The first Jurassic Park movie is all time one of the greatest films ever made with the special effects still holding up to this day. The 2nd film was still very enjoyable in my opinion but it was just a cookie cutter sequel not bad, not good. The 3rd film wasn’t great at all. But compared to the rest of the series the 3rd film is basically the godfather.
As another personal pick the 1st blade movie is a hood classic good. The other 2 not so much.
Is there any what gets better? There are good sequels, but once it becomes movie franchise, it all turns to shit. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
I’m of the opinion that the Austin Powers series got better with each film.
Yeah, 2 was just 1 again, with all the same jokes but in reverse. But 3 was legitimately different and better, so it saved the whole thing!
Are you trolling? I cant tell, i guess.
Dark Knight
It being filmed together is it being a 6+ hour movie in 3 chapters. I think it’s a single project not successive films. Just how I frame it, I concede to technicalities if you must
I watched them back to back once and can confirm. They work perfectly as a single long movie.
The Sergio Leone trilogy with Clint Eastwood arguably gets better. The first one was almost a shot-for-shot remake of Yojimbo - good but derivative. The third movie stood up well against the early ones and the music was maybe the best.
Evil Dead, at least for me. I enjoyed the first movies but absolutely love Army of Darkness.
The James Bond franchise gets better over time arguably. It has ups and downs, but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s downward trend overall.
Mad Max.
Not a fan of the Scream movies, but just saw a video of a guy talking about how each one gets better than the last one mainly because they are self aware of being sequels and use that to enrich the narrative
Guessing from the reviews on Scream 3 and Scream VII, I’d say there are exceptions.
I’d argue the original Evil Dead trilogy get progressively better with each movie.
Franchises where the second film is more broadly acclaimed than the first: Star Wars, The Godfather, The Dark Knight, arguably Alien, Terminator, Star Trek, Paddington, Rocky, James Bond, The Pink Panther, Mad Max. Ones where the third film is the most acclaimed: arguably Indiana Jones, maybe Toy Story, LOTR (kind of all a merged movie so doesn’t count), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Star Wars prequels
Hahaha. Now do a set where the second movie was better than the first but the third movie was absolutely awful.
Theres an argument that The Godfather Pt 2 is the best of the 3
Spiderman 2 was arguably better than Spiderman 1. 3 was worse tho.
And being extremely malicious, I like two towers and return of the king more than the fellowship of the ring :)
Die Hard 3 is arguably the best of the 3.
Ouija 2 Origin of Evil by Mike Flannigan is the rare exception where the sequel trounced the OG in every way.
The Librarian also all three movies are good, with the third being arguably the best.
James Bond. Because each bond had it’s fans.
BronsonBrosnan, Moore and Connery are my Bond trifecta.I lost interest after
BrosnanBrosnan and haven’t seen another Bond film since Die Another Day in 2002. I’m cool with it.You should watch Casino Royale, even if you don’t watch the others.
Charles Bronson IS James Bond, to me. He embodied the role.
Is Bronson mistype or did I miss something?
Yeah it’s a typo. I posted this late.
Toy Story 3 and 4. Far superior to 1 and 2 if you put aside the groundbreaking CG of the first.
Sister Act 2
Tron, if you care about the music. Going from peak (Wendy Carlos) to peak (Daft Punk) to peak (Nine Inch Nails) even if the movies are bad.
so most franchises usually have a product Decline?
So long as you can put yourself in the headspace, the fast and furious movies do get better when you realize that every movie is the exact same film (besides Tokyo drift anyway), but with higher stakes than the last one, to kind of absurd levels - starts with street racing, ends up in space, through so many movies.
But that’s kind of a meta analysis based on what they are, not the actual quality, none of them are amazing, but fine if you can turn your brain off for a bit
Not true at all.
Top gun I guess. Second one was better than first one.
The Matrix.
Not sure how that isn’t mentioned yet!
First movie was a masterpiece that became a classic, the rest were completely unnecessary.
When my brother showed The Matrix to his kid, she asked “Is there another one?” and he said “No.”
I can respect the fourth one. Sure, it was a terrible movie but it feels like a deliberate piss take on the idea of reviving the franchise. And I can respect that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking that. It was so bad, so so bad… But yeah I couldn’t help but feel the wachowski sister that did it (if I’m not wrong the other one didn’t participate) just dit it to spite the studio for trying to make a moneygrab movie.
Having said that, despite the 2nd and 3rd movies not being great by any means compared to the first one, I do still enjoy them, like a guilty pleasure kinda thing.
IIRC in the first half hour they explicitly shit talk the execs wanting a sequel so it’s quite obvious it’s a middle finger to Warner bros.
Personally I was surprised that they even allowed it since it was so explicit about it. Lol
The 2nd and 3rd ones are still fun, action-packed movies with ground-breaking effects. The Matrix set an impossibly high bar and it was not originally planned to be a sequel, let alone a trilogy. They also whipped them together much faster, so in that context, I think they did a great job.
Huh. Douglas Adams did something similar when his publisher kept pressuring him to make another Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book.
“STOP MAKING ME WRITE THESE”
There are four of them ?
unfortunately, yes.
Friend, let me save you a couple of hours and a lot of pain.
There are only 3.
Literally.
The first thing I thought after I finished watching the 4th one, was that it didn’t happen.
Eh. A bad movie is a bad movie, regardless of what the footnotes say.
I said I can respect it, not that it’s good. It feels like a deliberate attempt to torpedo the revival of a series that really didn’t need to be revived. That’s what I can respect, not the movie on its own merits.
I saw the original Matrix like once and never watched the sequels, so I sat down and watched them all recently. The hate for the sequels is way overblown. Apart from the bad CGI in the second, I thought they were great sequels that took the story in interesting directions.
The problem I have with the Matrix sequels…1. they’re too far up their own ass. The original was a little up its own ass but it was up the part of its own ass that mattered for the story it was telling. Reloaded and Revelations are up their whole ass. “Love is a word.” 🙄 2. The original is a very straightforward hero’s journey in which deciding to answer the call is the ultimate key to the hero’s power. The sequels are about fate and inevitability and how basically no decision can ever matter. So we’re sorry to have bothered you.
I think some of the fights just started feeling extra stupid. In particular I’m thinking of the multiple smiths in the park and the final one with him in the rain.
Yeah, the multiple smith fight is the most egregious. Trim that down and take out the most offensive CGI and I feel like Reloaded would have been vastly improved.
As much as I personally love all the over-the-top action, I agree on the first Smith fight in the park. It’s about 3 minutes too long imo.
The Animatrix was a good take on other parts of the universe.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there’s a fifth one in production right now lol.
don’t even get me started on resurections. Holy shit. It is bullshit that that movie is now canon :/
I’m not 100%, but I’m pretty sure Lana undertook it to destroy the series and get the movie studio to stop asking for sequels. It’s like the central theme of the movie.
It’s obvious if you watch the movie
that would not surprise me
The latest Gundam series is like that. The GQUUUUX one. “LET THINGS DIE AND MAKE NEW THINGS INSTEAD” says the original Gundam from the original series in the same art style while looking directly into the camera.
Taken 3 makes Taken 2 look like Taken 1.
Straight Tooken starring Liam Neesons.
Aw, goo godda ge guckin’ gidding ge!
People talk about Taken like it’s a good movie. I saw it recently for the first time, and just the fact that they tried to make the protagonist scary and capable is just hilarious to me. Yeah okay let’s pretend he can run and fight, as a goof.
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I also dont care for any of the John Wick movies. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The fight scenes with Keanu kill it for me. Besides the complete absence of plot and characters.
I can’t help but think of Steven Seagal fighting guys who are just flipping themselves.
The actual question should be: which doesn’t?
- The Lord of the Rings was very consistent. Many people think that Return of the King is the best one.
- Knives Out had a rather disappointing second part but the third one is amazing.
Yeah, that’s all I can think of right now.
Lord of the Rings barely counts, because not only were all three books out and classics before the movies started (obviously), but the three movies were basically worked on at the same time. It’s nuts, but somehow they managed to do it.
So it’s not like they released the first, got crazy hype, and then phoned everyone up and said “electric Boogaloo, you in?”. They’d already shot most of the second and third by the time the first came out, as I recall.
Also I really liked Glass Onion 😛
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Knives Out 2 is by far my favorite and I love all three. I’ve only laughed that hard at a movie a handful of times.
My main criticism about Glass Onion is that the twist only works because Blanc knows something from the start that the audience can’t really figure out on their own. I prefer detective stories where the main character has the same opportunities to gather information as I have and if I pay close enough attention, I can figure out most of what happened before the big reveal.
But I’m glad that you liked it. Shows that the series caters to different tastes.
Glass Onion was disappointing?
At least to me and my friends who watched it with me. See my other reply for an explanation why. But of course, tastes differ and there seem to be quite a few people on here who liked it.
Terminator 2 is always the classic example, been downhill since then though
The planet of the apes movies, it’s a trilogy and actually very good
I’d add Back to the Future, it’s pretty consistent IMO.
I haven’t seen Toy Story 4 yet but the original trilogy was awesome
I haven’t seen fourth, but Kung fu Panda was one of the best trilogies ever.
I’m just thinking in big franchises, because I’m not a well-schooled film-nerd. But even I can think of a lot of examples of sequels better than the originals.
It’s a matter of taste, but I think Rocky 2 is the strongest film in the franchise. I think it’s more commonly believed that Aliens is a stronger film than Alien. Evil Dead 2 is better than Evil Dead, but that might not count since its a soft reboot. Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan is pretty much a classic example. Terminator 2 is a very different movie than Terminator 1, making comparison weird but it’s usually regarded as better. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is arguably stronger than Spider-Man, though obviously 3 was a bit of a mess.
Going to put this in a separate section. Admittedly, whether this should count is arguable. Still, If you count Marvel movies as direct sequels to others, it gets ridiculously easy: Thor: Ragnarok is so much better than all the other Thor movies its kind of nuts. Winter Soldier is stronger than First Avenger and Civil War might be better than both. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is the strongest film in that franchise.
Star Wars original trilogy. All three are fantastic but Empire and ROTJ are better both because of budget and having superior directors behind the camera. George has a great imagination but should not be allowed to be the one who brings his stories to life. I’d also offer that out of the Prequels, ROTS is far superior to I & II and is in roughly the same league as the OT. And then there’s Rogue One; oh it’s beautiful.
ROTJ is the weakest part of the OT. Better production and direction, sure, but so much else is lacking.
Mad Max. Thunderdome’s a bit of a sore spot I’ll admit, but everything else has been at least as good as the original film.
I felt bad for Lost World, because Crighton went out of his way to write a novel that was a sequel to the first movie, not the first book, and then Spielberg just basically ignored it like it never happened.
I wanted to not see the chameleon dinosaurs, damn it!
The upside is that the movie is good and the book is great and one won’t spoil the other.
I thought the book was fine - it felt a lot more annoying to read than the first book for some reason. I was so tired of the baby T-Rex by the end.
Home Alone
Home Alone: In New York
Home Alone: No Macauly
Home Alone: There’s a fourth one?
Home Alone 5.
Home Sweet Home Alone: Exclusive to Disney+
2 Home 2 Alone
The Home Alonity
Home Alone: The Movie
Home Single Rated-X
KISS saves Home Alone
Home Alone meets The Blue Falcon and Wondermutt
the list goes on, lotta spinoffs
You forgot Home Alone: Fallout (the Macaulay comeback)
Rome Alone
Oh my, I watched one of the newer ones once and it was awful.
There is only one Matrix film.
I feel like the matrix 2 is similar to jurassic park 2. Very clearly inferior, but enjoyable enough to not be a complete waste of time.
I’m saying that, I’ll say that JP 2 is better than matrix 2. I’ll happily watch JP 2 again, probably with my kids at some point, but if not then on my own… But I would be happy whether I see matrix 2 again or not.
I very much enjoy Matrix 2… It has some amazing fight scenes (neo vs the vampires), some cool new characters (The Merovingian, the Twins, Persephone, Niobe…) and I think it’s a fun movie, even though it’s clearly not as deep as the first one.
It’s a shame they never released a third one though 🙄
Didn’t they recently make or announce a new one?
I think I’ve already seen people giving a bad review to the new one a few years ago.
Yeah but it was pretty clear the Wachowskis didn’t want it made and Lana only did it because they would have done it with or without them.
It would be far more interesting to ask, what movie franchise DOESN’T get worse with each new film.
Alien at least had the second film better than the first, which was a hell of an accomplishment since the first film was great. Fortunately they never even made any movies after the second one.
cough alien requeim cough
That’s Aliens vs Predator, not Aliens.
Come on, now. The third was OK, the fourth was enjoyable, and Romulus was phenomenal. It was basically “let’s take the best bits from Alien and Aliens and stick them together” and they did it brilliantly.
C’mon, killing off Newt and Hicks at the start of the third was unconscionable. It’s in the same category as “somehow, Palpatine returned”.
It’s not even slightly like that.
“Somehow Palpatine returned” is lazy writing forced on them due to Snoke dying in the previous film.
Hicks and Newt dying is perfectly reasonable in the world the action takes place in.
Aliens, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight are the first three that come to mind - but yes, in general sequels tend to be inferior.
Or which one gets BETTER with each new film.
star wars up until rise of skywalker
now, im going to put some popcorn in the microwave. be right back
If you go by release date then that can’t be true considering the prequels (even though I love them). TFA was also so bland compared to the rest. The Last Jedi was the only decent one since the original trilogy imo.
But oh my god rise of skywalker is so fucking bad.
rise of skywalker was so terrible they should have let rian johnson just do his thing again, even if people hated it like TLJ at least it would have had some thought put into it
TLJ at least is a real movie. Rise of Skywalker meanwhile is so soulless it’s shocking.
i liked TFA. It was a decent flick. But then they just got so. much. worse.
last jedi is my 2nd favorite
them’s fightin’ words.
my popcorn is ready
TLJ would’ve been a great third film in a trilogy. It absolutely sucks balls as the second film. It killed practically all the story lines from the first, leaving basically nothing for the third, including the main bad guy. Hux would’ve never been a good “ultimate enemy”, and if Kylo Ren became one, it would completely overturn everything the previous eight films worked on.
TFATLJ would’ve been a great third film in a trilogy. It absolutely sucks balls as the second film. It killed practically all the story lines from the first, leaving basically nothing for the third, including the main bad guy. Hux would’ve never been a good “ultimate enemy”, and if Kylo Ren became one, it would completely overturn everything the previous eight films worked on.TFA is the first…
Oh yeah, woops! My bad! I meant to reply here.
John Wick? They are not like the best movies in the world but they do get better.
There can only be one good Highlander movie
Nailed it. The first was awesome, the rest were just terrible.
I don’t know what you are talking about… There was the Highlander movie, and then there was the Highlander tv show. That’s all there ever was.
I came here for this.
cant believe im scrolling 1/2 way down and couldnt find
The power of familyFast and Furious Franchise
I’ve always thought that the series should’ve ended at the 5th movie.
It should have ended at the -1th movie
I joke. I ironically love those films because they are terrible.
Nobody likes the tuna here, asshole!
The first movie was serious, but as they progress they lean in on the silliness. Going to space was the cherry on the cake.
The goddamn spinoff dealing with a rogue supersoldier, and the two leads basically being superhuman already.
I only watched a couple minutes, but that was more than I could handle.
No crust? No crust 😎
Tron. It ends with tossing out the one before and letting Jared Leto get his stink all over it.
Marvel Cinematic Universe should have stopped sometime before Phase 4 (Eternals, Black Widow, Wakanda Forever, Multiverse of Madness).
The Matrix should have ended at 1.
The Jason Bourne movies should have ended when Jason Bourne’s story was concluded, without extending it to Aaron Cross’s story, played by Jeremy Renner.
Endgame was iconic, genuinely fun and an incredible accomplishment. I would love to have ended there, even have the spiderman movie to show the repurcussions and coking to terms with what happened and showing that the universe continues. It would be a great cap to end with what ended up being a spiderman origin film.
I liked Loki and a few others, could have been considered spinoffs in the vein of dealing with the aftermath.
Then reboot
The Matrix should have ended at 1.
1000000000000%.
It was supposed to be.
They wanted to make 3 movies but they were told to do one so they squished it into a single movie. When it did really well they were told they could make the other two and they had to come up with new stories.
Yup it’s one of those examples where the mystery is way better than the contrived answer.
Animatrix is cool as fuck tho
Star wars
Just let characters die.
Long ago, in a galaxy far away…
…in this specific area, only pertaining to these 2-3 groups of people and no one else, anywhere else, ever despite there being an entire galaxy to fuck about in and about 20k years worth of lore.
Which is why I liked Andor and especially Acolyte so much. Finally a new perspective.
Saw. The first one is a brilliant psychological horror movie. The rest drift more towards body horror, but each one gets worse and dumber than the previous one (except maybe Saw X, the last one)
Holy fuck, they made it to X!?
I think I stopped caring around 3.
My wife and I saw the first Saw in theaters. The ending had everyone gasping. It was a wonderful popcorn flick.
We later saw the 2nd movie in theaters. We HATED it. I thought it was one of the worst movies I would ever see.
I later watched Saw 3 on a streaming service. I thought it was one of the worst movies I would ever see.
I later watched Saw 4…
Nah, Blade 2 still fucks.
Blade Trinity is just as rough now as it was when it first released.
Pirates of the carabian.
The first was a masterpiece in comedy.
The second and third were good but I would still rate them slightly worse each gen.
I am indifferent to 4 and hate 5The first movie was a complete package that told a story well, and where it ended was the right place to end it all.
But of course, money.
Really tarnished my feelings about the first movie and I don’t think I could even watch it the same way anymore.
I thought 3 was a deal better than 2. 2 was generic Hollywood schlock that dragged in the middle; 3 at least attempted some interesting things, and even bordered on artsy at times.
1 was, of course, the best. Haven’t seen 4 and 5.
I see 2 and 3 as one continuous story. Lord Cutler Beckett is basically the personification of capitalism and industrialism. He spends his time killing or taking over these “free” people who all do whatever they want whenever they want with no masters and no one telling them what to do, and subjugating them under the yoke of the changing new world.
Idk I’m kinda high right now. I like Beckett as a villain, because he represents certain aspects of the human spirit and he is at the end just a dude. He’s not an immortal squid-man and he’s not an undead were-skeleton.
I actually thought 4 was better than 2 and 3. Not that 4 was very good, but I thought 2 and 3 suffered from an attempt to, “trilogize,” the series and make it a grand epic. It was clear by the end of the third movie that they didn’t know where they were going with all of the plot threads they’d set up like Calypso, the Brethren Court, the Jack/Elizabeth/Will love triangle they were hinting at…just way to many ideas and very little payoff. At least 4 told a coherent story in one movie, even if it wasn’t a very good story.
5 was one of the most insultingly bad movies I’ve ever seen.
