There is truly nothing worse than watching a film you enjoyed so clearly set up a sequel, for the studio to decide never to follow-through with one. Now, not all the films on the following list were considered good, though if I am being completely honest, I enjoyed them all… but all the films on this list had potential enough to warrant a potentially really interesting sequel. Plus, if science-fiction movies from the past have taught us one thing (by science fiction- I am including any superhero movie) it is that sequels to these films are usually just a little better than the originals.
Don’t believe me, well consider: The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, X2, Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, Aliens etc. etc.
Of course there are a few exceptions… Iron Man 2… but more often than not, especially within this pretty vast genre, sequels are better… which is good news for the horde of super-hero and science fiction sequels expected out within the next couple of years. Having said this, most of the films listed would technically not be the second in their franchise (though most would) and superhero/sci-fi films usually epically fail after film number 2. Good luck Iron Man 3!!!
The following 5 films set up a sequel but were either not popular enough to warrant one- critically or at the box office- or in a few cases, the franchise branched off in separate directions (mostly not very successfully). Even still, all of the films in the following list, in my opinion, deserved a sequel- though many likely wouldn’t have been very good.
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11 Comments
I’ve always found it funny how people say: “the best… superhero film.” as if it’s a real genre, or one filled with masterpieces.
Saying it’s a great superhero film is like saying it’s a great Adam Sandler film. Chances are, they’re still not that good.
i disagrree although there are some bad ones there are some trulyy brilliant superhero movies tim burtons batman ,the dark knight and avengers are all great
another thing i didny like jumper because of the main guy hes a theif and leaves griffin to die they should have made it about griffi he was a much better person
Well then T.L, you’ve clearly never seen Punch Drunk Love, Big Daddy, or Spanglish… three awesome Adam Sandler films.
But, I half agree but not really. Superhero films are some of my all time favorites… though I appreciate most of the time they are hardly Oscar worthy (that said, neither are most of the films nominated for Oscars). Thanks for reading.
Hi, Great article but you’ve hit upon something that I have always found extremely frustrating- People not understanding the ending of Planet of The Apes.
Everyone, including yourself, seems to think that when Marky Mark gets back in his space ship and goes through the cosmic storm thing he goes back to the present. I saw this film in the cinema when I was about 12 and never saw it again but I remember exactly how this works and it frustrates the hell out of me that adults at the time and people even now still can’t understand this very basic plot point!
In the original Planet of the Apes, it is revealed famously at the end that the planet we have been on the whole time is Earth in the future and that we have travelled in time so far that apes have evolved and taken over the Earth. Righ, we can all agree on that?
In the modern version Tim Burton does a clever spin on this. When Marky Mark at the end of the film finds the ‘ruins’ that the apes have been referring to as their birth place all film he realises it is infact the same ship he was on at the beginning of the movie. It has crashed and been there for centuries. Therefore he jumped in time when he went through the space cloud thing following his monkey.
So if he jumped FORWARD in time the first time he went through the cloud, logic says he will go FORWARD in time again the second time he goes through the cloud.
Which is why when he leaves the planet and come back and it’s all modern. It is the SAME planet that has advanced due to the fact that when he left he left a working computer and a super smart monkey who knew how to work it all.
That is why the Abe Lincoln statue is now a monkey. But if you watch the movie again and pay attention, it clearly says that the statue is of General Thade (The big Bad played by Tim Roth).
So Clearly what has happened is the apes have evoloved using the technology, american ideals and history left in the computer and with that smart chimp.
If I am wrong I am willing to hear a better theory but to me it all seemed so logical and well explained in the movie.
Sorry for the rant guys! Also apologies for any spelling mistakes and grammar.
Thanks. I’m just going to blindly trust that you know more of what you are talking about than I do. I haven’t seen the film in a while so I am sorry if I got my facts on this one slightly wrong. Still would love to see a sequel though.
Rony, I have always viewed the end of that film the way you do. For whatever reason it seemed obvious to me. The emotional trigger for that scene for me wasn’t so much that Leo had time jumped into the planet’s future but that he should have left well enough alone. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” so to speak. He left a world where he had forged an identity for himself and had left behind a beautiful human woman that he could have shared his, albeit primitive, life with. But it also occurred to me that if Leo had stayed, circumstances would have been quite different in the future he stumbled upon. Perhaps Leo’s presence would have prevented Thade from rising to power in his absence creating/inspiring an entirely ape populated society which is implied by the aforementioned final scene.
I believe a sequel would have had the opportunity to explain the specifics and add an enormous emotional component to Leo’s realization that he was directly or indirectly responsible for the state of things.
We were promised a sequel to Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. It’s hard to imagine that they could top the original, but I would have liked to see them try.
Never seen the original film… but after wikipedia-ing it I really really want to.
the fact that you wanted to see black cat not felicia hardy renders your need for Spidey 4 moot since raimi on his own accord was going to turn Felicia Hardy into the vulturess, thus messing the film up!!!
Yes, I know… that was a terrible move indeed. I was hoping that if they had continued though that they would have sorted this problem out by the time they came to filming.
“Tim Burton’s Batman Returns is the greatest Batman movie and one of the, if not THE, most interesting and visual superhero movies of all time.”
I totally agree. Batman Returns is for me, what the original Star Wars movies are for so many other people and Batman Forver was the great disappointment the Star Wars prequels were.