Sequels and prequels that were better than the original

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966) is often referred to by film fans as the greatest Western ever made, even though its trilogy predecessors — 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars” and 1965’s “For a Few Dollars More” — would also likely crack the top 20 or even top 10. Interestingly, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” was actually not rated too highly upon its release, but that was typically the case at the time with so-called “Spaghetti Westerns.” Critics eventually warmed to the genre and praised star Clint Eastwood for his role as the Man with No Name as well as director Sergio Leone for his exquisite style, which included his signature extreme close-ups coupled with lengthy long shots.

We’ll keep this short and sweet so we have time to find shelter before the riots start: “The Godfather Part II” (1974) is probably better than “The Godfather” (1972). There. We said it. Fans of the franchise praise the sequel for an even better performance by Al Pacino, its expanded role of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) and the more engrossing background story provided via flashbacks. Both films earned nine Academy Award nominations, with the first winning three and the second winning six.

Star Wars fans will debate this until the original movies only exist as something that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... But we’re taking a stand and saying that the best Star Wars film is not 1977’s “A New Hope” (although it’s easily the second-best) but “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980). The latter has more plot and substance and new characters (like Boba Fett and Lando!) that join the existing crew. It also manages to add even more action and emotion without going overboard. Roger Ebert said so, Dante from “Clerks” said so and, now, we officially say so, too.

Thanks to a low budget, a debuting director (future veteran filmmaker George Miller) and an unknown lead actor (some guy named Mel Gibson), 1979’s “Mad Max” didn’t receive a lot of acclaim. Although, it performed well at the Australian box office and was later reevaluated more positively. With a bit more cash and fame, Miller and Gibson reunited two years later for “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior,” a more polished sequel that was packed with action, reinvented the post-apocalyptic genre and was one of 1981’s best films — eventually winning the Saturn Award for Best International Film along with three other nominations at the event.

“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is not a great film. It was thrown together quickly, constantly rewritten even as it was filmed and contained too much dialogue and special effects without enough action. Even director Robert Wise, who already had four Oscars to his name at the time of filming, was personally unhappy with the result. With the exception of the main cast (which included William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei), Paramount cleaned house for 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” including the scapegoating and removal of creator Gene Roddenberry. The reception for the sequel was much warmer, especially among Trekkies, with “The Wrath of Khan” receiving general praise for being truer to the series.

Don’t get us wrong: “The Evil Dead” was an instant classic and deserves a heap of praise for breaking down expectations when it comes to low-budget horror films. That said, writer/director Sam Raimi hadn’t completely solidified the direction and tone of the future franchise — only teasing some black comedy along with the expected frights and gore. On the other end of the spectrum, 1992’s “Army of Darkness” (the third film in the series) was a shamelessly over-the-top installment that had as much slapstick humor as it did blood. Sitting perfectly in the middle is “Evil Dead II,” which featured a bigger budget than the first (without feeling too polished), more laughs (without too much silliness) and the adoption of the now-iconic chainsaw hand by Ash Williams — who was of course played by the man, the myth, the legend (and the chin): Bruce Campbell. 

That’s right, the best National Lampoon’s Vacation movie is the one where the Griswolds (Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo) don’t go anywhere but instead have their family come to visit them. Not to take anything away from the original 1983 installment, but “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is easily the most quotable film of the "Vacation" franchise and most people see it at least once every year thanks to cable channels’ love of the classic holiday comedy. Fun fact: The first film has a much better freshness rating, but “Christmas Vacation” is actually ranked one percentage point higher for audience score.

When most people think of “The Terminator,” they’re actually thinking of its 1991 sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” The latter is the film in which the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the good guy. It's the one that introduces both the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) and John Connor (Edward Furlong), and it’s the origin of Schwarzenegger saying both “Come with me if you want to live” and “Hasta la vista, baby.” Although “The Terminator” has a slightly higher score on Rotten Tomatoes, it didn’t get a single Oscar nomination, while its sequel earned six nods and won five.

Given how much of a classic it has become, sometimes it’s easy to forget how much of a risk 1989’s “Batman” truly was. Batman will be serious? The “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” guy is directing it? “Mr. Mom” is playing the Caped Crusader? Once Tim Burton and Michael Keaton silenced the doubters, the director asked Warner Brothers for full control of the sequel, “Batman Returns,” which he was granted. The result was an even more dark, bizarre and entertaining take on Gotham’s resident hero, even though the story actually focused more on the trio of misfit villains played by Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken.

“The Addams Family” was a box-office smash to the tune of $191 million but, to be honest, it kind of flubbed the big-screen introduction of America’s favorite creepy and kooky family. No matter. Once Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman and Christopher Lloyd established themselves as Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley and Uncle Fester Addams, respectively, they could live up to their full and much darker potential in 1993’s “Addams Family Values” two years later. The sequel included new characters, more satire and even a jab at Disney, as well as earned an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction and a Golden Globe nod for Best Supporting Actress (Huston).

1992’s “El Mariachi” was shot for $7,000 using no slates, dollies, synchronized sound, professional lighting or film crews. The film also included bloopers that weren’t edited out, borrowed costumes and regular people (even teenagers playing adults) in many of the acting roles. All things considered, it was a solid movie, but it’s hard to compete with “Desperado” and its $7 million budget, professional equipment and a cast that included Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin.

It’s difficult to top a film that earned 13 Academy Award nominations and $871 million at the box office, but the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy did just that when the sequel to 2001’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” was followed by the even more acclaimed “The Two Towers” the following year. The latter’s now-infamous Battle of Helm’s Deep has been referred to as one of the greatest on-screen battles in film history, and though the movie managed only half as many Oscar nods, it actually did better financially, raking in a whopping $926 million.

“House of 1000 Corpses” (2003) was Rob Zombie’s directorial debut. While horror fans generally enjoyed the sadistic violence and excessive gore, critics weren’t so kind. However, when Zombie brought Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley) back two years later in “The Devil’s Rejects,” the reception was a bit more positive. Critics like Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper and Peter Travers all offered their praise.

“The Dark Knight” isn’t just better than its predecessor — 2005’s “Batman Begins” — it’s better than every Batman film ever made. Christopher Nolan hit his second attempt out of the park mostly thanks to the dark, twisted, Oscar-winning performance by the late Heath Ledger (as the Joker), who was awarded the honor posthumously after his tragic overdose death six months prior to the film’s release. “The Dark Knight” amassed seven other Academy Award nominations (including a win for Best Sound Editing), nine BAFTA nods (and a win for Ledger) and a Golden Globe (also for Ledger) — among countless other honors.

Let’s face it: Every Harry Potter film was an improvement on the original, 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (except maybe “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the only one not written by Steve Kloves). The acting (thanks to the maturing of most of the actors), special effects and storylines all got better as the franchise progressed, with the series reaching its prime in the final installment, the dark and dramatic 2011’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.” Although it couldn’t capitalize, the film earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects.

Jennifer Lawrence was universally praised for her portrayal of Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of the novel “The Hunger Games,” but the 2012 movie actually received many mixed reviews — including a 68 out of 100 on Metacritic. The next installment, 2013’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” wasn’t just rated better than the first (76/100 on Metacritic) but it also ended up being the most praised film in the four-part series. This was partially due to the fact that it had the most translatable story to work with but also because it managed to improve upon the already strong source material.

Technically, 2011’s “X-Men: First Class” was the fifth installment of the "X-Men" series, but more accurately it was actually the first film of a separate spinoff/reboot series. Although audiences and critics enjoyed seeing the younger versions of their favorite X-Men, the concept didn’t reach its full potential until the release of 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” which was also a sequel to 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” (Got all that?)

The "Captain America" trilogy is one of the rare cases in which a franchise improved with each new installment. “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011) was decent enough, but many fans and critics felt it was mainly made to set up 2012’s “The Avengers,” which wasn’t even an actual sequel. Eventually it became clear that the first “Captain America” wasn’t setting up a spinoff but instead the sequel “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), which was better received, and later “Captain America: Civil War,” which was almost universally acclaimed for its action, direction and thought-provoking themes — not to mention an all-star cast that added Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Rudd and Tom Holland to the mix.

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was just plain bad. Despite making more than $373 million at the box office, the film was a clumsy attempt at illustrating a backstory that wasn’t fully formed to begin with, and that fact didn’t change after the movie was over as evidenced by its 38-percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Logan” (2017), on the other hand, was acclaimed as one of the best superhero films ever made. It amassed a 93-percent Rotten Tomatoes rating, ranks as the sixth highest-grossing R-rated film ever made and even nabbed an Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In addition to boasting the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins, the superhero epic "Thor: Ragnarok" also had equally strong action and dialogue. In comparison, 2011’s “Thor” also had a strong cast, script and level of excitement, but critics and fans alike agreed that the most recent installment was by far the most superior, especially considering “Thor: The Dark World” (the oft-forgotten middle child) wasn’t especially memorable.

Tom Cruise really built something with his rebooted “Mission: Impossible” film franchise, which now includes six installments and counting. Brian DePalma’s 1996 original received mixed reviews, and John Woo’s 2000 follow-up was even worse. The films have improved significantly since, with the last three all nabbing at least a 93-percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The highest-praised was the most recent, 2018’s “Fallout,” which also features Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Alec Baldwin. “Fallout” was lauded for its intricate stunts and heart-stopping action sequences — which were high in both quality and quantity — as well as Cruise’s all-out performance. The film was director Christopher McQuarrie’s second in the franchise, and he’s already slated for two more.

It only took seven years for the simple-yet-addictive smartphone video game “Angry Birds” to get adapted into an animated feature film, but despite the popularity of the game and a $352 million box office payday, 2009’s “The Angry Birds Movie” received only mixed reviews. The core cast of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader and Peter Dinklage were brought back for a 2019 sequel, along with the addition of franchise newcomers Leslie Jones, Rachel Bloom and Awkwafina. Fewer folks saw the film in theaters, but thanks to some added slapstick and heaps of inappropriate humor that will soar safely over kids’ heads, “The Angry Birds Movie 2” received more praise than its predecessor. In fact, according to Rotten Tomatoes, the sequel is actually the best-reviewed film adaptation of a video game.

As big fans of the critically panned “Bad Boys” (1995) and “Bad Boys II” (2003), we were cautiously optimistic at the news of a third installment to be released in 2020. We saw it opening night and were blown away by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s reprisal of their buddy cop roles — only partially because of all the explosions. “Bad Boys for Life” was a fun, funny and undeniably entertaining two-hour action flick, and a 77-percent Rotten Tomatoes score and $416 million box office provides the backup for that claim.