While I am on the subject of originality, I thought I would also talk a little bit more about sequels, which you should note is not officially on my dislike list (ps. looking for suggestions for more to add...can't think of them all at once). So, I wanted to examine them a little bit and figure out just what about sequels makes me tick. As I said before, Toy Story 3 was fantastic and it proves that if a sequel can stand on its own apart from an adjoining film, it's almost always money in my book. There are instances when the films will of course have cliffhangers and depend on others for complete resolution, but these are the types of sequels that are planned ahead and ultimately part of one long story, so I won't examine them either. I am most thinking about the cash-cow sequels, the ones made after the first film was a success and was never planned to tell a larger story outside of the one it first presented. Quite often, these are the kinds that ultimately fail, but not in every case (like Jurassic Park's sequels...just kidding!)
However, there is one category or genre of films that seems to often produce at least one great sequel, at least in the more recent years and I have found that to be the superhero genre. Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and X2: X-Men United have all, in my opinion surpassed the excellence of their originals and to me showed the potential for franchises to live long and happy lives (I haven't seen Iron Man 2 yet but let me know what you thought!). But some of their sequels, those wonderful third entries, have shown a certain greediness and love of excess that ultimately derailed the franchises. Particularly, I am thinking of Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand. Both of these films added several and I mean several new characters to their worlds and instead of enhancing the film, they ended up just making the films seem bloated and too busy.
In the particular case of X-Men, which is supposed to feature multiple characters on a team, I would be all for a lot of characters, as long as they didn't distract from the main plot and if featured, were actually given some depth and reason for being there. But, in the Last Stand, available on DVD so that you too can understand my sadness over Brett Ratner's sorry excuse for a sequel, the characters were there and that was about it. The characters from the previous films also came along for the fun, but were mainly relegated to standing in the background, ceasing to develop, and in some ways existing within the movie as if they were only there because the actors who played them could fit that particular shooting day in their schedule. That was the ultimate problem with the film. Nobody wanted to be there, but everyone was. It was like a surprise party for someone that no one likes but feels bad for. Except in this case, there weren't even any drinks to help me forget why I was there in the first place!
The reason I went on this little rant today has been because of the barrage of news that comes in every day in regards to casting on the newest X-Men film called X-Men: First Class. This prequel, the fifth installment in the franchise, is trying to resuscitate the X-Men film brand (which was absolutely murdered by Brett Ratner) by going back in time and introducing us to the dueling leaders of good and evil mutants, Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, when they were just young men in college. Prequels can be hit or miss (Wolverine is an example of how much of a miss they can be) but in the end they are some form of sequel to me, whether they are called so by name or not, so they too must pass through the same amount of scrutiny that sequels do.
And here, it seems the film is trying to make the same mistakes that The Last Stand made. Every day or so over the past few months, there have been reports from various outlets that a new actor is joining the cast of this film. The cast currently consists of the following actors: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Edi Gathegi, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt, Morgan Lily, Zoe Kravitz, Bill Bilner. There are some impressive names on the list (shout out to ComingSoon.net for the complete list), but I don't think these actors are going to have any timeto showcase their talents or devleop their characters if they are all potentially considered principle players. Aye scamoles! I love me some X-Men, but this is crazy!
Anyhow, that's enough! Let me know what you think, you wonderful, non-existent readers, you!
I said good day, sir!
-E
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