In general, sequels tend to be (a) less successful, and (b) of poorer quality than the original. So I was wondering if anyone can name some sequels that were truly high quality sequels. I know the term high quality is somewhat up for interpretation. I don’t want to define the term too much, but essentially, I’m looking for books and movies (or anything else that has sequels) in which there was merit to the follow-up, and its success wasn’t almost entirely due to the first one in the series.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Aliens
From Russia with Love
X-Men II
I liked Superman II more than the first film because much of the first film was spent on the character`s origin, which got tedious.
Just as a start:
Godfather II (one of the best movies ever made)
Star Trek II Wrath of Khan (Far superior to the first and maybe the best Star Trek movie)
Empire Strikes Back (the best Star Wars movie)
From Russia with Love (1963) *James Bond
Since you mention both books and movies in the OP, then Silence of the Lambs should definitely be mentioned. The book was a sequel to the book Red Dragon. Red Dragon was made into a movie named Manhunter in 1986. Then a second movie named Red Dragon with Hopkins as Lecter was made in 2002. I just watched Manhanter a week ago in a Horror/Thriller movie marathon and my friend and I both had to laugh, but feel a bit bad for the actor that played Lecter.
Each CAPTAIN AMERICA movie has gotten better reviews than the prior one; plenty of folks will argue that WINTER SOLDIER was actually better than CIVIL WAR, but either way I doubt you’ll find a lot of takers when it comes to the original.
(The original was fine for what it was, but WINTER SOLDIER – c’mon.)
The Road Warrior was much better than Mad Max. It could be argued that the budget of the original impacted quality.
And *Fury Road *was better than either.
Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 were as good as the original.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I liked Father’s Little Dividend as much as Father of the Bride. (I am, of course, talking about the Spencer Tracy movies, not the Steve Martin movies.)
Some people like The Bride of Frankenstein better than Frankenstein.
I liked House II: The Second Story as much as House. (Technically, that is not really a sequel, just a second movie with a similar premise.)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age was just as [del]good[/del] entertaining as Elizabeth.
Lot’s of good examples so far.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Roderick Thorpe wrote the novel, The Detective, and its sequel, Nothing Lasts Forever.
The first was made into the 1968 movie The Detective, starring Frank Sinatra.
The second was made into the 1988 movie Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis.
Spider-Man 2 was an improvement over the first.
Bride of Frankenstein was certainly great, as good as or better than the original.
The second Pink Panther movie, A Shot in the Dark was certainly successful and lead to the string of sequels. It introduced Herbert Lom’s character, Dreyfus, and a host of other features of the series, and was critically better regarded than the original Pink Panther.
I think that Quatermass 2* was as good as or better than the original Quatermass Xperiment. It certainly did wel, enough, and allowed for the thirs TV serial and film, Quatermas and the Pit, which I think the best of the three.
*The first film I know of after the silent era to proclaim itslf a sequel with that “2” in the title, beating Godfather II by decades.
It’s cheating, but Richard Lester’s The Four Musketeers is better than his The Three Musketeers.
For that matter the Discworld. Just about every book is better than The Color of Magic.
In my opinion – though I can, just off the top of my head, give you half-a-dozen reasons why – Angelina Jolie’s second outing as Lara Croft was better than the first; but while I figure that flick got made due to the financial success of the first one, I also figure its lack of financial success was because folks didn’t love the first one.
*Lord of the Rings *started out as a sequel to The Hobbit, and evolved in a new direction.
Possibly controversial: Gremlins 2 The New Batch embraced the silliness a lot more and that made it a better movie.
The New Testament has billions more followers than the Tanakh.
Star Crash II (alternate title Escape from Galaxy 3) was pretty-well as successful as Star Crash, except there was no Marjoe Gortner, Christopher Plummer, or David Hasselhoff.
And no Carolyn Monroe.