A couple of days late on the F5 this week, but Dan asked:
Some folks don’t know to quit when they’re ahead. As such, there have been some really bad sequels, trilogies, and series installments foisted upon a soon-to-be-disillusioned fan-base. So, which are the worst five cases of N+1 when they should have stopped at N? I’m mostly thinking of books and movies, though some other form would be acceptable. Also, is there anything you would have done to fix the sequel short of erasing it from existance?
Well, now, I’m not really into series in books, or perhaps in movies. (Though I’m willing, because of the lesser time-investment, to go ahead and watch a sequel movie, more than I am willing to read a series of books.) I’m not sure I’ll come up with five.
Here are my thoughts, though:
- Star Wars, Episode 1. That was just utter crap. Even Jedi is kind of a disappointment. It wasn’t when I saw it, as a child, but I don’t care for it much now. Still, Jedi was necessary to finish that first story arc. Episodes 1, 2, and 3 have been trash, as far as I’m concerned. There is no fix. Deleting Jar-Jar Binks will not fix the second trilogy. Nothing will. Delete!
- Blade 2. It just was no good. The cheap, the cheese, the craaaap. As a result, I’ve only seen it five times. But Underworld, which I have seen twice, is a better vampire movie, by far, even if it is plagiarized from the best Vampire RPG ever.
- Pet Sematary 2. I actually liked part one, and it’s one of the few Stephen King horror things I did like.
- Changeling: The Dreaming. Okay, this was an RPG by White Wolf, and I frankly had no idea how anyone ran a game using it. They’d put out relatively successful games based on the idea of other mythic supernaturals, such as Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts (my favorite!), Mages, and spinoffs based on Mummies and Vampire Hunters and the like… so why not Fairies? Ahem. Now, Mage: The Ascension was hard to run, but at least there was some basis for a game there. I didn’t know what anyone would do with Changeling.
Um, that’s all I can think of for now, from things that come to mind (instead of things I’ve been told about, such as Jaws II or Rocky II…).