Sunday, February 6, 2011

Unnecessary Sequals

I was reviewing my movie catalogue when I realised that a lot of movies I owned really should never have existed. Faced with utter dissapointment at every turn, the entire problem, I learned was that I only owned them because they were part of a series. Some of these movies just plain sucked, and some of them would have actually been really cool as a stand alone movie, not part pf the series. Here's my list of unnecessary sequals to what were really awesome movies (or if not awesome, at least popular) movies.

Cube2: Hypercube
I actually kind of enjoyed this movie, as a bit of a guilty pleasure. It wasn't very scary though. Rather, it was an interesting sci-fi conspiracy piece that really, the series could have done without. In this movie, eight strangers wake up in a giant box, in which the rules of space-time are completely ignored. This is explained as being a four-dimensional cube. So when they exit one room and enter another, they are actually entering the same room, in a parallel time frame. Plus, everyone has a link to a company called IZON, which really has very little significance towards the series. The third movie CUBE ZERO, is a prequal which returns to form, and the series can be enjoyed and make perfect sense watching the original CUBE and CUBE ZERO alone.
Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge
Okay, this wasn't a bad movie, and the scene where Freddy rips through young Jesse Walsh to enter this world is pretty cool, but it is a total break from "Nightmare" canon. I mean, we get the boiler room, and all that stuff from here, but the events during the movie are pretty much ignored during the rest of the series. While all the other movies have some form of continuity, this one is pretty much on it's own, except for the fact that Freddy Krueger is in it. While this movie does reference the first movie, the third movie (and it's sequals) do a much better job of going back to the original storyline.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
I shouldn't have to explain this one... No Laurie Strode, no Dr. Loomis, and most importantly: no Micheal Meyers. Just another evil corporation trying to exploit children, kind of like McDonalds. But this movie really should not have even been called "Halloween."
Jurassic Park III or Lost World: Jurassic Park
One of these movies was totally unnecessary, but I'm not sure which one. Lost World could have used a different title, since the premise of the novel it was based upon was an explorer trying to find an island where dinosaurs survived or resurfaced naturally when they went extinct elsewhere, much like the original novel by Sir Arther Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holme fame). However the gentlman stumbles upon Hammond's Site B instead. Ian Malcolm and the journey to Site B is the only thing shared between the movie and the novel. And the third movie didn't have a novel to base itself on, but was much better than Lost World. However, it relied a little bit on continuity from the second movie - such as the reference the T-Rex running loose in San Diego.
Which one belongs? You decide.
Pet Semetary 2, Carrie 2, and any other sequal to a Stephen King Movie
Need I say More?

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It's been awhile since I've been on but I'm coming back in style. Starting February 6th, I will be opening a new blog - 100 chills in 100 days. I will watch and review/critique 100 Horror films in 100 days. All this while still doing articles here, on Hubpages, and managing my webcomic "Cutting Room Floor."
First post on 100chills.blogspot.com will be on Event Horizon so check it out starting tomorrow (February 6th 2011)

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