Sequels Better Than The Original

[Timothy Hunter]

Novels, Films, Comics, TV Seasons, Sophmore Albums etc

I'll start:

The Dark Knight

Weezer's Pinkerton

The Wire Season 2

[seismic-2]

The Godfather Part II
The Empire Strikes Back

[Adam Allen]

Well, I think that Aliens and Terminator 2 both upped the budget, battle and special effects on their predecessors, turned the tone from horror-ish to just outright action, and cemented both as solid franchises, no matter how many mediocre to horrible efforts were to follow.

So, I would say both out-performed the originals, definitely. As far as outright better films ... more gray area, there.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Star Trek II

The first film was, to put it simply, boring as sin, but then came the second film with the return of Khan which was awesome.

[Riv86672]

2004’s Spider-man II.

[DebkoX]

In my order.

Winter Soldier, Spider-Man 2, most of the Percy Jackson books.

[PaulBullion]

I thought Tim Burton's Batman Returns was better than his Batman, because of Michelle Pfeiffer.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Sequels better than the "original" is an odd phrase, it would make sense if they were "remake better than the original".

To be honest, I get tired of these arguments because it's led increasingly to this sense that a "sequel being better than the first one" means that the first movie is somehow to be ignored, discarded, like it's some software that got an update somehow. Art isn't like that.

The Godfather 1 and The Godfather 2 happen to be totally different films in many ways, ANH and TESB even moreso. SM-1 and SM-2 also.

I thought Tim Burton's Batman Returns was better than his Batman, because of Michelle Pfeiffer.

Batman Returns absolutely is the best Batman movie ever made, and definitely better than the first one [Do I contradict myself, I contradict myself], and the one that goes all the way with Burton's idea that the Batman comics are an extension of German Expressionism.

[Gaius]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

[seismic-2]

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

[Kusanagi]

Aliens and Terminator 2.
Though it's not clear cut, it's certainly up for debate.

Winter Soldier, Thor: Ragnarok, Batman Returns, Spider-Man 2, the Dark Knight, for comic book movies.

For TV shows, I'd argue most long running shows the second or third season is going to be better than the first. Characters are established and know their roles by then. Especially in Comedies.

[Kirby101]

Jim Starlin's Warlock better than the original 10 issue run.

[From The Shadows]

There's already a lot that's been mentioned but I'll add The Empire Strikes Back, The Wrath OF Kahn and The Two Towers. I also want to add First Contact too since its technically the second installment of the Next Gen crew.

[Jim Kelly]

ANNABELLE: CREATION (actually a prequel) better than ANNABELLE.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY better than THE PURGE.

HAPPY DEATH DAY II better than HAPPY DEATH DAY.

PADDINGTON 2 better than PADDINGTON.

MANON DES SOURCES better than JEAN DE FLORETTE.

THE TRIP TO ITALY better than THE TRIP.

[Comics N' Toons]

off the top of my head:

Raimi's Spider-man 2
Back to the Future Part 2
Iron Man 2
Avenger 2: Age of Ultron
Blade 2
Godfather Part 2
The Empire Strikes Back
the 2nd Fantastic Four film with Silver Surfer
The Wrath of Kahn
Halloween 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th Part 2
Nightmare Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (the one with all the gay male bondage)