Hey, it could be a hotshot female aviator who gives smartass replies to, and does her best to bed, the older killjoy expert played by Tom Cruise. Who knows?
Coming back around, I can’t help but wonder if sequels get a slightly worse reputation than they deserve just because – well, look, if you’re out to make a Best Picture like GANDHI or LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, you go the biopic route to hit all the high notes of someone’s life right up to their death, right?
So, hey, spoilers ahead for works of fiction: does GLADIATOR win Best Picture if it doesn’t build up to our hero and the villain killing each other at the end? I don’t see it. At that, consider THE DEPARTED: does it win Best Picture if Damon and DiCaprio survive their mirror-image missions? Hell, they needed to kill off Martin Sheen and Jack Nicholson on the way to the ending just to keep the interest level up. Do you figure AMERICAN BEAUTY wins if Kevin Spacey has an epiphany and starts a new chapter in his life and we don’t see how it works out for him? C’mon.
You want to tell a story that makes a big impression? Tell it like the story of the biggest things that ever happened to a guy over the course of his life, up to and including his death; that’s what made HAMLET a classic play, and what won it the Oscar for Best Picture: he kills a string of people to get revenge, and dramatically expires with memorable last words. Do you want BRAVEHEART to hit hard? Do you want ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST to succeed? End it by telling the story of how the lead died; Oscar ensues; sequel can’t.
You want to build a franchise around someone? Get ready to forfeit your best move. Get ready to work harder. Get ready to play can-you-top-this after throwing enough good stuff at the audience in the first go-round that they’ll want to come back for more – and, again, do that minus the biggest showstopper you can think of.
At that, Claude Rains played Jack Griffin – THE INVISIBLE MAN – in the 1930s, and dies at the end of the film; after that, Vincent Price played Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe in 1940: sentenced to death, and out to invisibly clear his name with an injection from Griffin’s brother, in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS. And after THE INVISIBLE WOMAN hit theaters, WWII was in full swing and it was time for Griffin’s grandson to slip behind enemy lines and foil Nazis as the INVISIBLE AGENT.
Of course, you could do similar descriptions of nearly all the Universal horror characters. Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man–all of them appeared in multiple sequels, crossed over into each other’s films (except for the Mummy), and eventually wound up as supporting players to Abbott and Costello.
Universal’s development of their monster properties is one of the earliest examples of a movie “franchise,” as we would recognize the idea today. More than just a series of films, they developed into a recognizable brand, with a recognizable cinematic style, and something of a stock company of actors. Even second-tier monster characters like Paula the Ape Woman (of Captive Wild Woman) and Rondo Hatton’s Creeper got ongoing series.
All of which again demonstrates that the premise of the OP is really not true. Lazily made sequels aren’t a recent phenomenon, but go back to the very earliest days of Hollywood.
All the Shirley Temple movies, though technically not sequels, were more or less the same: a vehicle to showcase Miss Temple singing, dancing and being cute.
And way back in 1914 the very first feature-length comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance, spawned three sequels and a 1928 remake. So it’s been around since the beginning.
At that, consider Chandu The Magician, the 1932 film with Bela Lugosi doing his theatrical menacing as the villain with the SDMB’s favorite old-timey death ray; the heroic Chandu is played by Edmund Lowe, who – look, it’s like Doctor Strange as played by Mitt Romney: he doesn’t come across as a mysterious student of occult secrets; he just seems like a darned nice guy who’ll blandly talk about preventing crime the way he’d lead a Boy Scout meeting, upbeat and well-mannered.
Anyhow, in The Return Of Chandu, filmmakers realized that Bela Lugosi was perfect for playing the looook-into-my-eeeeeeyes hero who, sure, seems kind of weird and sinister, but he’s on our side against the evil cult: you think they’re eerie and exotic? Believe me: this guy will out-eerie and out-exotic them!
I wonder if its also because movies are so darn expensive now especially with concessions thrown in? It used to be years ago going to the movies was a weekly thing for most people but now I rarely go to an actual theater unless its something big (like the recent Captain America) that just looks awesome on a big screen.
Nowadays with big screen tvs’s with stereo sound and 3d why go to a movie? I just wait until it comes out on Netflix.
Thats why I think Harold Ramis type movies just wont go over big today except thru dvd sales. While I liked “Stripes” I wouldnt spend $15 to see it today. Low budget and direct to dvd movies seem to do quite well.
Theaters made most of their profit from concessions in the old days, too, at least after WWII. Drive-ins boomed at the same time and they pushed food incessantly.
How about Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who were Frankie and Delores in BEACH PARTY before they were Frankie and Dee Dee in MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and BIKINI BEACH and BEACH BLANKET BINGO and HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI?
All kidding aside, back in the day sequels were there to tell a story. Like, first you find out that Herbie is a Love Bug, and then you watch as he Rides Again – and then he Goes To Monte Carlo, and only then does he Go Bananas.
It made for a profound examination of the human condition, is what I’m saying.
Yeah, well we get extremely nuanced degrees of fasterous and furiousness that only Diderot and Nietzsche once would have appreciated. Now the masses do. That’s true democracy.
Well, we’ve got universal education, now. Used to be, it was enough to just declare Bedtime For Bonzo; but in time, there came a day when Bonzo Goes To College; and suddenly it wasn’t enough for Francis to be a talking mule; he went to West Point, and then he joined the Navy. I’d get an Absent-Minded Professor to go into further detail for you, but I think he’s busy with the Son Of Flubber.