10 Surprisingly Good Movie Sequels NOBODY Saw Coming
These no-hope sequels turned out shockingly good.
Sequels of course make sense to Hollywood, because giving audiences more of what they liked before is considerably lower risk than investing in something totally new, right?
But we've all sat through our fair share of dud sequels over the years that it can be tough to remain enthusiastic for any but the most inspired and creative of follow-ups.
More often than not, a sequel announcement is met with scepticism or even downright vitriol.
For as satisfying as truly effortful sequels can be, it's much easier to have low expectations, and that was most certainly the case with these 10 movies.
And yet, each proved themselves to be more-than-worthy sequels that absolutely earned a place within their respective franchise.
The pre-release scepticism was certainly justified given The State of Things at the time, and yet, thanks to skilled filmmakers working from a great idea with a cracking cast, each blew past what most were expecting from them.
There's probably a lesson here somewhere about not judging movies too harshly from their marketing, but all the same, it's easy to see why so few had any hopes for these sequels whatsoever...
10. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
2011's Puss in Boots was about as beige and forgettable as animated films get - it wasn't bad, but it simply did nothing to stick in the mind whatsoever. It also arrived long after the Shrek franchise had worn out its welcome.
And so it was incredibly easy to look down one's nose at Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - an 11-years-later sequel few were asking for and which seemed entirely out of time.
That it was also shamelessly lifting the unique animated style of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse didn't help endear it to audiences either.
But The Last Wish shocked the world by proving it had a worthy place in the modern animated realm, delivering one of the most-improved sequels in recent cinema history.
With a more engrossing story and characters, smart script, and eye-wateringly gorgeous animation which had far more to offer than merely cribbing from Into the Spider-Verse, this was a years-too-late sequel that well and truly made the haters eat a double helping of crow.