Sequel Syndrome
Hollywood is a business. Like any business they find an idea that makes them money and then milk that idea for all it’s worth. Nothing works better as a business model than sequels or less commonly prequels. Think about it, they just hire mostly the same team that collaborated on the previous film, use the same sets when possible and it’s all very easy to organise and produce. Sadly sequels are often abused and provide no real meaningfulness to the universe within the films, sometimes they trash what has come before (cough- Star Wars prequels-cough). Not all sequels are bad of course, The Dark Knight being the best example. That film continues and evolves a satisfying story while providing a better visual spectacle and more dynamic characters. However it’s just that I find there are more bad sides to the sequel phenomenon than good.
Hollywood with the money made from sequels. Probably.
Even sequels that critics say are worse than the films before them usually pull more money than the previous entry in the series. Iron Man for example was very well received and pulled $318M U.S dollars at the Box Office while Iron Man 2 being a poorer film made just as much money. The problem with this is the movie studios realising that they can just pump out sequels and despite the quality they will still fill the seats in the cinema. Transformers is the token example of this trend, the last two films were absolutely god-awful. Despite this, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is the fifth highest grossing film of all time and my goodness is it gross. I know all of this is very obvious but with these examples we arrive at why I intensely dislike this “safe bet” business model we now have in the industry. Hollywood is afraid of taking on new ideas. There is a distinct lack of original storytelling and overall bravery on show. Would Stanley Kubrick be able to make his filmography today? Probably not, it would be deemed too much of a “financial risk”. In this economy where the American dollar is still making its way back after the 2008 crisis Hollywood are afraid of fresh starts. I’m sick of adaptations, sequels and prequels. Give me something like Mad Max, a crazy gamble that pays off. Instead of something fantastic and imaginative we get Men In Black 3. When was the last time one of your friends said “What I really want to see is a third Men In Black movie with two actors who should know better by now”? Thats right, never. We are in trouble people.With this in mind let’s take a look at some of the sequels, prequels and everything else headed your way and why I think they are worth your time or not.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Marc Webb’s not-really-needed reboot that no-one really asked for. Not excited because it’s just too damn soon and the trailer did not really grab me. I really like Andrew Garfield, he gave a solid performance in The Social Network and I’m sure he will do fine here. Emma Stone will also probably be good as a love interest that ISN’T Mary-Jane Watson. I think the main problem with this film will be that it’s just too soon. Ask me again in five years?
Releases: 3/7/12
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Easily my most anticipated film of the year. If this is anything less than brilliant I will withdraw from society to a small cave on the remote Welsh coast pondering where it all went wrong. Let’s face it though; we are in very capable hands here. Christopher Nolan and co. obviously have a very clear vision for their conclusion. By the way I think Anne Hathaway will make a perfect Catwoman.
Releases: 20/7/12
THE BOURNE LEGACY
I was not excited for this but then I remembered how great Jeremy Renner was in The Hurt Locker and I think that he can bring the action intensity that this film will need. Should be surprisingly good.
Releases: 3/8/12
THE EXPENDABLES 2
I must admit I didn’t like the first film. It was rather like ordering a Jack and Coke only to find more Coke than Jack. It was nowhere near violent enough and was filled with clunky dialogue. This entry, however, is much more promising with extended rolls for Schwarzenegger and Willis. Worth your time.
Releases: 17/8/12
TAKEN 2
It’s Liam Neeson at his most badass and the first one was fantastic fun. I have high hopes for this.
Releases: 5/10/12
SKYFALL
Even though Sam Mendes doesn’t seem a logical choice to direct Bond I have extremely high hopes for this after the debacle that was Quantum of Solace. Check out the trailer, it looks like a proper modern Bond film. Ralph Fiennes will make a worthy addition to the series. I also think Daniel Craig is almost the perfect Bond.
Releases: October-November (TBA)
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
Yes, Lord of the Rings was amazing but I have this terrible feeling that we shouldn’t be making a return to Middle-Earth yet. Press recently were invited to view parts of the film, parts which notably are played at 48FPS (Frames per Second) and were not impressed. I just have a bad feeling about this one nowhere near living up to the hype. It’ll still be good I’m sure, just not LOTR good.
Releases: 14/12/12
David.C.Carter
David Valkenet
Scott Tuccori
Alexei MacKenzie
Maxine Firbas
Michael Atoms
David McGorlick
Robbie Smith
I must disagree in the case of Men in Black 3. I have been waiting years for this film to come out and finally saw it a couple of nights ago. I found it to be a fantastic finish the one of my favourite film trilogies. I even managed to shed a tear. Barry Sonnenfeld has done well with the Men in Black series and if in another ten years he were to make another, I’d be more than happy to see that too.
I’m also looking forward to Expendables 2 and Skyfall as you are too. The others I’ll get around to seeing in a less urgent manner. I’m not quite sure what version of Expendables you have seen, as I remember it being pretty violent. Maybe not John Rambo (2008) violent, but it deserves it’s MA15+ rating for sure.
Nice list. I love reading peoples opinions on the sequel part of cinema.
Cheers Scott! I think with The Expendables for me it was a case of not enough action for me. The action was violent enough, I just think there could of been so much more. I will make a point of seeing Men In Black 3, I’m getting mixed reviews all over the place.
I knew ^ this guy ^ would jump to sequels defence. He fuckin’ loves them. I think I may be between the both of you on my sequel opinion. I think sometimes they provide a nice rigid structure or formula that they can either use effectively because the formula has been tried and tested or subvert it to interesting effect. An example of the former would be the recent Mission: Impossible film which was very formulaic and adhered to a safe action movie framework but everything was done so well that it works perfectly. Other examples would be the Jackass sequels. And then an example of the latter would be Nightmare on Elm Street: New Nightmare which totally subverted the idea of the sequel while still relying on the previous films and fitting into the series. Like with everything, there’s good and bad.
Oh, PS: Love ya Scott.
The only reason to hate sequels would be in the case that there’s just too many to count that it’s ridiculous. I’m not reffering to the Halloween series (8 films) or Friday the 13th (11 films). I’m reffering to series’ such as Zatoichi (33 films) and the dreadful original Sherlock Holmes series (254 films, not even joking). They are the kind of series’ that take further exploration of an original film/character too far and it’s just not acceptable, even for me.
However, some of the later Zatoichi installments are quite good.
I’m just going to say it. You should do another of these.
*runs*