2012 has been a big year for the movies industry. More than once in the past 12 months I’m sure that you’ve all walked out of the cinema after watching a particularly great film and just wished that you could see more of the characters and their lives after the film straight away. Then again, there have probably also been films that left you disappointed or with important questions that you felt were unanswered. All of these reasons for a necessary sequel are represented in this list and don’t be fooled by that picture from The Dark Knight Rises, it’s purely because I believe the sequels of The Dark Knight trilogy to be some of the best ever made, not because it has made it onto this list.
Be warned though, each title includes various spoilers…
10. Prometheus
Ah, Prometheus. Maybe it was simply because I had built my hopes up from the very first time I heard about this film, but I have never left a cinema more disappointed than I did after the film. I have always been a huge fan of the Alien franchise and as such I was elated when I heard there was going to be a film returning to this universe to explore the origins of the Space Jockey, but instead of answers, all I left the cinema with were even more questions and various plot holes that needed explaining. Just one example being why exactly Charlize Theron’s character, Meredith Vickers, decided why it would be a good idea to run away from the crashing Engineer ship in a straight line, when she could quite easily have just turned 90 degrees and ran forward to avoid it, or at least in a diagonal line. The addition of the plot twist that Vickers was the daughter of Peter Weyland was also massively unnecessary and added little to the characters or the film, although you could argue that it was simply a cheap means of illustrating the story of Prometheus from Greek mythology, in which Prometheus stole fire from the gods for the use of humanity.
Now it wasn’t all bad, visually it was stunning and the 3D definitely helped me to immerse myself in the fiction, but the unbelievable and (for the most part) unlikeable characters dragged me right back into the real world again, The worst of these were Fifield, the crew’s Geologist, and Milburn, the biologist. They are both so terrified when discovering the decapitated corpse of an Engineer that they break away from the group, somehow get themselves lost, then act perfectly fine when faced with a living Hammerpede, something which eventually leads to their deaths.
However, instead of killing the series, these issues actually fuel the need for a sequel. Because the plot was so complex it was not fully explained which led to the emergence of many plot holes in the story, a sequel could address each of these whilst also fully fleshing out exactly what happened to the Engineers once they had created life and why they wanted to destroy it again afterwards. Another great reason a sequel would work is the ever-brilliant Michael Fassbender, who played the Android, David. Fassbender’s performance was the highlight of the film for me and at the end he escapes on a ship headed for the Engineer’s home world with Shaw. David performs many important acts during the film and his intentions are left unclear, adding a sense of mystery to his character, which I would definitely like to see more of.
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24 Comments
The surprise movie for me was really 21 Jump Street. I didn’t like Channing Tatum before that movie (hangover from the GI Joe catastrophe), but that movie was really well written and sharply directed. Definitely need a sequel.
I felt the same really! Channing Tatum has had a really great year, first Jump Street, then Magic Mike. To be honest I even thought he was really good in The Vow as well. Definitely can’t wait for the Jump Street sequel though!
My wife liked the Vow as well. I told her if she loses her memory and dumps me, I’m going to date a stripper from Reno. :)
Interesting choices!
Thanks! Anything else you would have included?
I like it man, good list. Think you pretty much got them all!!
Cheers man! I’m glad you agree :) haha
Paranormal Activity 4 is one I would have included simply because they’ve built a really interesting mythology around the events which 4 didn’t add anything to, I’d like 5 to be a definitive one that tries to be less just build, build, build until the last 3 minutes and one about a guy investigating all this, trying to find an answer and who is literally sieged upon for the entire movie. Answers and terror in abundance. Plenty of time for that.
Paranormal Activity 4 was actually a close runner for this list! In the end, I favoured Sinister instead simply because it was a much scarier film in its own right and I really loved the 8mm films. I do love the Paranormal Activity films though, that scene where they are hiding in the bathroom in the 3rd film is perfect! Pretty terrifying too haha. My favourite part of Paranormal Activity 4 is when she gets locked in the Garage, although that wasn’t a particularly scary moment, more of an action beat. That idea for the 5th does sound great though! They’ve built it all up for 4 films now and the slow-building tension was never truly realised in the 4th, so a 5th film that is literally just constant terror would be great.
I do assume that hopefully they have an endgame in mind for the series though and I will definitely catch any further sequels in the cinema.
Yeah I think 3 is my favourite horror film; I don’t know why they just got everything right, they put scares throughout which elevated to the level that you didn’t think they could escalate it and they did.
4 to me felt like a bigger budget version of 1, whilst 1 was good when it came out the brilliance and stake raising of the sequels made it feel a bit like a lame duck.
I think they could take a lot from the Marble Hornets series in how the tapes that say, in 3, that disappeared is being stolen by someone who survived one of these attempts to induct them in to this weird cult and is trying to put together evidence; whilst being hunted by them. Because now we have the backstory of Katie it’s to hollow to just bring it to new people each film.
I actually thought that I preferred the second film to the third, save that bathroom scene. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending of the third film, but upon reflection I guess it does add to the whole backstory and the mythology of the series and what happened to Katie and Kristi.
For me the biggest problem of the 4th film led in it’s reliance on the Xbox Kinect, whilst the effect looked cool at first, it wasn’t half as scary to see the dots moving around a paranormal entity than it was for their presence to be suggested by noise and moving objects and crazy moments like the kitchen scene from the 2nd film where the cupboards are flung open, or another kitchen scene from the 3rd film where the table and chairs are on the ceiling after the camera away then back to them. That was creepy as hell.
However, I’m not too sure if someone stealing the tapes to fight the cult would make for a particularly strong or original finale. The people in each film thus far have all been linked to some extent, even with the family from the 4th film having adopted Hunter (That twist was massively clunky as well, it was obvious that Wyatt was really Hunter from half way through the film). The only character we know to have survived the films thus far, if I remember correctly, is Ali from the 2nd film, and Katie’s mother Julie who was predominantly in the 3rd film although they didn’t seem to want to invite her to their house in the original film, maybe because she knew about what happened to them?
For me, it wouldn’t be entirely unconceivable for Julie to have taken Ali in after the death of her family and for the two of them to want to get to the bottom of what is happening and maybe stop it, as well as saving Hunter from his fate, so I guess it could definitely work in that way! That is, of course, unless Julie did actually die and Katie’s mother who is referenced in the first film is actually an adopted mother, which seems unlikely as neither her of Kristi mention that as far as I am aware. It has been a while since I watched the films though, I guess they could quite easily have repressed the memories from the cult and of their mother’s death and believe an adopted mother to be their real mother.
Sorry for this essay of a reply! haha
Prometheus – getting a sequel with a different writer this time
ParaNorman – considering it didn’t make much at the box office, probably won’t get a sequel also Laika is already working on something else, but you never know a sequel is still possible
Chronicle – There has been discussion about a sequel, but Max Landis (the screenwriter for the movie) isn’t crazy about it and director Josh Trank is busy with the Fantastic Four reboot
Sinister – Sequel has been confirmed to be released some time next fall
Taken 2 – Just… just let it die already…
The Amazing Spider-Man – Sequels confirmed, first sequel arriving Summer 2014 with the same director (Marc Webb) and cast (with Dane DeShaan as Harry Osborn, Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane and Jamie Foxx as Electro)
Safe House – Poor box office performance doesn’t make a sequel look too likely
21 Jump Street – Sequel confirmed by Jonah Hill himself, should start shooting sometime this year
The Avengers – Oh there’s no way it’s not getting at least 3 sequels
The Raid – Berendal is currently shooting, part of a planned trilogy!
Yeah, I guess I knew a lot of these films already had sequels planned and confirmed when I made the list! Could say it was cheating a bit, but still, it definitely meant that they deserved and needed the sequels! haha I must admit I didn’t know that Sinister had a confirmed sequel, is there a link to a page that confirms it? I know of the sequel to Insidious that is released next August, which I’m also pretty excited about!
looper not included ?
I loved Looper and I guess you could set more stories within that world, but I also thought it was a perfect stand-alone story. I thought the end was pretty definitive and although I guess new characters could be introduced to the same world, or it could follow the stories of Sara and Cid, I don’t believe they would have the same impact as Looper did. Despite it being one of my favourite films of the year, I don’t feel like a sequel is necessary, although if done well it could be interesting.
Dredd. Karl Urban not only captured the character of Dredd perfectly but the story itself was great (yes, along same lines of The Raid). Fingers crossed for high dvd/bluray sales to convince the moneymen to stump up for next installment.
Dredd would almost certainly have made the list but I haven’t yet got round to seeing it, so didn’t want to include a film I knew little about :) I’m sure there will be sequels, I’ve heard very good things about the film from Dredd fans.
I was about to suggest Dredd but then read your comment about not seeing it.
Buy the Blu-Ray. The ticket sales were dismal, which speaks enough about the majority of the movie-going audience. People went to see the newest Resident Evil vomit, but not this great, brutal action movie.
Most *fun* I’ve had at the movies this year – yes, even more than the Avengers. Saw Dredd 4 times. :)
Too bad we most probably won’t see a sequel unless it kills at the DVD/Blu-Ray market.
some good points in this article, others not so much….jumping on the prometheus bashing bandwagon is ultimately pointless when you misunderstand what a plot hole actually is….a character doing what you consider to be a stupid thing is not a plot hole….regardless of what you think you would do in a situation, you never know until you’re there….it makes sense to me for a biologist to be more put off by the fact that something has beheaded this huge alien creature & might still be running around than by a new species of a snake like creature that is small in stature, esp. being that the whole reason he is there is to study the fauna, not to get caught up in some type of alien murder spree….you can dislike a film all you want, but rehashing the same pointless squabbles that have been thrown at the film unfairly since it opened is an exercise in futility (granted one point that you made about meredith running differently has a modicum of a point, but when someone is in a fight or flight scenario in a landscape they’ve never experienced, humans will make mistakes….it’s one of the major points of the movie, that humans are a flawed species, hence a reason why the engineers might want to destroy them)….we go to the movies for the escapism & art, esp. sci fi, to explore a strange & different world, not to try to pick apart some pointless semantics….i’ve still yet to see someone name an actual “plot hole” from the film, yet people keep saying it’s full of them. It’s indicative of the worst aspects of faux journalism & film school reject posturing, to throw around terms w/o a full grasp of what they actually mean…no offense to you personally, everyone is entitled to their opinions, i’m just sick to death of hearing people not being able to come up w/ an original though about a movie that’s so deep w/ subtext & mystery, instead panning it for having “too many questions”….if you want an easy experience, see a pixar film
To say I am ‘jumping on the Prometheus bashing bandwagon’ is a bit inaccurate, I saw the film within days of its release and disliked it for the same reasons then as I do now. The points may be unoriginal now, but there is a reason that the same ideas are regurgitated by many viewers, that is because they are true. I understood the Biologist was there to inspect the flora and fauna of the planet, but running away from the prime example of life on the planet simply because what killed it may still be nearby sounds like grasping at straws for an explanation of a lazy piece of scriptwriting. The only reason those two characters run away is so that they will then be alone and can be killed off easily.
It’s fair enough to say that he is there to study the fauna, but that point is like suggesting that if I was new to Earth, I would run away from a dead body even though I was surrounded by my friends, and then try to cuddle the first Boa Constrictor that hissed at me. I don’t need to be an expert Biologist to know that snakes are dangerous enough on Earth, let alone on a Planet no-one has ever explored before. Whilst it may not, strictly speaking, be a plot hole (I do understand the basis behind this concept, ‘film school reject posturing’ seems rather harsh), there are clearly gaps in the script that were not ironed out before shooting began and when a film cannot begin to explain the characters various inconsistent actions to the audience, then it’s fair enough to conceive of it as a kind of plot hole, just not of the most basic sense that we are usually accustomed to.
Not that I’m trying to rubbish your argument, they are all fair points, if you enjoyed the film then I’m glad, but this list regarded films that must get sequels, not why I believed Prometheus was a bad film. I may have rehashed old arguments but the arguments wouldn’t exist if they weren’t founded by strong evidence. I wouldn’t say any of the criticism or ‘pointless squabbles’ aimed at the film has been unfair at all, but I also wouldn’t say that it is wrong to suggest it is a great film. They are simply two different viewpoints on the same film, I have friends that love the film too, it’s just down to personal preference and opinion. Yes it may have plenty of subtext, but if it doesn’t work for various reasons on the most basic of levels then that is lost on a large part of the audience.
Upon second viewing I did pick up on more of the relations to the Prometheus from Greek Mythology, but the engineers don’t want to destroy humans because they are a flawed species, they want to destroy them for the same reason that Zeus wanted to punish Prometheus, theft and creation. Humans were becoming bigger than their creators, the Engineers, by having taken their own lead in creating their own lifeforms, Androids. This much is made clear when David talks to the Engineer in it’s own language, only for it to get enraged and decapitate him. (Actually, unless it’s explained in cuts made from the film, that’s a genuine plot hole, how did David speak their language anyway?) One further plot hole, when they were down at the engineer’s ship and they escape, only for one of the buggies to be missing, who drove that back to the ship? Was it randomly set on autopilot to return there? If it was, it wasn’t explained, leading to a definite and very genuine plot hole.
The point about Meredith is fair game, yes I suppose she may not have realised that it was a very thin structure, but when I first saw it I thought we were being told she was an Android and had no contingency for immediate danger, whereas humans would instinctively make decisions that would more likely keep them alive. It’s unlikely she is an Android upon reflection, I don’t believe she is, but you never know.
But still, thanks for the comment! I’m always glad to get some debate forming. Prometheus will always be a film that divides opinion and it is highly unlikely that any one side of the argument will ever persuade the other to their way of thinking, both are very valid responses to the film of course. I would have gone further into detail on my thought on the film, hopefully bringing up some more original points, had that been the main focus of this article. However, I felt that in explaining some of the most widely received problems that some audience members have with the film, I could give a better reasoning for why it must have a sequel.
A very interesting read, I agree with your choices, wouldn’t have considered them myself but makes a lot of sense – fantastic article!
Dredd should be number one, or at least in the top 3. Needs support for a sequel.
Unfortunately, as I think I mentioned somewhere else in these comments, I hadn’t seen Dredd at the time of writing this list and so didn’t feel like I could include it and write sufficiently about it! But I definitely agree that it fully deserves a sequel now that I have seen it.
Spider-Man 3 is somewhat underrated imo.
People focus on the weakness of Sandman as a villain, and how Venom only turns up late and is then killed. What they seem to have missed is that the movie is NOT ABOUT SANDMAN AND VENOM. They are just there to move the plot along. The story is about the triangle between Peter, MJ and Harry, and how Peter is seduced by hubris. It’s overlong and has some problems, but there are some fantastic sequences in it.