Movies that backed themselves into a corner for the sequel?

[bluetoast]

I guess what I'm referring to is a movie that had a sequel (or more), but they didn't necessarily plan for the sequel. Maybe the sequel had to waste time "un-doing" things that happened in the original, or had to deal with elements that would bog it down.

For example:

Men in Black: Ends with the Tommy Lee Jones losing his memory of being an Agent, and has the new girl become Will Smith's new partner.

Men in Black 2: New girl is not in the movie at all, movie spends time trying to get K back.

or BTTF, when a sequel was not necessarily intended, and then Marty and his girlfriend go with the Doc to fix their kids. Then (as they admitted) they had nothing for the girlfriend to do, so they just leave her in an alley. I'm guessing the creative team had to spend some time figuring out "what was wrong" with the kids as well.

Any other examples?

[starman9000]

Pretty much every comedy sequel.

[AnonomusBob15]

H20 was supposed to be the end of the Halloween series. I know that's usually the case for all horror films, but the cheated their way out of this big time, and failed miserably.

[Rockmjd23]

Terminator 2 wrapped up nicely and I thought any attempt at a part 3 would have been a stretch (and it was).

The Romero Living Dead trilogy progressed to the point where it seemed like there were no other humans left after Day of the Dead.

Most slasher sequels would qualify. Writers have had to resort to randomly reviving the killer from obvious fatal injuries and using such gimmicks as imposters, lightning strikes, psychic powers, electrocution, and ignoring previous entries all to keep the series going...and that's just Friday the 13th.

and LOL at the Halloween H20 ending.

[Super X]

Every Highlander film.

[TheDude]

Does the Matrix count (although in my universe, there were no sequels)?

[Goat3001]

The Matrix ended with Neo basically becoming a God. He had no issues taking out the Agents at the end of the first film... so they had to up the ante in the second and third film by flipping the script and making Neo fallible and making the Agents more powerful.

And as said, pretty much every comedy sequel these days make it seem like the main characters didn't learn a thing from the previous adventure.

[FinkPish]

Originally Posted by TheDude

Does the Matrix count (although in my universe, there were no sequels)?

Even with the sequels, by making Neo essentially a god within the Matrix at the end of the first film, they set themselves up with quite a difficult way to make a sequel with any real threat for him. Honestly, involving the real world/Zion was the only good way they could give him any serious obstacles; everything in the Matrix he could stop, dodge or simply fly away from.

[Drexl]

City Slickers had a character die, only to be brought back with the "twin brother" device for the sequel. Of course, they had no idea they would do a sequel, or that the character would be so popular.

[Cellar Door]

X-Men: The Last Stand* killed off Professor X. The recent prequel was great, but if they want to make another movie set in modern times and keep it in continuity with the others, they'll have to leave out Xavier or do something ridiculous to bring him back.



*yeah, I know there was that scene after the credits, but his body was still vaporized.

[RocShemp]

Originally Posted by Cellar Door

X-Men: The Last Stand* killed off Professor X. The recent prequel was great, but if they want to make another movie set in modern times and keep it in continuity with the others, they'll have to leave out Xavier or do something ridiculous to bring him back.



*yeah, I know there was that scene after the credits, but his body was still vaporized.

Although not explicitely stated, the comatose man whom Charles possesed was intended to be his twin brother. So that's likely how they'd bring him back for an X-Men 4.

[Nick Danger]

Return of the Jedi. Where's our final trilogy, George?

[digidoh]

Beneath the Planet of the Apes which had the ultimate sequel-killing device...

Spoiler:

the world is destroyed,

but came back with a prequel, followed by two more sequels.

[ScissorPuppy]

Originally Posted by Nick Danger

Return of the Jedi. Where's our final trilogy, George?

ROTJ was the amalgam of the proposed episode 6,7,8 and 9. Even with 4 movies worth of ideas stuffed into one, they still couldn't come up with a better ending than just ripping off ANH. (On a larger scale with better special effects).

I Am Legend pretty much screwed itself by reshooting the ending, the original ending fit the film better and would have left it open for a follow up.

[dhmac]

Originally Posted by bluetoast

or BTTF, when a sequel was not necessarily intended, and then Marty and his girlfriend go with the Doc to fix their kids. Then (as they admitted) they had nothing for the girlfriend to do, so they just leave her in an alley.

I wonder if the recasting of the role had something to do with that. The girlfriend/future wife was played by Claudia Wells in the first movie and Elisabeth Shue in the two sequels, so maybe that change occurring had a diminishing effect on the role during the writing of the later films. (In hindsight, a step up in acting talent but maybe they didn't know that at the time.)

[dhmac]

Originally Posted by ScissorPuppy

I Am Legend pretty much screwed itself by reshooting the ending, the original ending fit the film better and would have left it open for a follow up.

What was the original ending to I Am Legend? Was it any closer to the novel's ending?

[Josh-da-man]

Alien3.

I always figured that Xavier was killed off in "The Last Stand" because Patrick Stewart was only signed for three movies and either didn't want to do more or would have gotten a huge raise for any other movies. (Though he did appear in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in a cameo.)

[Pizza]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I think this is the movie that had invented the term "prequel" to make a sequel.

[devilshalo]

Jaws

[Josh-da-man]

Originally Posted by ScissorPuppy

ROTJ was the amalgam of the proposed episode 6,7,8 and 9. Even with 4 movies worth of ideas stuffed into one, they still couldn't come up with a better ending than just ripping off ANH. (On a larger scale with better special effects).

I'll commit blasphemy here and include "The Empire Strikes Back" on the list.

The ending of that movie, with Han Solo taken to Jabba by Boba Fett and the revelation of Darth Vader being Luke's father fucked up "Return of the Jedi" because when that movie became the final one, it was left with too many loose ends to clean up... you had find and rescue Han Solo, deal with the Luke/Vader relationship, and vanquish the Empire. And do it all in two hours.

Return of the Jedi effectively became two movies rolled into one: one where everyone teams up to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt, and another one where the Empire must be defeated. So it was this odd, two-act movie with no middle act.

[Chet Desmond]

Black Caesar

[KillerCannibal]

Saw III

Jigsaw was the most interesting character in the series, so killing him off 3 films into a 7 film series wasn't the best idea.

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by KillerCannibal

Saw III

Jigsaw was the most interesting character in the series, so killing him off 3 films into a 7 film series wasn't the best idea.

The whole killing off the main monster/villain and stating it's the final flick ruse has proven to be lame con. If you're going to do this tactic to keep attendance up then mean it, then make the next flick a restart of some kind. For example, I liked H2O and was disgusted with the excuse they came up with why he was back and what eventually happened to another main character. Like you stated, the Saw series stumbled on and made it work but how much better would they have been with the original guy still in play? I totally agree.

[DthRdrX]

When we walked out of H20 I told my friends that it wasnt Michael under the mask, because it didnt seem right how he was grabbing at it and moving around. I'd bet anything that they planned to bring him back that way before shooting it. Remember Akkad's opinion evolved to the point where he stated that they would never kill Michael off and make 100s of movies if they have to.

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by digidoh

Beneath the Planet of the Apes which had the ultimate sequel-killing device...

Spoiler:

the world is destroyed,

but came back with a prequel, followed by two more sequels.

I don't think I'd consider Escape from the Planet of the Apes a prequel, though it does swing the story back to the beginning. It's still a clean link to the previous movie as the events of that film and its climax come into play in the third. It was a clever bridge to the story arc, especially as you stated, the ending of the second film did create a bit of a tall wall for a sequel.