Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Difference between revisions

*** More specifically, the films tend to alternate upward and downward trends in quality. Just look at the [http://i.imgur.com/fBoQy.png IMDB scores]. (Until ''Nemesis'', which only barely beats ''Insurrection'' and is far worse than the 2009 reboot.)

*** Also, ''III'' has more fans than the "even-numbered rule" would let on, and ''IV'' has more detractors.

* Many ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' fans consider the second film ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom|Temple of Doom]]'' to be a major letdown, for the needlessly darker tone and pointless gross out scenes. As such, the much more widely approved of ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade|The Last Crusade]]'' is considered a substantial improvement.

* [[Rob Zombie]]'s first movie, ''[[House of 1000 Corpses]]'', was panned by critics as [[Gorn]]. Its sequel, ''[[The Devil's Rejects]]'', received mixed to positive reviews. It even received Two Thumbs Up when reviewed on At The Movies with [[Roger Ebert|Ebert]] and Roeper!

** Interesting mention of those movies, considering that [[Leslie Nielsen]], most famous for them, is also in ''Scary Movie 3''.

* ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' is widely regarded as a slightly above average '60s caper film, elevated by the presence of Capucine, [[David Niven]], and [[Peter Sellers]] in the (supporting) role of Chief Inspector Clouseau. Its sequel, ''A Shot in the Dark'', performs a bit of a genre shift (it's a [[Dolled-Up Installment]] that shifts the focus to Clouseau), and is widely regarded as one of the best comedies of that particular decade. It also introduced characters and elements that became series staples: manservant Cato and his karate attacks, former Chief Inspector Dreyfus and his being driven to madness by Clouseau, etc.

* There is this German teen comedy called ''Knallharte Jungs'' (''More Ants in the Pants'' in the English dub) about a boy whose penis can talk. It was actually brilliant and hilariously funny. Now, this movie was actually a sequel to another movie called ''Harte Jungs'' (''Ants in the Pants'' in the English release) And my god, was that one lame!

* ''Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp'' was seen as a vast improvement over the original, not that that's very surprising, since the original was godawful.

* The third and especially fourth ''[[Final Destination]]'' films are considered a [[Dork Age]] for the franchise... a [[Dork Age]] that many critics deem to have ended with the fifth film, which has been called the best since the original.

* The ''Boogeyman'' sequels are generally viewed as a step up from the entirely mediocre original.

* Every ill-received [[James Bond]] has a better follow-up (many times involving [[The Other Darrin|an actor change]]).

* While the first two ''[[Puppet Master]]'' movies are fairly decent horror flicks, the third one, which actually goes into Andre Toulon's back story, is considered a classic.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]]'' was a [[Wide Open Sandbox]] game with a few nice ideas (like giving you a parachute you can use at almost any time) and some beautiful vistas, but had clumsy controls, kind of boring characters and was definitely not something you'd want to pay full price for. ''Just Cause 2'', however, vastly improves your ability to use the grappling hook in conjunction with the parachute, all but allowing you to ''fly'' around the landscape, and has tons of things for you to blow up whenever you want, making it a solid A-list title. It's worth noting that the first ''Just Cause'' was Avalanche Studios' first ever release, and they obviously spent a lot of time learning from their mistakes for the sequel.

* In America, the early parts of the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series were a minor success, held back on the NES by its [[Blind Idiot Translation|extremely questionable translation]], bugs, and frustrating puzzles. It wasn't until ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', with its improved localization, that the series took off in the US.

* ''[[Touhou]]'': In-between the standard danmaku games, which have been slowly improving, ZUN has done a bit of experimenting. The concepts he reuses tend to be much better the second time around:

** ''Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'' is, bluntly, terrible, suffering from cheating AI, little plot, ugly graphics, and boring battles. ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' still isn't great, but is at least reasonably passable. The AI cheats less blatantly, a fairly interesting story, it's fairly pretty, and you're actually dodging your opponent's patterns instead of stage enemies.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. Thanks to [[Lauren Faust]]'s genius, this show has managed to spread like wildfire on the Internet for having reasonably well-developed characters and stories in a series often dismissed as being a shallow 30-minute commercial for girls' toys.

* All of the ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' movies from ''The Magic Ring'' onwards.

 

{{reflist}}