Top 10 Favorite Movie Prequels
Movie prequels can be very hit or mess. There are some fantastic prequels that add something fresh, new, and interesting to the world. Other prequels feel like a waste of time, answering questions nobody was asking for. Today, we’re talking about the best movie prequels of all time. What are my picks? Let’s get started!
10. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: I’m by no means a Hunger Games expert. I’ve seen a few of the movies and of the ones I’ve seen, I think this is the best of the bunch. There’s a lot of solid elements inside of it. The movie does fantastic world building, it’s fascinating and interesting to see the origins of The Hunger Games at a different point in time. The audience is used to seeing The Hunger Games at a specific point, but what if that was different. That’s what this movie explores. We see the origins of President Snow, he is the lead character. You don't sympathize with him and that’s ok. You’re not supposed to because we know who the character becomes. The esthetics and production of the movie is fantastic. It has this futuristic vibe to it while also having this 60s and 70s vibe to the entire thing. The performances across the board are fantastic. I know the internet loves to hate Rachel Zegler, she’s great in this movie. Tom Blyth, who is Snow, is also fantastic. I hope he gets more work. This one really surprised me with just how good it actually was.
9. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: At first it sounded like a weird idea to take this line of dialogue at the beginning of A New Hope about the Rebels escaping with the plans and turn that into an entire movie. Lucasfilm did that and the results…quite good. This is a very solid Star Wars movie and one of the best projects that Disney Star Wars has done. Of all of the Star Wars movies, this is the one that best puts the “war” into STAR WARS. As you move into the final battle, it is this land battle with our heroes trying to save the day. It feels fresh and new in the world of Star Wars, Gareth Edwards has a great eye for the visuals, especially in the action sequences they look very cool. Of course, you get the fantastic Darth Vader sequence at the end. It’s the type of sequence that I wish Star Wars would do more of. It’s great to see Darth Vader just tearing people to pieces with modern day technology and visual effects.
8. Prey: This is a movie that I hope other franchises learn from. Let’s do a smaller scale action movie on a streaming service. Not every new entry in a franchise needs to be $150, $200 million. But you can tell a very cool movie with a $50 million budget on a streaming service. Since I liked this movie, I would want more movies like this. It’s a movie that feels fresh and different inside of the Predator franchise. The fact that it explores the idea of what if a Predator landed in a different time and place. Where a Predator landed in this Indian culture, they don’t have the guns or weapons that other characters in previous movies had. We see how this character has to defeat the Predator with using her brains and skills more so than her weapons. I like that it’s rated-R and they go for it. It’s a bloody and brutal film from beginning to end. I hope we get a sequel to this movie or movies like this with other franchises.
7. Bumblebee: Finally after the sixth movie in a franchise, the producer realized you can have great and compelling characters in a Transformers movie. This movie is EASILY, the most character focused Transformers movie. You care about the journey that Hailee Steinfeld’s character is on. You connect with her on a deeper level than you do with the other characters. It does follow a common plot structure of the lonely teenager who finds this creature who becomes its best friend, meanwhile the government is out to get this creature. We’ve seen this plot done before, but this is a great version of it. You have fun and exciting action, since you care about the characters, you care about what’s happening in the action sequences a little bit more. I love the cast here with Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena, both of them are fun in these types of movies. It’s unfortunate this film underperformed because I would like another Transformers movie like this.
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: The movie that I liked so much that made me create this blog post. I’m not a massive Mad Max fan, I haven’t seen all of the movies. Of the movies that I have seen, this is my favorite of the bunch. I think it does a great job of balancing the fun and exciting Mad Max action with having a great and compelling story. It’s a very simple story, it’s a revenge movie with Furiosa. Chris Hemsworth’s villain did something that made Furiosa mad, she’s out for revenge. This movie actually makes Fury Road better for me as I felt like we understood who Furiosa was more. It made Furiosa a far better character in my mind. This movie is filled with all of the fun, over the top Mad Max style action from beginning to end. Despite being in his 80s, George Miller knows how to stage the action in a way that’s fun and exciting to watch. They don’t try to outdo Fury Road, they just try to make great action set pieces. It’s a shame this movie is disappointing at the box office, because it probably means we won’t be getting any more Mad Max movies.
5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: To be fair, this is more so a placeholder for the entire new Planet of the Apes franchise. I think all four movies are great and would be on this list. This is my favorite of the bunch, so this is the one that I “put” on the list. What this entire trilogy has been able to do so well is balance being exciting blockbusters with having deep emotions. They are blockbusters, but not in the traditional sense. They’re more tragic, especially the two Matt Reeves movies. They do have fun and exciting action but they also have very human emotions. They’re darker films as they’re about the extinction of humanity and we see the downfall of humanity. What they’ve been able to do with the CGI is fantastic, mainly with Andy Serkis it’s truly phenomenal. How Serkis didn’t get an honorary Oscar or win an Oscar for this trilogy is beyond me, I really don’t get it. I hope they announce a sequel to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes soon because I wanna see where this franchise is going.
4. Wonder Woman: Prior to this movie coming out, WB and DC were trying to get a Wonder Woman movie made for years. Joss Whedon was even trying to get one made, but he couldn’t crack the code. Then WB hired Patty Jenkins and she absolutely cracked the code. She was able to make a movie that can be both fun and exciting but also very thematic. It’s able to balance its tones of being fun while taking place in World War II with Nazis as the villains of the movies. The movie perfectly blends all of this, they find the right story to put Wonder Woman in the middle of. We see that she’s more than just the woman in an American flag swimsuit with an Invisible Jet, but an actual hero and goddess. The action is fun and exciting to watch, No Man’s Land is a fantastic sequence. Gal Gadot is the perfect person to play this version of Wonder Woman, her chemistry with Chris Pine is great.
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Some people might be confused as to why this film is on the list. Yes, it is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise. But for those who don’t know, Temple of Doom actually takes place before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Therefore, this movie qualifies as a prequel. What I love about this movie is they went for a bold and ambitious film. They didn’t try and copy what worked about Raiders of the Lost Ark. They took elements of that film, put them in here but made it feel so different. It’s so different and ambitious that this is the film that helped create the PG-13 rating. Because some of the images in the film were too much for little kids to see. This is also the Indiana Jones movie that is action packed and it never lets up. It never slows down, within the first 25-30 minutes we have three different action sequences. I love this movie and it’s a great next chapter in the adventures of Indiana Jones.
2. X-Men: First Class: The day that I’m writing this, my review of the film dropped. I've seen this movie multiple times over the years. When I rewatched it recently, I forgot just how great this movie was. It’s a movie that feels distinct inside of the franchise and genre. The style and energy that Matthew Vaughn brings to this movie isn’t present in any of the other X-Men movies. It feels like a 1960s James Bond but with X-Men instead. The movie provides depth to Professor X and Magneto as we see their backstories and how they’re worldviews drew them apart as they got older. It makes you sympathize with Magneto. We see what happened to his mother and we 100% understand why he’s doing what he’s doing and how brutal he is about it. I think James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender’s best performances as these characters are in this movie. This movie allows for their acting abilities to be showcased. Plus, Kevin Bacon is playing a very underrated villain.
1. Star Trek (2009): I’ve now officially watched all of the Star Trek movies. I can say this is my favorite of the bunch. It is as thoughtful as some of the William Shatner Star Trek movies. But I think it’s the Star Trek film that best balances enjoyment, action, character, humor, and emotions. I know a lot of people like to crab on JJ Abrams because of Star Wars, but he makes very fun roller coaster movies. Where once they start going they don’t stop. The action is fun and exciting, when the action isn’t happening there’s humor and fun characters to keep you entertained. The movie might have JJ Abrams best directed sequence with the opening sequence that establishes a new character arc for Kirk. That’s something very different from what we’ve seen from Kirk before. They find ways to give Spock an emotional journey with a character arc in there. It can be very funny at points, I laugh out loud at multiple moments in this movie. Micheal Giacchino’s score is fantastic, I love him as a composer and this is easily one of his best scores.
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