Editorial - Sequels: Why do most never measure up?

And now, we come to a topic that is on most movie goers lists for many years, the nature of sequels and why most never measure up.

And why I feel most never measure up to their previous counterparts lies in three examples I will present: Ghostbusters 2, Robocop 2 and Highlander 2.

I know what you’re thinking: what do those three have in common; well for my money all three represent possibly the three worst sequels ever made as they are truly a mess and made purely because the originals that came before them were such smash hits, the studios just had to make them but instead they just feel like total cash ins with little to no effort to actually do their originals justice and most likely relying on wall to wall action and special effects to try and top the original film.

As for the other end of the spectrum, there is probably only one sequel that I would vote as being better than the original and that is “The Empire Strikes Back”, I know it’s a “well, duh” vote, but to me it really builds on the original Star Wars and creates a better and well made film and another I want to mention, “Mad Max 2” is an example of a sequel as good as the original but also one that simply could not exist without the original movie behind it.

Mad Max 2 is also an example of what I feel constitutes a genuine sequel, one that not necessarily ends with a cliffhanger for another film but one that has a beginning, middle and end all its own and leaves you satisfied to the point that you may not want to see a third to follow it.

So there you have it folks, all of these mentioned above are what I consider the nature of movie sequels and their various incarnations to how they relate to movie goers.