Friday Five – Most Satisfying Sequels

 
Welcome to the Friday Five! Each week I help you get to know me a little better with the help of a top 5 list! This week’s category: Most Satisfying Sequels.
 

I think it’s become obvious that Hollywood these days is pretty much out of ideas. It’s why we end up with so many shitty sequels to movies no one asked for sequels for. I don’t think anyone was ever like “You know, I really wanna know how those two guys meet in that movie that’s now 10 years old”, yet we got Dumb and Dumberer: How Harry Met Lloyd. While many sequels are quick cash ins (see Aladdin IV: Jafar May Need Glasses), many times the sequel ends up being far superior to original film.

1. The Wrath of Khan – Come on! This is quite possibly the greatest positive swing in quality between the first film and the second ever. Granted, The Motion Picture was horrible, but Khan is just great on so many levels. Never mind that I can’t make it through the end without crying. Do you have any friendship as strong as Kirk and Spock’s? The answer to that is no, no you do not. Do not even argue that.

 

2. Terminator 2 (extended edition) – A close second to that quality swing is this. While the first one was pretty much a love story (and had the second set of boobs I ever saw, the first being in Doc Hollywood), this was just straight up action and awesomeness. This pretty much has everything, the only thing it was missing really was boobs. It’s got great action, a terrific score by Brad Friedel, great special effects and tons of sweet explosions. The extended cut fleshes out a lot of the backstory and really shows the T-800 learning to be human, and John Connor learning to step up and accept his destiny to create his own fate. Who would have thought an action movie could have such a well grounded emotional core?

 

3. Clerks II – The sequel we never knew we wanted, but as soon as we go it it, loved it. It may just be because I pretty much am Dante, but this one resonated with me greatly. And I love the dance scene out of nowhere.

 

4. American Pie 2 – Though it is essentially the same as the first American Pie, I think this one was better all around, with a better grounded and more relatable story. It doesn’t hurt that I too was a band geek who never joined the band (I was a Drama geek instead).

 

5. Escape from/Conquest of the Planet of the Apes – I love that they made the whole series a circle, with the human spacecraft traveling through time being the root cause of the Planet of the Apes

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook