Charles Xavier
Pro Adventurer
Title is self-explanatory. Are there any sequels that you actually like that the public audience usually don't? I'll give a small list of some of mine:
The Land Before Time II: Say what you want about the other countless sequels, but anyone who enjoyed the Don Bluth movie should at least give the second movie a chance. Even though the animation and voice cast are different (excluding Cera), the story is surprisingly decent. No, I'm not saying this is in any way better than the first movie. The second does suffer from unmemorable music numbers, but it's still charming and delightful. I won't give away the plot here, but it's definitely something that kids can relate to.
Terminator 3: First and foremost, may I just say that I think T2 is overrated. Then again, I don't hate the movie for any reason. The special effects are outstanding for its time, let alone the bad@ss T-1000. But the story itself was overlong and the ending felt like a recycle of the first film. I find T3 as a movie that isn't as overblown as T2 but not as involving as T1. It's entertaining and Arnie is still surprisingly kick-@ss. I know some fans complain that the series should have ended in T2 and this sequel was needless. Well yeah, maybe, but you have to admit that T3 actually had the balls to give us an incredibly morbid ending, as opposed to a typical happy-clappy-Hollywood ending.
Halloween III Season of the Witch: I think James Rolfe summed it up pretty well in his review from Cinemassacre. And just to repeat, the major turn-off for the audience of this film was that Michael Myers wasn't in this. Yeah, but so what? The creators tried to take a different approach to the Halloween series and perhaps they did it rightfully so. I mean, where could you possibly go with Michael Myers after seeing him burned to a toast in H2? SOTW takes a unique story involving the Celts and some surprisingly gruesome deaths but without excessive gore. John Carpenter's music track is digitally horrifying and memorable, though the story does have its share of plot holes, which happen mostly near the end of the film. But anyway, forget anything about Michael Myers and look at this film as a stand-alone. It's really not that bad.
Dragon Ball GT: Not a movie, but I thought it's worth mentioning. I had no idea that Akira Toriyama wasn't involved in this production until later. But regardless, it's not a bad follow-up. It can't live up to DBZ's glorious reputation but I don't see why people have to pan it so much. The fights are still fun to watch as usual, but I guess the main problem (for me at least) would be the not-so memorable villains. Baby just didn't live up to Frieza, Cell or Majin Buu for me. the series didn't really stand out for me until it came to the Super 17 saga; I was glad to see Androids 17 and 18 kicking @ss again and watch all of my favorite DBZ villains in the spotlight once more (even though GT did make Frieza and Cell look kinda stupid...if anyone remembers what happened to them in their fight with Goku in hell). GT is not as innovative as DBZ, but it's still worth a watch in my opinion.
Alien vs. Predator movies: Okay, I know these are often frowned upon, but I feel that a LOT of the negative criticism these movies get stems from the fans' nitpicking...which is perfectly understandable with me (speaking as an AvP fan myself), because let's face it. People LOVE to complain. We thrive on negative criticism all the time because we enjoy tearing apart movies and beating the living Christ out of them. Its fun. And the AvP movies were a perfect target for that.
So what do I think about these movies? Well, regardless that I may be speaking amongst a minority here, I actually don't think the movies are all that bad. They're nothing near great, that's for certain, but they're pretty decent. Yeah, I know that the scripts are silly, the dialog's laughable at times and the characters are complete cardboard, but did I care? No. All I cared about in these movies was to see the Aliens and Predators fight each other. And to some degree, that's what I saw, though I still feel Fox could have done much better with them. I think people take these movies FAR too seriously than needed. Try to look at them as B-movies and maybe you'll enjoy them better.
(Trivial note: Perhaps one good scene from the first AvP we can all agree on was the last fight between the Alien Queen and the Predator near the end. It was great to see the Queen back in action again, after being so cheaply killed off in 'Resurrection').
The Land Before Time II: Say what you want about the other countless sequels, but anyone who enjoyed the Don Bluth movie should at least give the second movie a chance. Even though the animation and voice cast are different (excluding Cera), the story is surprisingly decent. No, I'm not saying this is in any way better than the first movie. The second does suffer from unmemorable music numbers, but it's still charming and delightful. I won't give away the plot here, but it's definitely something that kids can relate to.
Terminator 3: First and foremost, may I just say that I think T2 is overrated. Then again, I don't hate the movie for any reason. The special effects are outstanding for its time, let alone the bad@ss T-1000. But the story itself was overlong and the ending felt like a recycle of the first film. I find T3 as a movie that isn't as overblown as T2 but not as involving as T1. It's entertaining and Arnie is still surprisingly kick-@ss. I know some fans complain that the series should have ended in T2 and this sequel was needless. Well yeah, maybe, but you have to admit that T3 actually had the balls to give us an incredibly morbid ending, as opposed to a typical happy-clappy-Hollywood ending.
Halloween III Season of the Witch: I think James Rolfe summed it up pretty well in his review from Cinemassacre. And just to repeat, the major turn-off for the audience of this film was that Michael Myers wasn't in this. Yeah, but so what? The creators tried to take a different approach to the Halloween series and perhaps they did it rightfully so. I mean, where could you possibly go with Michael Myers after seeing him burned to a toast in H2? SOTW takes a unique story involving the Celts and some surprisingly gruesome deaths but without excessive gore. John Carpenter's music track is digitally horrifying and memorable, though the story does have its share of plot holes, which happen mostly near the end of the film. But anyway, forget anything about Michael Myers and look at this film as a stand-alone. It's really not that bad.
Dragon Ball GT: Not a movie, but I thought it's worth mentioning. I had no idea that Akira Toriyama wasn't involved in this production until later. But regardless, it's not a bad follow-up. It can't live up to DBZ's glorious reputation but I don't see why people have to pan it so much. The fights are still fun to watch as usual, but I guess the main problem (for me at least) would be the not-so memorable villains. Baby just didn't live up to Frieza, Cell or Majin Buu for me. the series didn't really stand out for me until it came to the Super 17 saga; I was glad to see Androids 17 and 18 kicking @ss again and watch all of my favorite DBZ villains in the spotlight once more (even though GT did make Frieza and Cell look kinda stupid...if anyone remembers what happened to them in their fight with Goku in hell). GT is not as innovative as DBZ, but it's still worth a watch in my opinion.
Alien vs. Predator movies: Okay, I know these are often frowned upon, but I feel that a LOT of the negative criticism these movies get stems from the fans' nitpicking...which is perfectly understandable with me (speaking as an AvP fan myself), because let's face it. People LOVE to complain. We thrive on negative criticism all the time because we enjoy tearing apart movies and beating the living Christ out of them. Its fun. And the AvP movies were a perfect target for that.
So what do I think about these movies? Well, regardless that I may be speaking amongst a minority here, I actually don't think the movies are all that bad. They're nothing near great, that's for certain, but they're pretty decent. Yeah, I know that the scripts are silly, the dialog's laughable at times and the characters are complete cardboard, but did I care? No. All I cared about in these movies was to see the Aliens and Predators fight each other. And to some degree, that's what I saw, though I still feel Fox could have done much better with them. I think people take these movies FAR too seriously than needed. Try to look at them as B-movies and maybe you'll enjoy them better.
(Trivial note: Perhaps one good scene from the first AvP we can all agree on was the last fight between the Alien Queen and the Predator near the end. It was great to see the Queen back in action again, after being so cheaply killed off in 'Resurrection').