Movie sequels so bad they almost ruin the original

[AnakinFlair]

One thing that's kind of weird about the TRANSFORMERS sequels is that I think pretty much every one (although I think Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts are kind of intended to be their own thing) retcons the origins of the Transformers, when they first appeared on Earth, what they left the planet with etc.....

It's especially bad in The Last Knight, when suddenly Bumblebee was with the Allies fighting Nazi's in WWII.

I don't think there's ever been a sequel that has ruined a previous movie for me, but there have been sequels that have turned me off of series before. I read the wiki summary of Kingsmen 2 when it first came out, and I had no desire to see it. I saw Transformers 2 for free, and I still think I paid too much.

The Last Jedi... that one comes close. It doesn't erase my love for the earlier movies, but I've tried twice now to have a marathon, and both time, when I get to TLJ, I just stop. I can't bring myself to watch it again.

[JBatmanFan05]

None.

No sequel, no matter how bad, will or can erase the previous movie from existence. It can't make my DVD disappear.

Just ignore it.

I tend to agree with this. Though, despite generally mostly taking this view, and thinking it's very difficult to take an original film (that I like mind you) and hurt it via a sequel, I'm sure there might be one or two exceptions where the good original film is somehow, fairly or not, colored in a negative way. I just can't think of that sequel right now.

Actually, if anything, the plethora of bad sequels have made it far easier to ignore the bad sequels and remain a lover of the original.

[DanMad1977]

I think a person has psychological problem, when he/she can't enjoy the previous movie anymore, or even despises it, only because the sequel was bad.

[caj]

Does anyone NOT see the word "almost" in the title and OP? I never suggested that a sequel was so bad it would completely destroy the original film for anyone.

[DanMad1977]

Probably not. I didnt mean you or anyone else, I was just thinking out loud.

A movie where the sequel is way worse than the original, I could name. For me its:

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

[ChrisIII]

The JAWS sequels, in particular the last two (2 still has some good points). Basically they kind of mostly played them as Slasher films, the interesting structure of the first with the three men with totally different personalities/lifestyles is of course lost, etc although they still follow the Brody family, to the extent that in IV the shark actively seeks them out for revenge!

It was already such a joke that BACK TO THE FUTURE II even mocks it. (Now there's a sequel that kind of enriches the original a bit since technically it has some extra scenes from the first one in the 1955 portion. II's kind of the weakest of the films IMO due to it's weird pacing and the more goofy tone, especially in the 2015 segment, it takes but it's still a pretty solid film.)

Spielberg only did THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK in part because he was annoyed at the Jaws sequels despite not being a sequel guy outside of that and Indiana Jones, and even then he's stated that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Lost World were two of his least favorite films to make. (Although at least he got Kate Capshaw out of TOD).

[ChrisIII]

All Rambo films.

Predator 2

All successors to Underworld

All successors to The Matrix

I would argue that quite a few of the Rocky films, like Rambo, also kind of miss the point of the original, although they aren't really 'bad' per se, although certainly goofy (Rocky IV, mainly, and I think Stallone mostly agrees, hence his recut of it recently), although going back to 'basics' with V failed the first time around, they did much better with Balboa and the first Creed film.

[lefthanded]

Zoolander 2 came the closest to this for me. It just took all the best jokes of the original and ran them into the ground, and then ran that underground. I couldn’t watch the original again until late this year, seven years on. Of course, the original has dated a bit now and is more obviously mostly good because of Owen Wilson being awesome.

I feel like comedies come the closest to ruining the Original.

Things are funny because … they are funny. But once you have a sequel that repeats a joke, or starts to explore the mechanics of the joke, it becomes … unfunny. And if the joke is unfunny in the sequel, then that could potentially make that same joke in the original not funny.

Anchorman 2 turning the News Team brawl into the climactic spectacle, and increasing the absurdity of people’s weapons, is largely not very funny. It kind of retroactively affect me being able to laugh at Anchorman 1’s News Team brawl, since the joke has been over explained.

[90'sCartoonMan]

For me, it's mostly when a character's development gets undone for the sake of the sequel. Mulan 2 made me hate Mushu.

I feel like comedies come the closest to ruining the Original.

Things are funny because … they are funny. But once you have a sequel that repeats a joke, or starts to explore the mechanics of the joke, it becomes … unfunny. And if the joke is unfunny in the sequel, then that could potentially make that same joke in the original not funny.

Anchorman 2 turning the News Team brawl into the climactic spectacle, and increasing the absurdity of people’s weapons, is largely not very funny. It kind of retroactively affect me being able to laugh at Anchorman 1’s News Team brawl, since the joke has been over explained.

That's a good point. Hangover 2 made the first Hangover less fun in re-watches.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

There are arguably two situations where the original is ruined.

The first is if there is a "mystery box" in the original and it doesn't pay off, like in TFA. TLJ has retroactively ruined TFA for a lot of people. As much as it seems like that movie was always hated, it's just not true if we go back and look at what people actually said in 2015-2017.

The second (and I think more common) situation is where the problems start in the first film, and then get worse in the sequel. Examples are Batman Forever, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Man of Steel. Those movies have problems, but people gave the problems a pass until a sequel came out that doubled down on the problems. Ever since then, going back to those films feels like "The beginning of the end" and ruins the experience. Whereas with something like Nolan's Batman, lots of fans don't like Rises but the problems in Rises didn't already exist in BB and TDK, so Rises doesn't hurt those films the way BvS hurts MoS.