10 Movie Sequels Better Than The Original

No good sequels? Think again.

Blade Runner Deckard
Warner Bros

It's rare now that a movie doesn't get at least one sequel, regardless of quality or whether the story warrants it: if there's a chance of a franchise, a cinematic universe, or anything else that can bring in money, then a follow-up is getting made.

It's why we've seen films like Taken 2, Paranormal Activity 3, Transformers 4, Die Hard 5, Saw 6, Fast 7, and many, many more as every single intellectual property gets mined for all it's worth. A lot of the time it's a case of decreasing returns; with some, the quality can fluctuate wildly from entry to entry; and every so often the sequel(s) live up to the original.

Best of all, though, is when a sequel actually surpasses the original, whether it's building upon the established narrative and characters in interesting ways, continuing the story towards a satisfying conclusion, pushing things into exciting new directions, or just massively upping the ante and scale with a bigger budget behind them.

It's not easy to get them right, and we've seen plenty of occasions where it's gone wrong that there's an inherent wariness in audiences with regards to sequels, but it's not such a dirty word if you execute them like these movies did.

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Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.