Sequels CAN be better...

by Alex Zavala
@alekdome

Lately, almost every movie with great success is a sequel, prequel, reboot, and so on. But sequels have actually been around for a very long time, and it is common place to say that the second part is never as good as the first. This is true only some times, every now and then a movie sequel shadows its predecessor and becomes bigger, better, and in some cases an all time classic.

So I put together a small list of second parts that are much better than their originals.

5. The Godfather Part II

I just put this in fifth place because I have only seen it once. But it was enough to agree with all the great things they say about it. And although the original was great, Francis Ford Coppola really outdid himself with this one. Too bad "Part III" is so god damned terrible..

4. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Yes, believe it or not there was a time when Terminator movies were good. The first film was awesome, but perhaps too ambitious for the technology of the time. Not 'Judgement Day'... this time around, James Cameron revolutionised VFX, gave us a timeless catch phrase (shown in the GIF above) and inspired one hell of a Simpsons parody. And it is to date, 50 times better than the three other sequels combined.

3. Aliens

Ridley Scott's 'Alien' was so cool even its slogan was terrifying (...in space no one can hear you scream...) but almost 40 years later, it feels a little too slow at times. 'Aliens' on the other hand, is still as awesome as ever. Another James Cameron incredible sequel, and in my opinion his masterpiece.... not 'Titanic', and certainly not 'Avatar' as much as he would like to think so. 'Aliens' is more of an action film than a horror one, but it's one hell of an action film. True, they screwed up on the third one having the Alien be a dog..., and killing Ripley.... then massively screwed up on the fourth one, cloning Ripley.... and then they just flushed it down the crapper making not one but two 'Alien vs Predator' films. But hey!.. the currently in development new 'Alien' movie is going to be a sequel to 'Aliens' and will ignore all those terrible decisions. And 'Prometheus' is also pretty cool...

2. The Empire Strikes Back

George Lucas came up with a pretty amazing set of stories with 'Star Wars', but lets be honest... he's a terrible director. I'm even confident that the prequel trilogy would've been really good had he let someone else take the helm. And that's why it was his best decision not to direct the best of all Star Wars movies. 'The Empire Strikes Back' shows a more sinister Darth Vader, a frozen Han Solo, the first non-ridiculous lightsaber fight, and the biggest revelation in cinema history... so Epic that I don't even have to say what it is for everyone to know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a pity that 'Return of the Jedi' is so contrastingly boring and filled with care bears (ewoks)... the last 20 minutes are all that's worth it about that film.

1. The Dark Knight

'Batman Begins' was so good, it was unbelievable how overlooked it was. I wouldn't have imagined the sequel would be not just better, but SO MUCH better. Heath Ledger's death alone wasn't responsible for keeping 'The Dark Knight' at the box office's number one for 7 consecutive weeks. Against all odds, Jack Nicholson's Joker was greatly outdone, and the comic book movie genre was changed forever. This is not only the best sequel of all time, it is also (along with 'The Lego Movie') the worst Oscar snub in history. Thankfully 'The Dark Knight Rises' didn't suck.. it was actually vey good... but still not as good as its predecessor.