Sequels You Like More Than The First?

Drtooth

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I'm one of the few people in the world who likes Empire Strikes Back but can't understand why people think it's better than New Hope. ::shrugs::
George Lucas didn't direct it, first of all. :smile:

Anyway, to really analyze the whole original trilogy would take forever, but it really seems that A New Hope could have been a stand alone movie and still would have worked as well and had the same amount of fans and impact on pop culture. But then again, ESB is freaking awesome and there seems to be general agreement that it is indeed the best Star Wars film out there. I haven't watched either in so long, but there's the whole expansion of the universe with such amazing characters that couldn't fit in the first film. But it does create a two part trilogy with the "to be continued" ending, where as the first film ends neatly.

Of course, then there's Jedi, which pretty much only exists to be the "to be continued" to the second film. Not bad, but it's all falling action. And the Death Star being rebuilt... uhhh... I'm mixed about that. Seems Wile E Coyote-esque to retry the same universal domination scheme. You'd think Vader and the Emperor would come up with something more menacing.
 

Yuna Leonhart

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For me, it's definitely The Rescuers Down Under, even if the story of both movies are basically be the same but I prefer the way it was done in the sequel. Cody wasn't as whiny as Penny and he tried everything he could to protect Marahute from McLeach. Okay, to be fair, Penny couldn't do much since Snoops and the two alligators were always around the riverboat, kinda hard for her to escape. But I still don't like her.
Besides, The Rescuers Down Under has one of my all time favorite movie scenes - Cody and Marahute flying near the beginning of the movie :smile:

And I also like both Toy Story sequels more than the first movie, especially the third. It just made me sad seeing all the old friends gone and Andy grown up... but Bonnie's adorable and Ken is hilarious :big_grin:
... And I still want a Lotso.
Nevertheless, all three Toy Story movies are great and a delight to watch. I really should do that again some time soon.

And I have to confess that I like Ice Age 2 and Ice Age 3 more than the first movie. I have always seen the Ice Age movies as comedies (more or less) and the second and third movies are just funnier in my opinion. Yes, I think the fourth movie is hilarious too, but when I think about it, I just can't seem to like it as much as the other two sequels. Still, I hope no more sequels will come out; all good things must come to an end.
 

D'Snowth

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One thing I will say about THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER as opposed to THE RESCUERS was they gave Wilbur a much bigger part than Orville had: Orville basically transported Bernard and Bianca to Devil's Bayou, then got the heck out of there and disappeared for the rest of the movie until we saw Bernard and Bianca on their next mission at the very end; Wilbur, on the other hand, was actually involved with the plot throughout the movie... of course, part of it too was John Candy voicing him, and he was at the height of his career at the time. In fact, I understand a third movie was in the works, but the deaths of both Eva Gabor and John Candy brought that to a hault. OLIVER & COMPANY was originally going to be a sequel to THE RESCUERS, showing Penny's life with her new family, but I think the execs at Disney figured that'd pretty much be a drag of a movie, so they instead changed the character's name (and only one letter too: Penny/Jenny) and turned it into a retelling of Charles Dickens' OLIVER TWIST.

Aside from that, I just now remembered (and how could I possibly forget): of the Austin Powers trilogy, GOLDMEMBER is definitely my favorite.
 

Drtooth

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Aside from that, I just now remembered (and how could I possibly forget): of the Austin Powers trilogy, GOLDMEMBER is definitely my favorite.
While I do like the first Austin Powers, I think the film series bettered from not having to focus on the fish out of water stories so they can save all of that focus on Spy movie parodies.
 

CensoredAlso

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Aside from that, I just now remembered (and how could I possibly forget): of the Austin Powers trilogy, GOLDMEMBER is definitely my favorite.
That's my favorite too, mainly I just love how Dr. Evil suddenly seems halfway normal compared to Goldmember, lol.
 

Drtooth

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Back to the video game example, I find Earthworm Jim 2 much more fun and funnier all around, as frustrating as heck that last stage is (the one where you have to beat Psycrow in a footrace). Even the music seems better.

And, even though I already said it before, Super Mario 2 I LOVE. I can't even say more than the first, because I never quite liked it. It's a very historically important game, but it has so many issues they've thankfully fixed in SMB 3. Now when you're talking about the other SMB 2, the Japanese one... I actually HATE it even more. Even the easier, cleaned up, non-glitch ridden remake on All Stars. And what absolutely baffles me is the random hate SMB USA gets for not being the mission pack, glitch ridden sequel that exacerbates everything wrong with the first one. That old tale of "they thought it was too hard." Nope. My theories is that they didn't think it was that good. Sure, they could have fixed the glitches that stop springboards from working right, and dumbed the game play down a bit. But all and all, Japanese SMB 2 comes off as one of those challenge for challenge sake fan game hacks. American SMB 2 is fun. And then elements of that series got incorporated as early as the next game.
 

mr3urious

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Back to the video game example, I find Earthworm Jim 2 much more fun and funnier all around, as frustrating as heck that last stage is (the one where you have to beat Psycrow in a footrace). Even the music seems better.
There's a lot more variety in the game's levels, too. So there's another plus.

And, even though I already said it before, Super Mario 2 I LOVE. I can't even say more than the first, because I never quite liked it. It's a very historically important game, but it has so many issues they've thankfully fixed in SMB 3. Now when you're talking about the other SMB 2, the Japanese one... I actually HATE it even more. Even the easier, cleaned up, non-glitch ridden remake on All Stars. And what absolutely baffles me is the random hate SMB USA gets for not being the mission pack, glitch ridden sequel that exacerbates everything wrong with the first one. That old tale of "they thought it was too hard." Nope. My theories is that they didn't think it was that good. Sure, they could have fixed the glitches that stop springboards from working right, and dumbed the game play down a bit. But all and all, Japanese SMB 2 comes off as one of those challenge for challenge sake fan game hacks. American SMB 2 is fun. And then elements of that series got incorporated as early as the next game.
Shigeru Miyamoto was also a lot more involved with Doki Doki Panic (where SMB2 came from) than The Lost Levels.

And yeah, the theory of it being too hard for Americans just doesn't hold water for me, either. If they had such an issue with that, why not just tone down the difficulty instead of not releasing it stateside?
 
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