Too many times they make sequels when they shouldn't. To examples, IMO, are GREMLINS and POLTERGIEST and there are many others.
Gremlins 2 is widely considered
superior to the original. Not by
me but...
Funny you mention
Poltergeist. I've been a
huge Poltergeist fan since late 1985. Yesterday I had my
yearly Poltergeist marathon. Normally I watch them on the anniversary of Heather O'Rourke's death but I had to postpone...
On the sequels...
Poltergeist II: The Other Side was a
very good movie. It just happened to be
inferior to the original which was excellent. The only
real flaw of PII (besides the fact that Spielberg didn't return to direct this one) was that by personifying the poltergeist threat in the form of Henry Kane they took an omnipotent, invincible force of nature and
weakened it into something that
could be defeated. Kane was in essence the Borg Queen of the Poltergeist franchise except...
Julian Beck's performance, his
final performance was magnificent.
High octane nightmare fuel. His face, his voice, his presence has stuck with me for a lifetime. I remember after seeing PII in theaters I turned to my best friend and said:
"If I ever see Kane walking down the street I'm gonna kick him in the balls!
My father responded:
"If you saw him walking down the street you'd shit your pants!"
My father was more correct that I was.
Geek Fact: Julian Beck passed away after shooting his scenes for PII. In post some of his lines needed to be rerecorded due to noise on the location tracks. Corey Burton was hired to be his soundalike. That's right, Brainiac himself! I don't know why but the comic book geek in me loves the idea of Brainiac being the voice of one of my
worst childhood nightmares.
Skipping the subject and going on to....
Poltergeist III!
Poltergeist II completed the story of
Poltergeist. There was no need for another sequel. Alas...
I have nothing good to say about this movie.... It's sad that it was Heather O'Rourke's
final performance.
Nobody deserves a piece of shit like
Poltergeist III on their tombstone. Sadly Heather does.
Literally.
Putting
Poltergeist to the side and picking a movie that
should have had a sequel.
The Iron Giant.
I don't need to say why. If I were
Warner Brothers I would be offering Brad Bird anything up to and including head to get him to do
Iron Giant 2. True the first wasn't a hit but that was Warner's fault. IG has such a following now thanks to home video and Brad Bird has a large following thanks to
The Incredibles. There's little doubt on my mind that an
Iron Giant 2 could be a box office
BONANZA on the level of Dreamworks
shitty Shrek sequels.
