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.
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 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.
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.
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”
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
I think I’ve already seen people giving a bad review to the new one a few years ago.
It would be far more interesting to ask, what movie franchise DOESN’T get worse with each new film.
Aliens, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight are the first three that come to mind - but yes, in general sequels tend to be inferior.
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
John Wick? They are not like the best movies in the world but they do get better.
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
There can only be one good Highlander movie
I came here for this.
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.
The Land Before Time
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.
Terminator 2 was better. Ouija 2 was better. Empire strikes back. Back to the future 2.
I can’t think of any more.
Alien and Aliens. But only because Aliens was deliberately a different genre: so it’s a bit of a stretch.
Terminator 2 was better.
I see this view everywhere all the time, but personally I strongly disagree. Terminator 2 is good no doubt, but the original had a sense of dread and urgency literally from start to finish that is unmatched in any of the sequels, in my opinion.
Terminator 2 is the perfect sequel - expands on the original and shakes things up while maintaining the general feel. I don’t think it would be as highly praised if it wasn’t a followup on the first movie. It would still be a great movie in a vacuum, though, don’t get me wrong.
As such, it’s pretty hard to compare the movies, it will always come down to personal taste.
OK it’s worth a rewatch then
I’m sure there are people who will argue that Back to the Future Part II was the worst of the trilogy. Part III might be the best.
I can agree that part 3 might be the best one as an adult, but as a child that flying DeLorean and hoverboard was the shit in part 2 even though it did have a darker tone.
Here I was thinking the OG is where it’s at. TIL
Mad Max
Indiana Jones got better and better for the first 3. Then dumb.
If the Cornetto trilogy counts I think hot fuzz was the peak.
Definitely terminator 2. As well as the original Star Wars trilogy and back to the future trilogy are the few that I consider good all the way through.
Sure, but there are like 6 more movies. And they do not get better
Godfather part 2 edges out the original.
Part 3 was a turd.
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.
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.
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.
Sister Act 2
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.
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.
so most franchises usually have a product Decline?
Theres an argument that The Godfather Pt 2 is the best of the 3
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.
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.
Toy Story 3 and 4. Far superior to 1 and 2 if you put aside the groundbreaking CG of the first.
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.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.
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.
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.
Jumanji
honestly, star wars. I’m a HUGE star wars fan, but they’re the same movie repeatedly. blow up death star, blow up bigger death star. blow up BIGGEST death star. BAM. 9 movies.
If you take each trilogy as a set, sure.
But Empire and Return were both amazing films that one-upped the original.
And I think Clones was better than Phantom.
The final trilogy was a straight fucking cliff both by itself and in comparison to the other trilogies.
all?
Most of the time. Prey is fucking amazing though. Better then OG imo.
Most all of them?
Any of the classic Disney animated movies. First movie is a ripoff of classic fairy tales so most of the heavy lifting writing wise was done for them, the instant Disney has to write the whole thing is when it goes to shit. If it’s “Disney presents [insert fairy tale here] 2” you know it’ll suck.
Cinderella 3 is amazing though /s. It’s great for a laugh on Halloween.
Alien has been in slow decline but it’s steady, the puppy dog alien of alien:earth was the latest offender.
Also: do we really need so many terminator movies?
Both of those make a strong case for the second one being better than the first.
But yeah, they definitely drop off a cliff.
Alien and Aliens were different types of movies. Horror vs Action. That’s why Aliens works. It isn’t a rehash of the first.
T2 was similar to T1, but a change in dynamics like Aliens did. Sarah Connor was more in charge and knew what to do about Terminators by the sequel.
Which franchise doesn’t get worse with each consecutive movie?
Mad Max. Evil Dead.
The Lord of the Rings
The lord of the rings trilogy could be a single long movie. I feel like it fits but really isn’t in the spirt of the question.
I feel like it needs to be “First movie was so good, so they made a sequel”
Harvey Weinstein actually wanted LOTR to be a single movie.
I am of the opinion that Fellowship is the best one, but the sequels are by no means bad.
I think the mainstream opinion is that the two towers is the best. I’m curious, why do you favor the fellowship?
This is a bit rambly, but bear with me. I am very much enamored with the Hobbits and the Shire. Though I prefer the theatrical release (the pacing in that version is perfect), Concerning Hobbits is a fantastic inclusion in the extended version and I love getting that extra time in the Shire. There is a feeling of quaint magic in that movie that isn’t present in the other ones. I like that the film is told from the perspective of Hobbits. It makes the world outside the Shire that much more mysterious and foreboding, some of which I feel is lost when the Fellowship splits up. I think Gandalf the Grey is a vastly more interesting character than Gandalf the White. I personally find underground spaces incredibly fascinating, so everything in Moria is just incredible. That moment where they’re surrounded by goblins and you hear the rumble of the Balrog, and the goblins flee and Gandalf is just, “Run.” Ugh, its got a great sense of terror and is just perfect.
I’m here for the rambles.
I think you have an interesting perspective. The shire kind of grounds the world as a reader / viewer. It’s the place you want to get back to.
Yeah, the last 3 movies and TV series were amazing right? Like I didn’t fall asleep after 30min of each hobbit movie and the first 2 episodes of the series or anything. I have no recollection of anything that happened in any of those movies, other than that it was massive CGI circle jerk slop.
The Hobbit movies are the Hobbit, not Lord of the Rings
Yeah my bad, completely different universe written by a different author of course.
I like the old mad max movies more than the new ones. Haven’t seen evil dead, added them to the download list.
Equalizer series stayed consistent. John wick is probably close enough. Being the same movie over and over isn’t the same as declining.
Bourne series too.
Terminator. But not for long.
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 😛
Early 2000s film-making was that crazy. The only other ambitious feat I know of (besides the BTTF example someone else mentioned) was that Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions both released in the same year of eachother, by a few months apart. Were they any good? Up for anyone’s debate (but both far exceed Resurrections). That means, that they also were done in one very long shoot.
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.
I’d add Back to the Future, it’s pretty consistent IMO.
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’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.
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.
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.
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 😎
