SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Which Movie Series Has More Absurdly Bad Sequels?

Posted: Dec 14 2008 12:11 am

I can think of two film series that have two sequel series that are absolutely absurdly bad and offend you more as a fan of the series?

I give you todays contestants -

1978-1987 Superman series. Everyone loves the first movie, some like the second one (I have yet to see the Donner cut, but am excited to see it) but it can dust the line of campiness, the third one can virtually be written off as a Salkind/Warner Brothers blowjob to Richard Pryor and gave a big "fuck off" to all Donner supporters, and the fourth one is so bad/campy that it almost makes you cry.

Robocop Series - Again, the first one is cinematic greatness. But the second one went WAY over the top with violence, threw the story out the window and left you with that sick feeling in your stomach. The third one is bad, but I think its at least watchable and you can get over the fact that Weller is not Robocop.

I had a five hour drive back from Chicago last night and had this argument. I chose on the side of Superman, even though the second one was good. The third and fourth movies destroy the movie series' credibility more than Robocop's. I think that part of it has something to do with Superman having been around for 50 more years than Robocop that the Robocop series had less to lose.

Agree or Disagree?

Posted: Dec 14 2008 12:22 am

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin blow away both Superman III & IV as far as superhero shitfests go. But out of those, Superman sucked more than Robocop.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 12:28 am

resident evil.

actually all three movies sucked

Posted: Dec 14 2008 03:51 am

Shut up, Dorn wrote:

and the fourth one is so bad/campy that it almost makes you cry.

Don't let Tebor see this.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 05:41 pm

Ba‘al wrote:

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin blow away both Superman III & IV as far as superhero shitfests go. But out of those, Superman sucked more than Robocop.

That is pretty unfair. Superman IV is sooooo bad, unwatchable even. Batman Forever is not hellacious IMO. At least we got Jim Carrey as the Riddler, and for this alone its better than SMIV.

Batman and Robin is pretty terrible though.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 05:44 pm

I didn't even know there was a Superman IV until like 2 years ago when Superman Returns came out. I haven't seen it but I have read a lot about it.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 05:50 pm

sidewaydriver wrote:

I didn't even know there was a Superman IV until like 2 years ago when Superman Returns came out. I haven't seen it but I have read a lot about it.

And everything about it is god awful.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 10:35 pm

Actually, I didn't even know there was a Superman III until I saw clips of it on TV.

Also, yes, Resident Evil. Loved the first, others made me wanna blow chunks.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 11:20 pm

Superman IV had a decent story, just wasn't as executed as well as it could have been. Superman III was terrible though.

RoboCop 2 should have been a great movie, it was written by Frank Miller. But the studio butchered his script.

The Highlander has some pretty terrible sequels.

X3: The Last Stand is pretty much the pinnacle of bad sequels, even more than Batman & Robin.

Oh, and Leprechaun. The first Leprechaun was a campy, if not entertaining flick. The sequels got really retarded really quickly.

Posted: Dec 14 2008 11:27 pm

Hey, it may be my X-Men fanboyism taking over, but X3 was pretty good even if they did **** up Juggernaut.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 12:27 am

I nominate Scanners!

Posted: Dec 15 2008 01:39 am

The NeverEnding Story. The second movie is #3 on my personal bottom ten.

Maybe it's my autism, but I disagree with a good number of the sequels mentioned thus far.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

Fucking Halloween. I loved the first Halloween. It was original as hell when it first came out, because in that time period all you had were stupid fucking giant fish coming after you, but Michael Meyers was a believable character. He was scary, evil, and he liked to watch people fuck, then murder them. Hard.

Halloween 2 was not bad either. Followed right after the first one, lots of murder and what not. Fun times. Also, Donald Pleasance fucking blew himself up to kill the maniacal murderer. Yippee!! The series is over.

Not so fast, kemosabe. I really won't even go into Halloween 3, as I am currently writing a review for it right now, and I don't want to spoil the fun. But my basic idea here is that every fucking sequel to Halloween was horrible, unfair, and shit on poor John Carpenters original idea for the film. Don't forget Deborah Hill, who co-wrote it.
RIP.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 03:14 am

joshwoodzell wrote:

Not so fast, kemosabe. I really won't even go into Halloween 3, as I am currently writing a review for it right now, and I don't want to spoil the fun.

Halloween 3 was more creepy to me as a kid than Michael Myers was. That whole Silvershamrock and that kid's pumpkinhead, ah shit I better stop.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 04:16 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

Superman IV had a decent story, just wasn't as executed as well as it could have been.

Oh, and Leprechaun. The first Leprechaun was a campy, if not entertaining flick. The sequels got really retarded really quickly.

I was thinking Tebor (or somebody) went into some detail about the reasons behind the poor execution of Superman IV. But I could be making that up or read it elsewhere on the internet. I'm too fucking lazy to search for it.

In regards to Leprechaun, just like Critters, even Friday the 13th, etc. you can always tell a series has ran out of ideas when they go take the story to outerspace.

jprime wrote:

The NeverEnding Story. The second movie is #3 on my personal bottom ten.

I don't mind the second. Anything with Jonathan Brandis has some nostalgic quality for me since he isn't going to be making anything new. I wonder if anybody here has watched the third Neverending Story. I've seen it at Wal-Mart or someplace, but never for rent. I'm afraid to spend money on it to buy it, but I'd like to see it at least once. Maybe its worth a Netflix rental.

joshwoodzell wrote:

Fucking Halloween.

I like 4 and 5. I've only seen 6 like once or twice and its been a while, so I dunno. I wasn't big on H20 or Resurrection. I have 1,2,4, and 5. I need 3. I'm not really in a hurry to get the others. I'd like to watch 6 again because I really don't remember whether or not I liked it very much.

I will say that most slasher sequels are shitty (some in a good way, some in a bad way). In the Halloween sequels (aside from 3, the oddball), the story actually matters. In Friday the 13th for example, there is a story, but it really doesn't matter what it is as it gets lost in the awesomeness of the murders.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 06:21 am

Planet of the Apes had some terrible sequels.

The first one, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is the worst. It's a clumsily executed, patched up story with a bland hero who is easily overshadowed by a reluctantly returning Charlton Heston even though he only has around twenty minutes of screen time. Oh, and apparently every semi-Apocalypse has to leave a religious cult of mutants in robes, at least if this movie and The Omega Man is to be believed. But maybe that's just when Charlton Heston is around.

The second sequel, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, on the other hand isn't bad. Cornelius and Zera are likeable protagonists and seeing them adapt to the customs of human society is both funny and endeering. Plus the question of whether you can punish somebody for something they haven't done yet is an interesting one. This is the best of the sequels.

The last two films then are nothing but a boring and tedious execution of the events we have already heard about in the previous films, mainly the ape revolution and its consequences. The fifth one could have finished the franchise on a classy note had they decided to go full circle and end it with the arrival of the Icarus. Instead we get a disappointing and predictable happy end with the humans and apes living in peaceful coexistence.

And as if all of that wasn't already enough, Tim Burton gave us his completely unnecessary take on the original movie. Good idea? I don't think so, Tim.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 08:32 am

Tyop wrote:

Planet of the Apes had some terrible sequels.

The first one, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is the worst. It's a clumsily executed, patched up story with a bland hero who is easily overshadowed by a reluctantly returning Charlton Heston even though he only has around twenty minutes of screen time. Oh, and apparently every semi-Apocalypse has to leave a religious cult of mutants in robes, at least if this movie and The Omega Man is to be believed. But maybe that's just when Charlton Heston is around.

The second sequel, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, on the other hand isn't bad. Cornelius and Zera are likeable protagonists and seeing them adapt to the customs of human society is both funny and endeering. Plus the question of whether you can punish somebody for something they haven't done yet is an interesting one. This is the best of the sequels.

The last two films then are nothing but a boring and tedious execution of the events we have already heard about in the previous films, mainly the ape revolution and its consequences. The fifth one could have finished the franchise on a classy note had they decided to go full circle and end it with the arrivial of the Icarus. Instead we get a disappointing and predictable happy end with the humans and apes living in peaceful coexistence.

And as if all of that wasn't already enough, Tim Burton gave us his completely unnecessary take on the original movie. Good idea? I don't think so, Tim.

I was a big Planet of the Apes fan as a kid, I would write Planet of the Apes fiction in 3rd and 4th grade and put my friends in the stories. Teachers would take my lowest grade and replace it with an E for writing them. I had to call them "Planet of Apes" because my teacher was teaching me about copyrights:D

Planet of the Apes was the best everyone agrees on that
Beneath wasn't horrible but would have fared better with Heston as the main guy instead of Brent.
Escape was good in its own way, but really depressing at the end.
Conquest was suppose to have an underlying theme of whites vs blacks, the message in the end was good, but the movie was poorly executed.
Battle was a little better than Conquest, but by this time all remnants of the first two movies were gone and made just for the extreme Planet of the Apes geeks who had to see every movie.
The Marky Mark Planet of the Apes was a huge disrespect to the franchise.

The Planet of the Apes TV series in 74 was pretty good in my opinion, also I think they did an updated Apes TV Series on SCIFI in like 95 or 94 I believe.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

I actually liked all the apes movies (excluding marky mark version) the first was the best but the others had their charm. When i have the money i plan on getting the huge apehead collection of the films and tv series

Posted: Dec 15 2008 03:26 pm

Everybody hates The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, but I loved 'em myself.

X3 was nice... funny too.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 03:30 pm

Mr. Bomberman wrote:

X3 was nice... funny too.

The Juggernaut bitch....*pelted with rocks*

Title: ! Joined: Aug 29 2006 Posts: 87

The first Mortal Kombat movie wasn't that bad, but the sequel...

Yeah.

Posted: Dec 15 2008 09:01 pm

The Karate Kid...why did they have to keep going with it?

Posted: Dec 15 2008 11:08 pm

Douche McCallister wrote:

The Karate Kid...why did they have to keep going with it?

I'm okay with the first 3. They obviously get worse, but I'm can watch and enjoy them. But Next Karate Kid was indeed a mistake.

Joined: Aug 26 2007 Posts: 2752

Syd Lexia wrote:

X3: The Last Stand is pretty much the pinnacle of bad sequels, even more than Batman & Robin.

Syd, i'll admit that X3 was shit but come on . . . worse then Batman & Robin? Batman & Robin had . . . bat-credit card and bungee surfing and Arnold with his ice puns. At least X3 tried to be like the other movies . . . B&R was off doing it's own thing and failed hard.

Posted: Dec 16 2008 12:23 am

does star wars count?