Top Five better sequels

August 8th, 2008

Everyone says that a sequel is never quite as good as the original and for a lot of franchises I would agree.   But there are a growing number of sequels that are not only equalling but surpassing their predecessors.   This week’s top five takes a look at those sequels.   Unfortunately Speed 2 will not be on the list.

  1. Terminator 2 - I love the original film but T2 is so much better.   The first film is raw and gritty and ground breaking but the sequel is so much more well rounded and fun.   The film is simply more entertaining and watchable.   A valid point though is that it is only so good because it builds upon the groundwork set down by the original.   Sarah has grown and really is the pivotal character a problem faced by T3 with her absence.
  2. The Dark Knight - Another film that built upon the foundation of an excellent previous entry,   The Dark Knight isn’t bogged down in the origin story and therefore can really stretch the characters and story.   Again at the end of the day the film is just better.
  3. Empire Strikes Back - An easy choice, clearly the best of all the Star Wars films.   It was almost like the actors were just warming up in the first and are truly comfortable come the second.   Who doesn’t love Han shooting at Vader?   Or the epic ‘I am your father’ scene?
  4. Spider-Man 2 - Generally I dislike origin films anyway and as good as Spider-Man was the sequel is so much more well rounded, better villain, established hero, not too heavy, not too light… just right.
  5. Wrath of Khan - Compare it to the original theatrical release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the re-released Director’s Cut was much better) Star Trek 2 is light years ahead.   The pacing, the battles, the uniforms!! It was a much more personal story, the V’Ger storyline is just too huge and sweeping, we are never in any doubt that Kirk is going to kick the space cloud of boredom’s arse.   It’s just a matter of when.   In WoK there is real tension and of course not everybody makes it back safely.

Now I know there are those of you who are are howling about the omission of Aliens and The Godfather 2.   Just settle on down, I didn’t put them in because I consider them equals to their predecessors.   Alien and Godfather 1 are excellent films on par with their sequels.

So apart from those two what other sequels are better than the first?

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Top five comic book movies

May 2nd, 2008

In 2007 Spider-man 3 and 300 both appear in the top ten grossing films for that year, in 2006 the comic book movies were X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns and the year before that saw Batman Begins in that top ten list.

Comic book movies are a huge part of the movie industry now with more on the way (yay!) so the little robots at Quit Your Day Job have been furiously working out the top five comic book movies for this weeks Friday Five:

The Quit Your Day Job top five comic book movies

  1. Iron Man - With all the fanboy drooling I’ve done around here in the past couple of days this is really a no-brainer.   I stand by my choice though and for once the critics are supporting me.   I mean I’m sure there are going to be plenty of people who dislike this film, they’re entitled to their opinion even if they are wrong.   Downey Jr is brilliantly cast as Tony Stark and the rest of the cast all put in quality performances, its pace is great even for an origin film and effects are excellent.   What makes the movie stand out though is that it is heavily focused on the man behind the mask, what makes him want to be Iron Man and what are his flaws?
  2. Spider-Man 2 - I generally dislike origin films and this is the only reason Spider-Man 2 instead of the first one is featured on the list.   That and I think this is just a more well rounded film when compared to the first.   The special effects seemed to be a little smoother.   The Spider-Man films really show the quality that can be made from such great source material.   The costume alone is worth it, the wonderful texture that they added to it adds to the overall effect of the film.
  3. Batman Begins - Ummm did I just say I dislike origin films?   Four out of the five can be classed as origin films (X-Men is on the fence).   This was a hard choice for me though, a Batman film was always going to be in the list, end of story, but which one?   I loved the 89 Tim Burton film, it reintroduced Batman and certainly fostered my love of comic books and their movies.   But when I look at that period of Batman films I probably prefer Batman Returns the most, Batman and Robin the least (does this really have to be said?).   I recognise however that Batman Begins is a superior Batman film in most ways, the only reason I think I would prefer the others is because they came out as I was maturing and had heavy influences on my life.   Bale is a fantastic Batman and the way they built the character up in this film was really well done and in the theme of the current Batman comics.   You can’t stand in the same stream twice so I accept change and new ideas and I accept Batman Begins.
  4. X-Men - I always feared that X-Men would be too involved, too convoluted with too much back story for me to ever enjoy.   I tried to get on board the comic series several times only to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material and characters.   I was pleased to see only a core group in the first X-Men film and another great cast.   Wolverine particularly shines in this one as it was always expected to be.   I was surprised and eventually really impressed with their handling of Magneto.
  5. Superman - I really enjoyed Superman Returns but mainly because of the homage and respect paid to the original Superman film.   I mean this is really the grand daddy of them all.   Another example of when casting goes very right.   Christopher Reeve was simply wonderful as Superman/Clark Kent.   The tagline to the film was ‘you’ll believe a man can fly’ and despite the effect not holding up today it was true for the time.   What an amazing soundtrack.

This was actually a hard list and it breaks my heart to have left some films off, Hellboy, The Punisher, 300, From Hell and Sin City all could have gone on the list, but it’s a list of five.   So what other comic book movies are you all partial to?

Haven’t quite thought of next week’s top five - it’ll be a surprise!

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