of repeating the same jokes from the original, butThe Naked Gunseries almost seems to havetoo manyjokes to cram into the three films. Are they all good jokes? Oh goodness no. But the highest “good to bad” radio has to be the second film.
For starters, the movie opens with a pretty great sequence of one clueless man repeatedly assaulting Barbara Bush – something you just don’t see in many movies these days. Also, the villains in this movie are the coal and oil industries attempting to stop renewable energy, making this film depressingly ahead of its time.
Planes: Fire & Rescue
While neither of them are very good movies, the firstPlanesis pretty much a reverse rip-off of the firstCars– featuring a small town cropduster who dreams of becoming a big-time racer. So at leastPlanes: Fire & Rescueattempts to try something new, essentially existing as a forest fire disaster film.
Also,Ed Harrisplays an old grumpy helicopter in it, which counts forsomething. So considering that it is a pretty entertaining and original premise, this terrible movie is still the second or third best of the entireCarsfranchise – which probably says more about the other films than it does this.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (And Beyond)
On first glance, the casualFastand/orFuriousfan might say that the Fast and Furenaissance starts closer toFast FivethanTokyo Drift. Those people would be wrong – as the third film in the series, while seemingly unrelated to the main story, really sets the standard for how grandiosity crazy these films can be.
Crazy car stunts aside, this movie establishes a world where complex organized crime disputes are settled with car races. The larger implications being that this is some kind of alternate reality where your ability to drive vehicles is directly tied to your status as a human, completely transcending all other aspects of society.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
It’s weird to think that directorGuillermo del Torohad a career before he madePan’s Labyrinth, and that career includedBlade IIandHellboy. Both of these films were fantastic, but it was only afterPan’s Labyrinthdid the director become equally notable as the brands he was adapting.
Hellboy II: The Golden Armyis his immediate follow up to this newfoundTim Burton-esque fame, and boy can you tell that the leash is off. Using a beautiful combination of practical effects and CGI, the visuals alone far surpass the first film – which is also slightly hurt from having to establish the universe.
Toy Story 3
The originalToy Storybenefited from being unlike anything we’d ever seen before, but from a narrative perspective is pretty basic in the message it was trying to portray. That message obviously being: inanimate objects are secretly conspiring against you and you should destroy them at all costs.
The third film, however, takes us far down the nostalgia rabbit hole – showing the existential pain of outgrowing the tools of our childhood. Only in this case, those tools are toys that can think and feel abandoned – and no doubt eventually conspire against us unless we strike first against them. #ToyWar
Thor: Ragnarok
The firstThoris a delightful introduction and fish-out-of-water story, the secondThor: The Dark Worldis definitely a movie.Thor: Ragnarokis when we finally feel like we’ve met this character and his world, which until then was far too regal to be much fun. Most importantly: it gaveChris Hemsworththe opportunity to be funnyandhave depth.
Ragnarok is what happens when you take theJames Gunn-established world ofGuardians of the Galaxyand let directorTaika Waititiadd his two cents – the results being both completely unhinged and more delightful than anything we had seen from the God of Thunder (untilEndgame, that is).
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apesis such a bad movie that it almost spoils its much better sequels. It plants the entire human apocalypse on a few dumb people who have no idea how to take care of an ape. Caesar’s (Andy Serkis) tragic origin stems from a primate shelter run by people who inexplicably hate the animals they care for.
We haven’t even mentionedJames Franco, who spends the entire film not telling anyone what kind of mad science he is toying with. It’s an absolute clown show, one that results in twoextremely goodsequels taking place long after mankind has nearly wiped itself out – all thanks to a handful of paramount jackasses.
X2: X-Men United
The firstX-Menmovie was nearly historic as it marked the beginning of a very long era in which superhero films were both a) mainstream and b) good. That said, it still suffered all the problems of a franchise just getting its footing – dealing with various character origins and introductions along the way.
X2, on the other hand, threw us right into that mutant pool –opening withwhat is still one of the best CGI superpower sequences ever made. Along with Nightcrawler’s (Alan Cumming) entrance, we also get several occasions where Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) just straight upkabobsdudes… a ghastly spectacle we don’t see again untilLogan.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
The firstAlien vs Predatorthought it would be super neat to take their film about a swole space crab fighting the physical manifestation of sex crime and make it PG-13 so the kids could enjoy it. Because you know how much pre-teens love movies based on comics from before their birth, right?
The R-rated sequelRequiemwasn’t perfect… but at least it immediately killed a child. Also, there was gore – lots and lots of gore. And it actually marks the only time we’ve seen aliens active on a modern earth setting, so there’s also that. It checks off a lot of interesting boxes, even though sadly none of them were “be a good film”.
