By: Nathan Teitelbaum
Sequels are supposed to take the first and raise the stakes, show the characters at their best, and overall be stronger than the original. But what makes a bad sequel? A bad sequel can ruin the characters, ruin a franchise, or just be unnecessary and do more harm than good. I will look at some of the worst sequels of all time and rate them in boombas.
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman and Robin is the fourth in a series of movies and ruined the franchise until Christopher Nolan made The Dark Knight Trilogy starting in 2004. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Mr. Freeze and he is probably the best part of the film. The film has too many villains and a really bad romance plot between Robin and Poison Ivy. The movie is so bad that George Clooney will refund you your money if you saw Batman and Robin in theaters. On top of that, nippled batsuits weren’t the best design choice for the caped crusader. George Clooney has been known to refund people who have seen this movie in theaters.
3 Boombas out of 10
Toy Story 4 (2019)
This movie was just unnecessary and came out a solid nine years after Toy Story 3 with none of the people who worked on the previous three. In this film, Woody decides not to be loyal to the new kid he is taking care of to finally get a chance with Bo Peep because Bonnie is spending more time with a spork than him. In a way, this retcons what Woody said in Toy Story 2 when he said he wasn’t scared of Andy growing up and forgetting him with the quote that he “Wouldn’t miss it for the world”. The movie had some great comedy but that is the only positive I can give this film.
5 Boombas out of 10
Star Wars The Sequel Trilogy (2015-2019)
When George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney he gave them a detailed outline of what the sequels should be. Disney did not use that and made their own. All three of these movies try to retcon big plot points of the originals and themselves. The best of the three is the first one. Finn, who was shown in the first movie a lot was moved in the next movie as a supporting character with a ruined character arc. The third movie retcons Palpatine’s death in Return of the Jedi and doesn’t even do it well.
The Force Awakens: 3 Boombas out of 10
The Last Jedi: 1 Boomba out of 10
The Rise of Skywalker: 2 Boombas out of 10 (Klaud carried)
American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002)
This Movie was never meant to be a sequel to American Psycho. The original title was “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die” but higher ups wanted this to franchise the 2000 film American Psycho. Patrick Bateman is killed within the first 20 minutes of the film to have some sort of connection to the original.. In conclusion, this should have stayed a completely different film.
3 Boombas out of 10
Home Alone 3 (1997)
The first two Home Alone films are Christmas classics and you could play them anytime between Thanksgiving and New years. Home Alone 3 features none of the original cast from the first two and gets weighed down from that.
5 Boombas out of 10.
A Christmas Story 2 (2012)
A Christmas Story is one of the best Christmas movies in the history of Christmas movies. This one, is one of the worst Christmas movies in the history of Christmas movies. The original cast comes back but since this 29 years after the first and the fact that this is a direct to dvd sequel, they are now all grown up. The only good scene was where the dad got another leg lamp.
0 Boombas out of 10
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)
This film is just as bad as it sounds. Enough said.
-5 Boombas out of 10
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987)
Superman IV is a cheesy movie that killed off all hype for Superman films for a while. Superman in this film decides to get rid of all nukes on earth but Lex Luthor makes an evil Superman with radioactive materials. While Superman III was also a pretty bad movie this was made by a movie company infamous for bad movie sequels. The film company for this film had a really good special effects process that they scrapped for budget. Nuclear Man has a really funny scene where he asks “Where is the Woman” and if Superman doesn’t tell him he will “hurt people” and then Nuclear Man goes on a rampage. Superman proceeds to take him to the moon for a pretty hard to follow fight scene. Other than that the special effects are bad and this film looks like it was made in the 60s.
4 Boombas out of 10
Son of the Mask (2005)
The Mask is a 1994 classic film played by Jim Carrey in one of his most defining roles. The sequel does not have Jim Carrey, this movie is the definition of bad sequels. The movie relies on a lot of slapstick surrounding the dog trying to kill the baby and the baby is like Jack-Jack from the Incredibles so he is all CGI and it never looks good. Not to mention the Halloween dance scene.
-3 Boombas out of 10
In conclusion Movie sequels can be some of the greatest films in the genre like Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or The Empire Strikes Back. But at the same token there are these films that can bring down a whole genre. With franchising being more and more common, sequels for films need to be given as much care as the original.
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