Unnecessary Sequels/Prequels

In this day and age, if Hollywood isn't remaking a movie, they are making a prequel/sequel for the movie. Any movie that makes any money at all is treated with the sequel treatment. You could argue that most sequels/prequels are unnecessary, but that is not to say I don't enjoy some of them. In fact, I recently posted 3 upcoming comedy sequels I am looking forward to (I left out Hangover 3 because I am not quite sure about that one yet). Some sequels are even better than the originals. Though I have yet to see a prequel that is better than the original, but there are good prequels out there as well.

A lot of sequels/prequels diminish the power of the original- especially once you get to the 3rd or 4th installment of the franchise; again, not the case with all movie franchises. There are a lot of upcoming sequel/prequels that I am less than excited about. In fact, one of them comes out this weekend- Oz the Great and Powerful.

The Wizard of Oz has withstood the test of time and is still a favorite to most young children. Despite being filmed almost 75 years ago, it holds up very well today. Now the upcoming prequel is not the first time someone has tried to continue this story, but will no doubt be the biggest attempt. I haven't seen it, but I do hear that Return to Oz (1985) is quite good; but it wasn't well received by audiences. My two fears with the new Oz are CGI (we saw what that did to the Star Wars franchise) and James Franco. Now I like James Franco in almost everything he is in, but I just think this role is too big for him; and from the reviews I have read, that is the case. I will give it a chance, but I am not going into this one with high expectations. Usually I would trust Sam Raimi, but I worry about this one as it will be very hard to live up to the original. And as I am writing this, an article came across that a sequel to the prequel is already in the works.

One franchise that insists on putting out a sequel pretty much every year is Resident Evil- despite the fact that none of the sequels are really any good. I am a big fan of the game, and loved the first Resident Evil (even though it isn't much like the game), but the franchise has gone downhill with each new installment. At least they are mixing in characters from the games, but it really isn't helping. It has now been announced that we will get a 6th Resident Evil in 2014. I guess I cannot blame them, they are making a ton of money with each one. Let's just hope this is the last one.

The last I will discuss is the planned sequel to a movie I just completed- Sinister. Although I did not like it as much as most people have, I found Sinister to be a smart and terrifying horror movie; that is rare nowadays. So why can't we just leave it at that? Sure they left it open at the end to continue the story, but it is not necessary. A sequel will simply make the original film lose its power. But it is a horror movie that made a lot of money at the box office, so we should have seen this coming. Any horror movie that makes a little money is quickly turned into a franchise.

Sequels and prequels are not going away, and like I said, there are a lot of good ones out there. But most of them are simply unnecessary.

Source: FilmAffinity