It's the first thing out of your mouth when you walk out of the movie theater. "Well it just wasn't as good as the first one."
If this is the typical result from watching a movie sequel, why do people still go to see them? And better yet why do producers continue to make them if their audiences aren't that pleased with them?
One reason why is because we want to see what happens next. This is especially true for the superhero movies because the common formula that has been used as of late.
The first movie is the origin story, the sequel is where the character has some form of internal conflict and then the third is the hero triumphantly mastering the balance between civilian life and being a vigilante.
An example of a superhero trilogy that made an excellent sequel is "The Dark Knight," but this is the exception.
The "Iron Man" movies are an example of a lackluster sequel. The first movie shows Tony Stark building and developing his suit and fans anticipate the sequel to show off his suit in full form, but they are quickly disappointed.
While the third movie revives this trilogy, the second one is so forgettable a person is better off watching "The Avengers" in its place because "Iron Man 3" references "The Avengers" more than it mentions "Iron Man 2."
Producers continue to make sequels because they want more money. It is simple as that. They have established a fan base that is fond of the characters from the first movie and capitalize on our hopes that they will make a good sequel even though survey says they will not.
Filmmakers have recently taken to breaking longer books into two or three separate movies, claiming there is too much content to cover in one film, but even when they do create part one and two movies plenty of things are still left out.
This raises the question of were the movie makers actually trying to cover more of the story in these book-to-movie adaptions or were they just out to rack up some more cash?
It is a vicious cycle because we will never stop seeing sequels, because they are a continuation of the stories we love, and producers will never stop making sequels because it is guaranteed money for them, at least for the first weekend and then word gets around of how awful the second movie is)
Below is a video of me talking about most of the same thing about movie sequels, just citing more examples. Warning the quality is very low so please bear with me.
Click here to watch the video of me talking about movie sequels
