# Does an awful sequel "ruin" the original for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595 "2007-07-05T15:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/1 "2007-07-05T15:06:30Z")
For me the answer is usually no. I’m guessing this is true of most Dopers (who pretend the Matrix sequels/Star Wars prequels just don’t exist), but still curious. I have finally faced up to the fact that the 2 Pirates sequels were bloody awful. But I still totally adore the first. I believe it is just about my favorite popcorn-y movie ever. Always makes me smile. I will also (finally) admit that the second and third Peter Jackson LOTR movies were disappointments. Tho they definitely had their moments they didn’t come close to the power of the books - whereas for me, The Fellowship movie did. And still does. I still find it beautiful, powerful, and true to the spirit of the books. On the other hand, a dull sequel or entry in a series of books tends to diminish my interest in the entire series. (Harry Potter & Narnia worked that way for me). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/2 "2007-07-05T15:24:02Z")
I guess it shouldn’t, but it does. The three examples that come to mind for me are the movies you mentioned, where the orignals were fun and everything that came after was very very poor. Those are all recent movies, so maybe in time it won’t be so bad. I don’t think _The Godfather III_ ruins that franchise for many people. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/3 "2007-07-05T15:31:58Z")
Highlander. There really could be only one, yet they insisted. Now I watch the original and sneer ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/4 "2007-07-05T15:35:32Z")
With movies, I can just sort of block them out. With books, not so much. Which is why I’m angry at Stephen King for making me plod through books V and VI of the _Dark Tower_ series. I was so hooked that I ground through them, because I needed to know how the characters and the world ended up. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/5 "2007-07-05T15:35:54Z")
Revenge of the Nerds - no. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/6 "2007-07-05T15:42:20Z")
The “Alien” sequels after Cameron’s “Aliens” (which I like a helluva lot more than the original “Alien”) ruin the original for me. I try to ignore them. The same for “Psycho” and “The Hidden”. The originals are great, and the sequels seem pointless milking. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/7 "2007-07-05T15:42:35Z")
_Mostly Harmless_ ruined the Hitchhiker’s series for me for quite a while. I just couldn’t bring myself to go back and read them again, even though I _loved the other books_ (especially _So Long and Thanks for All the Fish._) ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/8 "2007-07-05T16:33:44Z")
I really don’t want to watch _Blues Brothers 2000_ for this reason. I like the original _so_ much, and the sequel looks _so_ bad, I don’t know if I can watch the sequeal without it tainting the original. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/9 "2007-07-05T16:59:37Z")
From what I know of Ocean’s Twelve (and this is why I didn’t watch it) it would have ruined Ocean’s 11 for me. ---
**Author:** ![Pithy\_Moniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/10 "2007-07-05T17:08:40Z")
I just pretend that the second and third Matrix movies never happened. Edit: Doh! You said that already! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/11 "2007-07-05T17:08:56Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] From what I know of Ocean’s Twelve (and this is why I didn’t watch it) it would have ruined Ocean’s 11 for me. [/QUOTE] Don’t bother. ---
**Author:** ![dysonsphere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dysonsphere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dysonsphere)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/12 "2007-07-05T17:19:59Z")
[QUOTE=photopat] _Mostly Harmless_ ruined the Hitchhiker’s series for me for quite a while. I just couldn’t bring myself to go back and read them again, even though I _loved the other books_ (especially _So Long and Thanks for All the Fish._) [/QUOTE] That’s weird, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is the one that I just can’t bring myself to read. It just seems so…pointless. Isn’t Adams on record as saying that it’s his least favorite? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/13 "2007-07-05T17:23:35Z")
The problem with bad sequels is that one rotten one can put you off the whole sequence, so that you miss the better ones that follow. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/14 "2007-07-05T17:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=dysonsphere] That’s weird, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is the one that I just can’t bring myself to read. It just seems so…pointless. Isn’t Adams on record as saying that it’s his least favorite? [/QUOTE] I don’t know if he ever said that. He did say he was having a bad year when he wrote Mostly Harmless, and he seemed to regret taking it out on the characters, which is why he was writing a new Hitchhiker’s book when he died. ---
**Author:** ![dysonsphere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dysonsphere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dysonsphere)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/15 "2007-07-05T17:49:21Z")
OK, Wiki says that he was “not entirely happy” with it, but not that it was his least favorite - link [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish) (scroll down to “discussion”) ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/16 "2007-07-05T18:39:37Z")
Not in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/17 "2007-07-05T18:56:59Z")
“Ruin,” no, not if the first movie is legitimately good. However, there are times when a subpar sequel throws the flaws of the first movie into sharper relief and makes it look worse in retrospect. In other words, the first movie has good qualities and bad qualities, but we enjoy the good qualities and choose to ignore the bad qualities. Then the second movie comes along and has the same bad qualities, but not as many good qualities as the first, so not only can we not really ignore the bad in the second, it makes it more difficult to ignore the bad in the first, because the second movie reminds us they were there. Best example: _Men in Black._ ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/18 "2007-07-05T19:11:57Z")
Two of the worst sequels in recent memory, which did taint the originals so badly that I have to pretend that the sequels don’t exist, were **Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2** and **The Ring 2**. Needless, pointless, not scary at all (which is the worst thing you can do with a sequel to a horror movie; it’s like making a porn movie where everyone keeps their clothes on)…just a couple of huge misses. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/19 "2007-07-05T19:38:33Z")
(Warning: This is \*\*really \*\* obscure. Most people should skip this, but if you read Yaoi Manga, you’ll know what I’m talking about.) To answer the question: Yes! I loved Menkui 1. I thought it was a sweet, high school romance that actually portrayed the nervousness and confusion of a developing relationship very well. And then 2 and 3 came along. Gah, instead of a sweet high school romance we have elephants and aliens and so many plot holes and wasted plot threads that I couldn’t read anymore…Plus, I realized the mangaka was just poking fun/parodying the fluffy romance aspect inherent in some Yaoi/bl Manga… It felt a little like being slapped – if books can slap a person. Plus, if you must parody, at least be funny! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595/20 "2007-07-05T19:55:53Z")
Star Wars 1-3 ruined 4-6 for me. One of the Star Trek movies pretty much ruined all of Trek for me by killing off Kirk. To me, certain characters should be abandoned, never killed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-an-awful-sequel-ruin-the-original-for-you/410595.md?page=2)