20 Recent Movie Sequels We Were ALL Wrong About

Sequels are without question the bread and butter of the film industry - the lifeblood that keeps it healthily pumping, because a known quantity is simply far less of a gamble for studios than an original idea.

There's nothing inherently wrong with sequels of course, but they're hardly all created equal, and sometimes it seems evident that a film is being made purely to print money rather than because someone actually had a compelling artistic reason for it to exist.

And that certainly appeared to be the case with these 20 recent sequels, each of which seemed to be purely cynical cash-ins, only for the end result to leave us all eating a big slice of humble pie.

These 20 sequels were actually totally worthy follow-ups that had a sure creative spark at their core rather than just listlessly rehashing what came before. 

They might've ranged from great to merely good, but each was far from the lazy, phoned-in dud many were anticipating pre-release.

And so it just goes to show - even the most apparently "unnecessary" sequel can prove itself worthy of existing...

There was no reason to expect anything other than business as usual from Minions & Monsters - more inoffensive yet ultimately shallow and forgettable shenanigans involving everyone's favourite yellow, pellet-shaped little guys.

Yet to the surprise of many, the seventh film in the Despicable Me franchise released to enthusiastically warm reviews from critics, landing a jaw-dropping 89% on the Tomatometer - by far the series' highest rating to date.

What really makes this sequel such a pleasant surprise is how much of a love letter it is to filmmaking itself, as the Minions try to make their own wacky monster movie in Old Hollywood.

The film is absolutely packed to the gills with wink-wink gags for fans of classic cinema, resulting in a sequel that feels decidedly more artistic and heartfelt than its more generically disposable predecessors, ensuring adults will have a far easier time revisiting it ad nauseam with their kids.

Whether this charts a more thoughtful new direction for the franchise or is just a cute one-off, however, remains to be seen.