Not just Godfather 2.... Other great sequels.

Thinking about Dark Knight and great film sequels (as in better than the original). There are more than just Godfather 2 (which I do not think should count since the Godfather was better)

A great film, The Bride of Frankenstein is better than Frankenstein but never gets mentioned when discussing great sequels. Kill Bill 2 is better than Kill Bill 1 but really it should have been one movie.

True, most sequels are not very good. There was only one good Indiana Jones (Raiders). The latest might have been the worst, but aside from the River Phoenix opening of Last Crusade, that movie pretty much blew too. A hit movie must be like catching lightning in a bottle and most movies do not lend themselves well to sequels, but studios force the issue... (City Slickers 2 and Arthur 2 brought back oscar winning supporting actors... who died in the first movie). Other movies should lend themselves well. Indiana Jones series failure was do to inept writing. RoboCop sequels forgot about what people liked in the first movie (the emotion of losing everything and ones sense of identity). James Cameron, on the other hand, knew what to do and Terminator 2, with a bigger budget, improved on the original. When he took over Aliens (from the adept but over rated Ridley Scott) he created what I feel is the greatest action movie of all time and a huge improvement over the mostly snoozefest that was the original Alien. James Bond series will forever go up and down (right now a huge up... we will see if that holds).
Which brings us to a sequel the Bourne Supremacy. That was a great movie sequel to a bland and forgettable (no pun intended) Bourne Identity.

So quickly some more sequels that were better than the first movie.

Road Warrior is better than Mad Max.
Evil Dead 2
Star Trek: Wrath of Khan

There are also plenty of sequels that like Godfather might not have been better but are just as good or slightly better depending on opinion (Lord of the Rings, Before Sunset/Sunrise, Toy Story, Harry Potter).


So stop knocking sequels. There are plenty of great sequels and I am sure you can think of more. (And before someone suggests it... Superman 2 was painfully bad! (even the Richard Donner cut couldn't restore it enough, but I see where they were going).

So if you want to groan about something.. then how about REMAKES! There certainly are better sequels than remakes. It is hard thinking of remakes that are better than the original. Casino Royale, The Thing, The Departed, Oceans 11... (but then that lead to horrible sequels).

Leon