Ten Deep 09.10.09: Sequels

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 09.10.2009

Who says sequels never live up to the original? Well, quite a lot of people actually. Owain J. Brimfield digs deep to prove there are more classic sequels than you'd think in this week's column!





Welcome to week 46 of 'Ten Deep'! Last week's serial killer topic generated some pretty interesting points of discussion, so let's listen to some:

Reactions and interactions

The two main points of intrigue seem to have been a) why I omitted Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men, and b) what was in the box? Regarding Chigurh, some commenters wondered how on earth he could have been left off due to the cold-blooded nonchalance with which he dispatched people left and right, while others thought his indiscriminate killings were simply a by-product of his vocation as a hitman. I'm of the latter school of thought, hence the omission - there doesn't seem to be any psychological motivation driving his murders, he just wants to get to his target and if that means offing a few bystanders then so be it. As to what's in the box John Doe has delivered to the desert at the end of Seven, I'm with Rage that it had to be Mills' wife's head - aside from the fact that Doe overtly says so to provoke Mills into shooting him, a foetus wouldn't have gotten the immediate reaction from Somerset that was evident.

Other suggestions, aside from the numpties who berated me for excluding Michael Rooker's Henry and Michael Myers when I specifically excluded those ones (golden rule and supernatural respectively), included the Tooth Fairy, who was cut at the shortlist stage because no one can take a killer called a Fairy seriously, the Fireflys from Rob Zombie's horror flicks, which I haven't seen and therefore can't comment on (sorry, but the prospect of Zombie as a filmmaker really doesn't instill me with confidence), and somewhat interestingly, the Punisher, although I don't exactly think he's a serial killer, or I could have included any number of 80s action heroes who killed hundreds throughout the course of their movies.

Elsewhere, AG Awesome and Zingy point out the interesting parallels between Andy Robinson's Scorpio and Heath Ledger's Joker, and I have to agree there are hints of Robinson's wild-eyed lunacy in Ledger's performance, even if the influence wasn't direct. Personally though, I think Scorpio is a scarier villain.

dw, Rant Casey, BJC and JMAC debate whether or not Patrick Bateman actually did kill people in American Psycho. I can't vouch for anything that appears in Ellis's novels, but while the film admittedly works better as a satire if the killings are real, it makes for a much more intriguing character study if they take place in Bateman's head, which is why I lean towards that opinion.

SummerTwilight delivers a thoughtful and rational insight into his reasons for disagreeing with my choices... just kidding! Actually, he spouts some ridiculous bluster about how everything he doesn't agree with is "laughable". Here's a tip, why not take a lesson from your peers and engage in some discussion rather than embarrassing yourself. Or, you could just follow Scott B's assessment and come back to throw more weak insults and give me more hits. The first way's more becoming, don't you agree?

Moving on!

Good movie sequels are generally pretty hard to come by, as for every sequel that lives up to the standards of its daddy, you get two or three like Jaws: The Revenge or Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (although I'm sure there are probably several fans of the latter thanks to its glorious title that's resulted in a mini-meme for describing poor sequels). As the subject is often a matter for debate among friends after a drink or two, if you need some ammunition to help you out, check out the following list. For consideration movies must be a direct sequel only - no threequels (if I'm feeling brave I might tackle that next week), prequels, fourquels or any other made-up words like that - and must exist within the same storyworld as their predecessor, so no reboots count as sequels. Due to their relative paucity, I'm pretty confident I haven't left out any truly great sequels, although I'm sure one of the golden rule omissions will probably surprise some people, so let's see what you guys think.

Important! I know how a lot of people like to criticize without actually reading the whole column, so before you leap all over me for making an extremely notable omission this week, read this little bit coming up in bold text. Failure to do so means your opinions are rendered null and void and you will be subject to mass ridicule. Don't say I didn't warn you.

As always, there's one golden rule: if I haven't seen it, it's not allowed on the list.

This week's golden rule notable omissions: The Color of Money, Evil Dead 2, The Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2





Honorable mention: Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Weaker than the original, but even if you're only half as good as Die Hard you're better than most films.

Honorable mention: Superman II

Edges out Spider-Man 2 to become the second-best comic book sequel.

10. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

We begin our list with a film that I initially thought wouldn't make it past the shortlist, but whaddya know, here it is after all. The Two Towers doesn't seem to be a title that springs to everyone's lips when discussing top sequels, given that The Return of the King seems to hog all the glory of the Rings trilogy with its 4 ½ hour running time. However, it could well be that we're missing out on some good stuff, and there are reasons aplenty to consider Towers up there with the rest of this week's top-quality sequels. First and foremost, the Battle of Helm's Deep, one of the greatest screen battles ever committed to celluloid, and well up there with fellow genre-specific battles Hoth and Endor. The castle siege is the set piece that anchors the film and provides enough spectacle on its own to last the entire 3 ¾ hr running length of the extended flick, but Peter Jackson doesn't want you to stop there, and throws in such supplementary barnstorming moments as the Ents ransacking Isengard and Gandalf the White's rebirth. There's a smattering of superb human touches throughout, too, even if they are displayed by non-human characters - Arwen's grief at the thought of abandoning her mortal partner and Gollum's schizophrenic argument with himself are the two that spring to mind, but I could have just as easily pinpointed half a dozen other equally memorable scenes. The Two Towers is, for the majority part, bigger and better in all pertinent ways than its predecessor, and more than adequately sets the stage for one of cinema's great threequels (expect to see Return in next week's column). Perhaps it's overlooked due in part to the fact that little of the story is actually resolved within the sequel, but as a piece of blockbuster entertainment and one of the "biggest" sequels you're likely to see, it more than deserves its mention.

9. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

It's relatively widely accepted that the even-numbered Star Trek films are the best ones, right? Not being all that passionate about the franchise I can't really vouch for that one way or the other, the only supporting argument I see is that the second movie remains a great sci-fi flick. Evidence that major science fiction franchises were giving stupid titles to their films long before The Phantom Menace caused consternation amongst fanboys, The Wrath of Khan is seemingly rooted in popular culture for Shatner screaming "Khaaaaaaaaan!" and nothing else, but that oft-referenced snippet is but a smidgen of the movie's qualities and kind of threatens to make a joke of the film to younger audiences who might not get the reference. While Star Trek: The Motion Picture was undeniably impressive for anyone who had the fortune to witness it on a big screen, the march of time has somewhat dulled its appeal to the point where new viewers would likely regard it as a decent sci-fi movie and little more. However, the same can't be said for The Wrath of Khan, which is as vital and enjoyable as it ever was even after all these years. All your favorites from the crew of the Enterprise are back, aged just sufficiently to have matured from the TV crew everyone knew and loved without going overboard into senility as later films in the series would have them (seriously, how did anyone take The Final Frontier seriously? Oh, that's right, no one did), and in Ricardo Montalban find themselves a nemesis who proves both deadly and memorable, to the extent that this re-emergence (or lack thereof) is almost the sole talking point of the upcoming sequel-to-the-reboot-of-the-movie-spinoff-of-the-show. Whether or not Khan proves to be reimagined once again as an antagonist for Kirk and co. is essentially irrelevant though, when his original villainy is still part of the most revered Trek franchise output to date.

8. The Bourne Supremacy

I remain convinced that The Bourne Identity remains the best of the trilogy of films starring the modern spy for the ages, benefitting as it does from the more understated approach of Doug Liman behind the camera, but there's no denying that its follow-up Supremacy is grittier, more kinetic, harder-hitting and all those other things that make a strong contemporary action movie. MATT DAMON, who seems to have spent the past decade quietly morphing into Hollywood's most bankable actor, is a confident leading man in a flick that does for spy movies what Casino Royale would have done for spy movies had it been release seven or eight years earlier. Considering Bond was co-starring with Madonna and racing invisible cars against giant sun lasers when Jason Bourne made his first movie appearance, though, it's no real surprise that Supremacy cemented the franchise's place as the pre-eminent spy movie series of the decade. Director Paul Greengrass takes a much more immediate and direct approach to filming, although he's mastered the art of the "shaky-cam" so as to place the viewer right in the middle of the action without engendering motion sickness or coming a cropper due to trying to process seven camera cuts a second, as is seemingly the wont of every novice action director these days. With the shady details of Bourne's past becoming ever more apparent, the quick dispensing of the love interest and the addition of several charismatic villains intent on tracking the man down increases the stakes dramatically. Now fully at ease with his resurfaced CIA skills, Bourne is happy to fight off assassins using little more than a magazine and an underdeveloped sense of stacked odds, and tear up central Moscow during a car chase that's vastly more impressive than the one featured in the film's predecessor. While Identity presented a refreshing take on the spy movie, Supremacy goes one further and delivers a fresh kind of real-world action movie, a feat only just equaled by Bond's return, which ain't too bad for a newbie.

7. Before Sunset

Easily the most unassuming film to be discussed this week, almost falling under the dreaded "arthouse" banner, Before Sunset doesn't succeed as a sequel by virtue of doing everything faster and louder than its progenitor, but by doing everything just the same - every inch of romance, passion, well-observed characters and compelling dialogue that permeated Before Sunrise is present in equal measure in its sequel. Picking up the unrequited relationship of young cosmopolitan couple Jesse and Celine some nine years after we left them on an understated cliffhanger note at the end of Sunrise, Richard Linklater's surprisingly necessary follow-up (for how galling it would have been had we never known whether the two met in Austria that summer) takes a somewhat unique real-time approach, following the couple as they meet in seeming coincidence at a Parisian book-signing event (into the mix of which Linklater throws a healthy dash of non-smug meta-commentary about the first film's ending) and journey around the city until Jesse's flight leaves. The characters are just as endearing as when we left them last, and there are several neat references to Sunrise such as a key moment near the denouement occurring while the two listen to music together, echoing the first film's record shop scene that saw the first real glimpses of love blossom. The ending, which provoked cries of frustration in a number of the viewing audience when I saw the film at the cinema, provides just the same note of quietly optimistic ambiguity as did the couple's parting at the conclusion of the first film. While Before Sunset doesn't offer anything like the epic scale or bombastic budgets of this week's other entrants, it does make for one of the most romantic films of the decade and a cheery, teary conclusion to a tale of two lovers. It warms yer cockles, I tell thee.

6. Aliens

I know I invoke 'Empire' magazine quite a lot in this column and it's something I'll try and tone down, but it's a prestigious publication, and when even they go so far as to put Aliens at the top of their own "greatest sequels list" (albeit some time ago), it's worth sitting up and taking notice. While I haven't gone quite that far, obviously, Aliens is still a more than worthwhile sequel to cinema's premier horror/SF flick, with improvements as subtle as the mildly adjusted naming convention (was ever a sequel more aptly titled?) to the majestic transformation of a taut horror flick into a balls-to-the-wall action movie. The cast of protagonists is just as lively and memorable as in Alien - let's face it, any time you have Michael Biehn wielding any sort of firearm, you know you're in for an explosive time at the movies - and the addition of little Newt to juxtapose Ripley's ass-kicking tomboy-ism with her protective maternal instincts is a masterstroke of characterization. However, the simple fact that places this up here in the list is that James Cameron is one of the bestest action directors of all time, and letting him loose with a creature as iconic as the Alien was always going to reap the dividends, even if it *shudder* might have inadvertently paved the way towards Alien vs. Predator being such a generic explosion-fest. Favorite bit? Well it has to be Bill Paxton's "game over" speech, but the suspense of the "seven meters... six... that's inside the room!" scene is a superb example of why Aliens is such a damn entertaining movie. And of course, the Alien Queen is one of the best end-of-level bosses... I mean, climactic movie showdowns that the genre has ever thrown up. If Avatar is even half as good as this, if Cameron can recapture just a portion of his old glories, then we're in for a treat.

5. Dawn of the Dead

Man, it seems like I find a way to shoehorn George A. Romero into this column every single week. It's not intentional, believe me, I enjoy the series as much as the next moviegoer and I do love a good zombie tale, but I wouldn't particularly label myself a fan. Still, let's work with what we have, which is perhaps the best example of a sequel upping the stakes you could ever find. Shifting the action from the abandoned farmhouse of Night of the Living Dead to the open city streets of a zombie-infected world, and from there onto a gigantic shopping mall groaning under the weight of the undead, means Dawn is "bigger" in all respects than its predecessor, not to mention in terms of the amount of social commentary it offers, but the real clincher is the move to technicolor. While the actual zombie makeup itself is a little cheesy, there's no denying that seeing the blood n' guts in such stark visage, compared to the relative safety of black and white, means that Dawn is immensely more visceral a movie, and kudos to Tom Savini for his now-legendary gory special effects. The suspense, too, is upped thanks to the film having a much smaller group of protagonists fending off the zombie onslaught, meaning the eventual losses are even more keenly felt. Also earning Dawn some tangential bonus points in the "best sequel" stakes - its eventual remake was much better than Savini's Night redux. Still, the relative merits of Zack Snyder's version aside (and "zombie baby" does earn it a lot of credit), it could never have lived up to its original material, which is arguably the definitive zombie movie in the history of horror, and even more so than Night felt the ripples of its legacy spread throughout the subsequent decades of rip-offs and pale imitations [pale, get it? Cos zombies have pale skin? Oh, nevermind...].

4. The Dark Knight

You'll notice I haven't included the first Batman series sequel here, Batman Returns. That's it pales into such insignificance when compared to The Dark Knight that it shrivels up into a wrinkly old ball and runs to hide in the airing cupboard, so it wasn't worth the inclusion, which would have been pretty perfunctory. Overlong and oddly structured Nolan's seminal sequel may be, but they're pretty much the only valid criticisms you can throw its way before the rebuttals come thick and fast to drown them out. Taking the foundations laid down in Batman Begins - itself arguably the best superhero origin story committed to film - The Dark Knight has laid down the gauntlet for all future movie sequels in terms of doing things bigger and better. Debuting to near-universal critical acclaim (it'll certainly be some time again before a new film takes over the IMDB #1 all-time spot, however temporary that ranking may prove to be), the movie showed the world that comic book movies don't have to be all style over substance and can definitely surpass the caveat "...for a comic book adaptation" in terms of discussing great films. Much of the talk at the time of release, naturally, circulated around Heath Ledger's performance, but now that some time has passed it seems clear that, great though that was and as intimidating a villain as the Joker remains, it's secondary when compared to the utter scale of the film. Rarely do we see a film so unabashedly bold and cinematic as The Dark Knight come along and manage to conjoin quality with box-office success - the film managed to dominate both critical and commercial "best-of" lists which seems, sadly, a rare feat in this day and age. For redefining what comic book adaptations are capable of, and for being a bloody great film into the bargain, here's to the film that Chris Nolan may one day wish he'd never have made... because now he has to top it.

3. The Road Warrior

Certainly not a film that springs immediately to most people's minds when thinking of best sequels, but the reason I have The Road Warrior so high is, in part, the fact that I didn't enjoy the first Mad Max flick at all - aside from Gibson's titular tormented Aussie cop, there wasn't much to recommend it for me and it felt too disjointed to be enjoyable. Imagine my surprise, then, when I reluctantly decide I should probably give the series another chance, and the sequel turns out to be one of the best action/sci-fi movies of all time! More unexpected than a peacock in a tramp's armpit. Anyway, Mad Max 2 takes the post-apocalyptic desert setting of its predecessor and strips the scenario down to basics - in a world where petrol is the most valuable resource, the bad guys try to steal it from the good guys. Add in an utterly insane (in the bad way) chief evildoer - Vernon Wells in the most impressive role in his career as head nutjob Wez, psychotic and truly boo-hiss-able - an utterly insane (in the good way) sidekick Bruce Spence's barmy Gyro Captain, owner of the world's wackiest flying contraption - and a pretty unhinged protagonist to boot, thrown in a smattering of explosions and action set-pieces, and you're good to go. Considering that this comes from director George Miller, the man responsible for such equally high-budget, high-octane actioners as, er, Babe and Happy Feet, it's all the more impressive, particularly the climactic oil tanker chase through the desert highway, which had to have been a bitch to film. The whole post-apocalypse subgenre does tend to throw up quite a few gems (although maybe that's personal bias talking... on consideration, I'll allow this comment), and The Road Warrior is the most brilliant and sun-scorched of the lot.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Another of James Cameron's films makes the list of best sequels? Hard to believe that we're talking about the same director whose feature debut was Piranha 2: The Spawning, which as you can imagine was most certainly not on this week's shortlist. Of course, T2 is very much in a different league to said fishy farrago, and for those of you who've had the fortune to view the superior extended 'Ultimate Edition' cut as released on DVD, it's certainly one of the best science fiction films ever made. It's easy to forget since subsequent sequels have somewhat watered down the franchise (although I'm in the camp that was actually quite pleasantly surprised by Rise of the Machines, which had a certain flair), that T2 was one of the most revolutionary films of its time, showcasing some pioneering CGI and redefining what was possible in the movies. Not a bad bar for a sequel to set, right? From the moment Brad Fiedel's pounding score hits, remixed from the first movie and more inspiring for it, the mood is set, and when Arnie busts out "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle" it's obvious we have a true classic on our hands. The Terminator is perhaps, debatably, the highest quality "original" as pertains today's list of sequels (even in the wake of Arnie's subsequent career, his performance in the 1984 film is unsettling to watch, robotic in the best sense), so the fact that T2 still manages to improve in leaps and bounds over that film is more than testament to its success. Driven by one of the most esoteric yet compelling hero/villain dynamics in modern movie history, the scope and ambition of the film never ceases to amaze, and the simple fact that one of the least versatile actors in history can deliver one of the cheesiest lines in history at the film's climax and it still makes me well up - and that I'm not ashamed to admit that - more than justifies its number two placing.

1. The Empire Strikes Back

Predictable much? Yes, no doubt most of you saw this one coming; hardly surprising for a science fiction junkie to name this the number one sequel. It's true, though - Empire is one of only two films that anyone who knows anything about film would immediately name when confronted with the "so what good sequels are there?" question, and is the only one of those two that I've seen, so it had to take the number one slot. I could list the multitude of snippets from the film that prove this is the best sequel of all time, hell, one of the best movies of all time - the Battle of Hoth, visions of Obi-Wan, training on Dagobah with Yoda, Cloud City, Lando's betrayal, "I love you / I know", Luke's parentage revealed, that ending - but I'd just be pandering to the masses, padding the word count and telling you what you already know. Instead, consider the simple fact that , along with Flight of the Navigator, this is one of the first films I can ever remember viewing tucked away on TV one ancient Christmas afternoon, and some fifteen years and countless thousands of films later, it's still one of the top three. Not a bad legacy to leave on this moviegoer, that's for sure. Thank the powers that be that old Georgie boy decided that "hey, maybe Star Wars can be 'Episode IV' after all, because I've still got a story to tell and it looks like people want to listen". We listened, George, oh how we listened!

We interrupt this column for a special announcement.

For all the latest 411 updates in bite-sized chunks of tweety goodness, behold:

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

...and don't forget to set 411mania.com as your homepage for all your pop-culture needs!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

And finally…

Feeling aggrieved or elated at this week's ten picks? Then let me know! The magic of the interweb allows you to post your comments right here on this very page, and if they're especially insightful (or idiotic), I may even respond in the next column. Be sure to tune in next week for another edition of 'Ten Deep', but until then - keep watching the skies.