I thought this might get a bit of debate going.

The rule of thumb is that the original is always better than the sequel, but as with any rule there has to be the exceptions that prove it. So what sequels do you think are better than the original films?

For me the selections would have to be:

Empire Strikes Back
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Wrath of Khan
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

I think all of these films are better than their originals for the same reasons: the acting, story and effects are all greatly superior. Although I'm not easily impressed by effects I do think that a good story and good acting are critical for any film, be it a sequel or not. Most of the time when it comes to sequels they get a higher budget and the money is just ploughed into effects.

What does everyone else think?

LOTR: The Two Towers and The Return of the King
Aliens
Dawn of the Dead
Superman II
The Dark Knight
The Rescuers Down Under
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Day of the Dead
I have heard the latest Mission Impossible movie is really good, is it better then the first, which I thought was ok.
The Bourne stuff, I liked the second better

It is subjective

the rescuers down under! one of my favorite movies when i was kid, i hear that film has a little easter egg in one of the frames lol, some naked chick

I agree with you except for Last Crusade. It's my least favorite of the three. I would add

Return of the Pink Panther
Goldfinger
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

That's fair enough, for me it's a close call between Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I think Crusade wins it for me because it builds on what was great about the previous ones and brings it all together nicely. Out of interest which is your favourite?



Even though it's a great piece of cinema I find that Aliens is actually the one out of the Alien Trilogy that I watch the least (Resurrection didn't happen, it was just a bad dream). I personally prefer Alien to Aliens because I prefer thrillers to action films, but saying that I have to admit that Aliens is possibly one of the best action films of all time. I think the same can be said for the Terminator series, I prefer the first as it's more my preferred genre, but the second is one of the kings of action.

I think you're thinking of the re-release of the original Rescuers back in 1999. As the DB states . . .

How about The Godfather, Part 2...

Bride of Frankenstein (You go, we belong dead)
Silence of the Lambs - though some prefer the earlier Manhunter
The Night Strangler - up to debate, I liked it better, Kolchak & Vincenzo were really in a groove here
And both Enemy From Space and Five Million Years to Earth
(Uhm, those are the two sequels to The Creeping Unknown, in the Quatermass series)

Here's some that have been mentioned as possibly being better than the originals:

French Connection 2
A Very Brady Sequel
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Beginning (prequel to the remake)
The Dark Knight
Spiderman 2
The Devil's Rejects
Superman 2

Don't know if I'd say they were better, maybe just as good.

i wish i could have been a fly on the wall during that event haha

I like Batman Returns a lot more than the first one.

Also...

Aliens
Dawn of the Dead
Leprechaun 2, 3 and 4 (each one being better than the previous IMHO)
Before Sunset
Empire Strikes Back
Hellraiser II (possibly a toss up between this and the first)
Mission Impossible III and Ghost Protocol
Terminator 2
Bourne Supremacy and Borne Ultimatum

I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now.

Not too many I can think of.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was better than the first Star Trek feature, but the first one was a bit of a misfire in my opinion. The sequel got back into the swing of the old series.

I liked Superman II slightly better than the original, because the characters had more depth.

Evil Dead II was better than the first Evil Dead, because it was funnier.

The Looney Tune cartoon Tortoise Wins by a Hare was a far funnier sequel, with better animation, than Tortoise Beats Hare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlqzR0aN7Kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8UhGieFFo

I think X-men 2 is better than the first film. And the last 3 Harry Potter films I liked more than the first.

great topic

- Bogus Journey, just an epic movie. Excellent Adventure was awesome, but Journey just took everything up a notch. The soundtrack was great, and of course who can forget the scene with the rock formation from Star Trek.

- any of the Godzilla sequels, since the first one was my least favorite in the series.

- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. great black comedy. the Leatherface family is hilarious in this one.

- Kill Bill 2. focused more on the storyline and characters than the first one did, and I loved the part with Michael Madsen.

- Bride of Frankenstein. they went with a comedy angle with this one and I loved it.

- Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. one of the greatest comedies made

- The Good the Bad and the Ugly - not my fave film but definately better than the other dollars films

- The Toxic Avenger 4 since 2 and 3 were garbage and 1 wasnt as funny as 4

oh and I'll add a couple more just because they were more fun than the originals- troll 2 and children of the corn 2

Surprised at that one since I think that the original Godzilla is by far the best and the only one that comes close is Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (try saying that fast three times!). But it's all down to personal opinion so it's all good : )
100% agree with you on Bogus Journey.

if they dont need to be on LD I would say that Cube 2 is better then the original, ok I know the first was kind of ground breaking but after watching the sequel and then go back watching the first, then its impossible to ignore the fact that Cube 2 beat it on every single point. I think many would disagree me on this but I will never back down.

Why wasnt Cube released on laserdisc by the way ?

Off the top of my head:

-HELL BOY II

-MATRIX:RELOADED

-EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (AWESOME DIRECTOR MADE THAT POSSIBLE !)

-AGREE WITH ALL THE GODZILLA MOVIES.....

-ALIENS

-SUPERMAN II

-SPECIES II

-BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

-EARNEST (ALL WERE BETTER THEN THE FIRST ONE IN MY OPINION)

-GAMERA SERIES GOT BETTER AND BETTER.....

-RESIDENT EVIL:APOCALYPSE

Better stop............. LoL

hmm.. good topic.

mine would be

Terminator 2 (of course lol)

Aliens

Rescuers Down Under

August Underground: Mordum (this is a trilogy of horror/gore films by director Fred Vogel. all the effects are done practically instead of with digital effects, and the effect is stunning, and sickening lol. often on 'top ten most disturbing movies' lists online it will rank very high, usually up there with Salo lol.)

Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me

Batman, The Dark Knight

Blade II

Dawn of the Dead

Lethal Weapon 2 (i love the original Lethal Weapon, but i've always liked the second just a little better for some reason)

Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars II: Clone Wars (better than episode I lol)

Lord of the Rings: Two Towers

Harry Potter series

Hot Shots! Part Deux

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan

Toy Story 3 (Damn Pixar almost had me crying about fake animated toys. that's an accomplishment)

X-Men 2

I always wondered that too, it would have been the right era to be one of the later releases, shame it never made it. Personally I'm not a great fan of the sequels, I don't think they were really required, though I did like what they tried to do with the ending of the Cube 2, just a shame they didn't follow it up in Cube 3.