Are all last sequels bad?

[1001001]

Revenge of the Sith was great.

Back to the Future III was awesome (best of the series).

I don't know how we're counting Lord of the Rings (as three movies or one) but Return of the King was brilliant.

I haven't seen Terminator IV yet, but I liked the third one fine.

On the other hand....

X-Men III sucked balls. Which was too bad because the first two were fantastic.

Batman and Robin was terrible beyond belief. Completely unwatchable (and I'm a huge Batman fan).

Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull was pretty lame. "Nuked the Fridge" has replaced "Jumped the Shark" forever in my mind.

JMHO, of course...

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

X-Men: The Last Stand

Not as bad as people make out. It is lacking in areas, and needed fleshing out.

Robocop III

Should not have been made.

Back to the Future III

Never saw it.

Alien Resurrection

Enjoyed at the theater, but it doesn't hold up on repeat viewings. Essentially, more of comic book movie than the previous 3.

The Godfather Part III

Never seen any of the series. People might think that's odd, but I've met folks who've never seen Star Wars.

Max Max: Beyond Thunderdome

Too light hearted and slapsticky in many ways, on the other hand one can look at this as Max regaining part of his humanity. He lost his family and became a self-centered survivor, then he finds a new family in the tribe of children. Bruce Spence appearing as a new character was an odd move.

Lethal Weapon 4

Never saw it or Lethal Weapon 3.

The Matrix Revolutions

Not as bad as made out. Truthfully, it was Reloaded that revealed The Matrix franchise wasn't all that great. Was the ending unstatisfying? Yeah, probably.

Live Free or Die Hard

Didn't like Bruce's lack of hair, and the film is going fine...then Kevin Smith appears and takes me out of it.

Teenage Mutuant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles In Time

Uh....saw parts of it but never saw the other movies.

Spiderman 3

Venom was horrible. The all-knowing Butler (was his Dossix Musheenah his name). Actually, I don't especially like the Spiderman movies...any of them. They are watchable and all, but Tobey McGuire and Dunst...not so great.

 

[Mr Light]

I haven't seen the movie lately but I'm pretty sure Bruce Spence was playing the same character. Didn't he and Max already know each other antagonistically at the opening of the film? Isn't he a helicopter pilot in both movies?

 

[Jax]

I will comment on some of the movies already mentioned.

The Matrix
sequels never hit the heights of the 1st but I never got on the hate train but 3rd one is the weakest of the lot.

Spiderman 3
Again am not on the hate train but easily the weakest of the lot.

X-Men 3
Enjoyed it though while number 2 is the best am not sure 1 is better than this.

POC - At Worlds End
Unsure if worse because I have not rewatched number 2 yet but its boring in parts and maybe goes on for a tad too long. The whole Davy Locker stuff especially Jack in that desert is stupid.

Indy 4
Number 2 is the weakest despite the fact KOTCS has the stupid Fridge scene. Better explained ending for Spalko would of been nice AGAIN maybe tad too long in running time.

Robocop 3
YEH SHIT

The Godfather 3
Yeh the weakest (1st my favourite) but still better than many other movies.

Lethal Weapon 4
Didn't need it and probably weakest.

Die Hard 4
Better than 3 god depends on the day both so close but Samuel Jackson probably edges number 3. Not a weak movie and number 2 is the weak link but even that one is a fun movie.

ALIEN 4
ALIEN 3 is shit shit shit so despite ALIEN 4 being average NOT the weakest.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Damn, I can't believe I forgot about Return of the King. Another excellent final film. And I'm tired of hearing people complain about the "multiple endings."

 

[Harvey]

Well, of course most "final" sequels are bad. Studios will milk their chosen franchises until all possible life has been extracted from them. And, after that, they'll continue to milk them until all possible profit has been milked from them. Which leads to second-rate actors taking over, reduced budgets, and a complete lack of creative worth at the end of the line.

That said, I enjoy all of the Indiana Jones films to one degree or another, and I feel the same way about the Back to the Future series. So, no, not all of the films you could list here are bad.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I haven't seen the movie lately but I'm pretty sure Bruce Spence was playing the same character. Didn't he and Max already know each other antagonistically at the opening of the film? Isn't he a helicopter pilot in both movies?

No, different characters. Max and Gyrocaptain part ways as friends, more or less, with the Gyro Captain going with the refinery people to start the Great Northern Tribe.

Jedediah the (airplane) Pilot in Thunderdome has a kid and a hide out not far from Bartertown.

POC - At Worlds End
Unsure if worse because I have not rewatched number 2 yet but its boring in parts and maybe goes on for a tad too long. The whole Davy Locker stuff especially Jack in that desert is stupid

They started filming without a completed script and it definately shows. I'm gonna say part 2 is worse, if only because part 3 has a whole lot more Jeffery Rush.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Spider-Man 3 is two bad movies.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I voted Live Free or Die Hard, I quite enjoy that one.

Toy Story 2 is generally well loved. Of course, they are making another one now, so who knows if that one will be any good.

 

[Greg Cox]

All series tend to peter out eventually, but it's not always a straight downward progression. You often get a sequel that is better than the one preceding it.

LAST CRUSADE is better than TEMPLE OF DOOM.
ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES is better than BENEATH.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS is better than FREDDY'S REVENGE.
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is way better than THE FINAL FRONTIER.

And the Bond series has had plenty of ups and downs.

 

[Kelthaz]

Rocky Balboa was fantastic. That is all.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

All series tend to peter out eventually, but it's not always a straight downward progression. You often get a sequel that is better than the one preceding it.

LAST CRUSADE is better than TEMPLE OF DOOM.
ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES is better than BENEATH.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS is better than FREDDY'S REVENGE.
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is way better than THE FINAL FRONTIER.

Battle For Planet of the Apes was much better than Conquest too, although since Conquest was awful that wasn't that hard.

And the Bond series has had plenty of ups and downs.

Rocky Balboa was fantastic. That is all.

Wouldn't say it was fantastic but certainly better than 4 and 5. I found Rock Balboa an odd film. It tried very hard, but just seemed kind of hollow a lot of the time.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was a nice step up from the original, I thought. They had to do something that was in the spirit of the first but without reusing the time travel trope. So, they killed off the leads and replaced them with evil robots, and they have to face off against Death. Come on, it was great.

STATION!!!

 

[TGTheodore]

This thread is an art film free zone But thanks for reminding me of a trilogy I really need to check out.

God, I love your avatar. "Feed the Kitty" is one of my all-time favorite Warners Brothers cartoons!

--Ted

 

[Cicero]

I liked Godfather III but then again I don't rate II very highly so I'm a little weird.

I liked Godfather III, too, but didn't care for either of the earlier movies. I also liked Die Hard 4, like all of the films in that series except Die Hard 2. I feel as though there are some excellent final installments I'm forgetting. There are some obvious films - Song of the Thin Man and Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture, for instance - which are probably to old to qualify, but I'm almost certain there's something relatively recent.

 

[JediKnightButler]

Well, I may be in the minority but I thought both of the "last sequels" in the respective SW trilogies were excellent. ROTS was one helluva a roller coaster ride and has a lot of awesome dialogue scenes and action sequences. It was IMHO the "ESB" of the PT. ROTJ, aside from the Ewok scenes (which I usually skip) was always one of my favorite SW movies from when I was a kid and, frankly, my verdict on it hasn't changed much since then. Actually, ROTS made ROTJ more meaningful IMHO in terms of the parallels and differences Lucas drew between Anakin's choice in ROTS vs. ROTJ (e.g. Anakin choosing Palpatine over Mace and the Jedi Order in ROTS and him ultimately choosing Luke over Palpatine in ROTJ).

I also liked the final entry in the POTC series, particularly the awesome final battle at the end.

 

[Too Much Fun]

This thread is an art film free zone But thanks for reminding me of a trilogy I really need to check out.

God, I love your avatar. "Feed the Kitty" is one of my all-time favorite Warners Brothers cartoons!

--Ted

Cool. It is my absolute favourite! I like the mention of "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey". I was thinking more about trilogies or series with four parts or more for this thread, but that's definitely in my opinion an example of a sequel that wrapped up its 'series' perfectly.

It doesn't feel as original as the first since it's a lot of the same characters coming back (inevitably, since it's a sequel), but in some ways, I think it's better than the first one. Some of the production design and specials are amazing, and Station and Death are great characters. Having seen Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" for the first time around the same time I saw this movie for the first time, I especially dug that Death character.

I didn't include "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the poll because there's a sequel in development, but I don't know if it will have any of the cast members of the previous three in it. I'm not sure, but it almost sounds like a reboot. And I never saw either of the sequels. I thought one was enough for me. I liked the characters, but I got bored of the overabundance of CGI at the end, and I heard there was more in the sequels. I kinda wish it had been made a long time ago when they'd have had to make it a more intimate character-based adventure story due to technology constraints, instead of a CGI extravaganza.

And I never saw "Attack of the Clones" but I thought "Revenge of the Sith" was a terrible, terrible film. The Jedi Master who talks Anakin into being evil had some nice, effective villainous moments and Ewan McGregor's Alec Guinness impression is cute, but aside from that, all I saw was awful acting, direction, writing, and special effects.

 

[Cky]

I'm not sure why Back to the Future III was brought up, I thought it was a good movie. Infact I prefer it over the second one by a mile. (Mainly because the second one was great, until they went back to alternate 1985, and 1955, I wanted to see more of the future).

Oh and, the new TMNT film is a sequel to Teenage Mutuant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles In Time, as it follows the same storyline to the previous 3 (Shredders dead etc).

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Someone supposedly once asked David Gerrold how many Trek movies he thought they'd make and he (supposedly) answered: "One too many."

I think that's a fairly safe bet with any series.

 

[DevilEyes]

"Least worst"?

I haven't seen all of the candidates, and those I have (Alien Resurrection, Godfather III...) were bad, so I can't vote.

I loved Alien 3. But, unfortunately, it was not the last sequel, which it should have been, especially since

Spoiler: Alien 3

Ripley died sacrificing herself

. And Alien Resurrection sucked. (Stupid title, as well. Nobody was actually resurrected. Least of all the franchise.)

I still think The Return of the Jedi was pretty good. It had its weaknesses, yes, but it's still a good ending to the saga. And The Revenge of the Sith was certainly a vast improvement over the previous two SW prequels.

One franchise you forgot to mention is Hellraiser. That one really went down - the 2nd one was interesting, the 3rd one had its moments but was more bad than good, and then they just got worse and worse.