Fannish five: shiny, shiny sequels
Aug. 6th, 2011 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carmen_lj5 sequels (or continuations) you thought were better than the original.
1) The Revenge of Frankestein. As you may or may not know, dear flist, I love Peter Cushing e'er so slightly and am a bit of a fan of ye olde Hammer horror movies. One of my favourites is The Curse of Frankenstein, Hammer's first colour movie, made in 1957, a massive global success and a brilliant movie. They followed it up the next year with Revenge and, amazingly, made it even better. Somehow Cushing is even more compelling, and the movie has an excitement and confidence to it that makes it a joy to watch. (I'd also say the fifth one, Frankestein Must Be Destroyed is better than the original; it's a much darker, crueller take on the good doctor.)
2) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I don't hate the first movie, I find it sort of...nice when it's on in the background and you're not really paying attention? But, omg, the second. There is nothing about it that does not fill me with glee: middle-aged superheroes, McCoy's birthday present, any scene with Saavik, the Kobayashi Maru, any scene with Khan, the submarine nebula fight, Chekov all "omg! Botany Bay", Scotty all emo over his dude that stayed at his post, "KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!", Kirk and Spock in engineering omg teh emo...not the eel creature thingies though. Those totally freaked me out as a kid, and I still can't watch those scenes.
3) The First Law Trilogy. A fantasy trilogy by Joe Abercrombie that I read earlier this year and was very "well, it's quite good, and I am enjoying it and do like the funny bits an awful lot" at the first book, and Abercrombie's first novel, The Blade Itself. And then it just got better and better, with much in the way of Exciting Plot Developments that were ridic fun to read, and many a character that it was a delight to spend time with...as fictional people on the page. I wouldn't actually want to meet any of Abercrombie's characters, they are mostly awful. By the end, my only major complaint was a sad lack of female characters in prominient roles (the first book was particularly bad in this respect, but he got a bit better) and then he followed the trilogy with Best Served Cold, set in the same world, which turned out to be both my favourite of his novels so far and has a perfectly respectable number of women in it.
4) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Ah, Monkey Island, almighty king of the point 'n' click adventure game, how I love you, filled with wit and fun and trying puzzles of puzzleyness, and convincing me that when I grew up I wanted to be Governor Elaine Marley. Again, this is one where I loved the original like woah, and then the sequel just upped the plot, the puzzles, the, um, graphics (256 colours! amazings!), the funny and, omg, THE TERROR. When I was wee and LeChuck kept zapping me at the end I became half-convinced I really was being zapped through the mouse and my hand was in pain. Mostly though, while MI was an exciting and fun adventure game, MI2 was exciting and fun and EPIC. The puzzles intersecting and overlapping each other when you're searching for the map pieces remains one of my favourite bits of gaming of all time. Also nailing Stan in the coffin. Heh.
Okay, this is really annoying, cause now I've started to think about it, there are rather a few sequels I think are better. I shall just make a quick list or they'll be bouncing around in my head: Batman Returns, Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead are both better than Night of the Living Dead probably cause Romero got even more pissed off at the world, The Four Musketeers mostly cause it's the second half of the novel and thus has all the pay-off, The Bride of Frankenstein, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Superman II, Terminator II...but the winner of the sequels, from this lot anyway is:
5) Aliens. Just better in ALL THE WAYS. Omg, Ripley, ilu. I also love Hicks, and Newt and Vasquez and that it generally bothers to let us get to know all the characters only to CRUELLY KILL THEM. And there are shiny explosions and scary, scary xenomorphs and tension of the pleasantly frightening variety. I like the SE best for it has the sentry guns scene.
1) The Revenge of Frankestein. As you may or may not know, dear flist, I love Peter Cushing e'er so slightly and am a bit of a fan of ye olde Hammer horror movies. One of my favourites is The Curse of Frankenstein, Hammer's first colour movie, made in 1957, a massive global success and a brilliant movie. They followed it up the next year with Revenge and, amazingly, made it even better. Somehow Cushing is even more compelling, and the movie has an excitement and confidence to it that makes it a joy to watch. (I'd also say the fifth one, Frankestein Must Be Destroyed is better than the original; it's a much darker, crueller take on the good doctor.)
2) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I don't hate the first movie, I find it sort of...nice when it's on in the background and you're not really paying attention? But, omg, the second. There is nothing about it that does not fill me with glee: middle-aged superheroes, McCoy's birthday present, any scene with Saavik, the Kobayashi Maru, any scene with Khan, the submarine nebula fight, Chekov all "omg! Botany Bay", Scotty all emo over his dude that stayed at his post, "KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!", Kirk and Spock in engineering omg teh emo...not the eel creature thingies though. Those totally freaked me out as a kid, and I still can't watch those scenes.
3) The First Law Trilogy. A fantasy trilogy by Joe Abercrombie that I read earlier this year and was very "well, it's quite good, and I am enjoying it and do like the funny bits an awful lot" at the first book, and Abercrombie's first novel, The Blade Itself. And then it just got better and better, with much in the way of Exciting Plot Developments that were ridic fun to read, and many a character that it was a delight to spend time with...as fictional people on the page. I wouldn't actually want to meet any of Abercrombie's characters, they are mostly awful. By the end, my only major complaint was a sad lack of female characters in prominient roles (the first book was particularly bad in this respect, but he got a bit better) and then he followed the trilogy with Best Served Cold, set in the same world, which turned out to be both my favourite of his novels so far and has a perfectly respectable number of women in it.
4) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Ah, Monkey Island, almighty king of the point 'n' click adventure game, how I love you, filled with wit and fun and trying puzzles of puzzleyness, and convincing me that when I grew up I wanted to be Governor Elaine Marley. Again, this is one where I loved the original like woah, and then the sequel just upped the plot, the puzzles, the, um, graphics (256 colours! amazings!), the funny and, omg, THE TERROR. When I was wee and LeChuck kept zapping me at the end I became half-convinced I really was being zapped through the mouse and my hand was in pain. Mostly though, while MI was an exciting and fun adventure game, MI2 was exciting and fun and EPIC. The puzzles intersecting and overlapping each other when you're searching for the map pieces remains one of my favourite bits of gaming of all time. Also nailing Stan in the coffin. Heh.
Okay, this is really annoying, cause now I've started to think about it, there are rather a few sequels I think are better. I shall just make a quick list or they'll be bouncing around in my head: Batman Returns, Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead are both better than Night of the Living Dead probably cause Romero got even more pissed off at the world, The Four Musketeers mostly cause it's the second half of the novel and thus has all the pay-off, The Bride of Frankenstein, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Superman II, Terminator II...but the winner of the sequels, from this lot anyway is:
5) Aliens. Just better in ALL THE WAYS. Omg, Ripley, ilu. I also love Hicks, and Newt and Vasquez and that it generally bothers to let us get to know all the characters only to CRUELLY KILL THEM. And there are shiny explosions and scary, scary xenomorphs and tension of the pleasantly frightening variety. I like the SE best for it has the sentry guns scene.
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Date: 2011-08-06 09:01 pm (UTC)That said, I have a lifelong appreciation of 'really good space battles' so maybe I owe him. MAYBE.
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Date: 2011-08-06 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-06 09:13 pm (UTC)Talking about awesome sequels, what about Terminator 2?
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Date: 2011-08-06 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-06 09:23 pm (UTC)When I played this last year, I was still jumping out of my seat whenever he showed up. SO SCARY.
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Date: 2011-08-06 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-06 09:24 pm (UTC)Did I ever tell you that I met the dude who did the first two Monkey Island games? He was, at least at the time, partnered to a friend of ours, but it was a few years ago, dunno if they're still together. I didn't know he was the MI guy until after we went home and Billy told me, haha.
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Date: 2011-08-06 11:48 pm (UTC)Did I ever tell you that I met the dude who did the first two Monkey Island games? He was, at least at the time, partnered to a friend of ours, but it was a few years ago, dunno if they're still together. I didn't know he was the MI guy until after we went home and Billy told me, haha.>
Ha! No, that's brilliant! So jealous! Though I'd also be tots arg at not being told beforehand, though that would avoid looking like a scary fangirl person.
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Date: 2011-08-07 08:42 am (UTC)On the other hand, I cannot agree that Dawn of the Dead was better than Night of the Living Dead. This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but it's probably my least favourite of the first four movies ("Diary of the Dead" doesn't even feel like the same director). I just didn't think what they did with the shopping centre scenario was interesting.
*SPOILERS FOR DAWN OF THE DEAD (ORIGINAL). SPOILERS BELOW*
Also, the bit at the end where one of them considers staying to be torn apart by zombies when there's a helicopter on the roof was just stupid.
*END OF SPOILERS FOR DAWN OF THE DEAD (ORIGINAL). END OF SPOILERS*
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Date: 2011-08-07 07:55 am (UTC)I don't think The Four Musketeers counts as a sequel, really, because they filmed it all as a single production and then decided it was too long and split it into two movies in post-production editing. The actors were all only paid for one movie, because when they signed up that was the plan; there was a bit of a kerfuffle about that afterward.
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Date: 2011-08-07 08:36 am (UTC)In a way I think the first Star Trek movie was both enhanced and ruined by 2001. After the positive response to 2001, I guess everybody thought that was the way cinema was headed. On the one hand, Star Trek: TMP wouldn't have been so beautiful without 2001, but on the other hand it might have been faster paced without it too.
As for Wrath of Khan, it ended up being the last of the Star Trek movies that I saw. When I was younger I absolutely loved the Star Trek movies, but Wrath of Khan was a "15" certificate, so I couldn't watch it. I then watched movies 3,4,5 and 6 and absolutely loved them (even though the fifth is a bit too silly prior to the, actually rather awesome, reveal at the end). Eventually, I caught a small bit of the movie with a slug crawling out of someone's ear and it just looked daft. I eventually saw the whole thing and it was alright, but I wish I'd been able to see it as a child when the whole Star Trek universe was more fresh.
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Date: 2011-08-07 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 04:27 am (UTC)