Top 10 Biggest Sequel Dropoffs of All Time
Whenever we love the first film in a franchise, we’re always so excited for the sequel. Sometimes the sequel is awesome while other times the sequels are a HUGE drop down in quality. Here’s my picks for the 10 biggest sequel dropoffs of all time.
NOTE: As we go into this, the order that these films are in are from the biggest negative drop from the first film to the second film based on their Rotten Tomatoes score. #10 has the smallest Rotten Tomatoes drop while #1 has the biggest. That's the order that they’re in, but the films on here are films that I agree with and I picked.
10. The Matrix to The Matrix Reloaded: The Matrix is one of the greatest movies of all time in my opinion. I’ve seen the film so many times over the years and every time I’m just in awe of what The Wachowskis were able to do with making a film that blends together so many philosophical ideas all into one film. With where the first film ends sets up great directions for a sequel and more stories. Unfortunately, The Matrix is one of the more infamous examples of a franchise with only one great movie. None of the sequels were able to capture the magic of the original or come anywhere close to being as good as that film. The Matrix Reloaded’s plot is so convoluted and confusing even though it’s about our heroes getting an item. It’s even more confusing because of all the subplots and unnecessary elements that make the film longer than it needs to be. The film deconstructs the worlds and mythology that was established in the original film and basically killed the franchise. With that said, the highway fight is actually pretty cool. That sequence is very cool and in a lot of ways is on par with some of the fights from the original. But everything beyond that doesn’t really work and it’s so frustrating and bizarre to me that The Wachowskis never found a way to continue the franchise in a way that made sense.
9. Thor Ragnarok to Thor: Love and Thunder: We had to include at least one MCU entry on this list and I think pretty safely, this is my pick. Ragnarok gave the Thor franchise a much needed boost of adrenaline that I think the franchise needed after a bit of a dud with The Dark World. Taika Waititi came in and did exactly that and created one of the most fun and funniest MCU films out there. When they announced Love and Thunder was coming out with Christian Bale playing the villain I was so excited because I love Christian Bale. The end result was a film that took everything that worked about Ragnarok and cranked it up to 11 and because of that, all of the fun and quirkiness of Ragnarok is lost and it becomes a full blown parody of Thor instead of feeling like an actual Thor film. They also wasted Christian Bale which is bizarre to me because his name carries a lot of weight in the comic book movie genre. They created an interesting villain but dropped him in the wrong film so he feels underused. The film tries to be so funny and goofy that it becomes annoying and cringy. This is one of the few MCU films that I haven’t watched at home and that's kind of intentional because I don’t really care to rewatch this film.
8. Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace: James Bond isn’t a franchise that I’m an expert or mega fan of. I’ve seen almost all of the Bond films, of the films I’ve seen I think the drop from Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace is the biggest. Casino Royale is widely regarded as one of, if not the best James Bond movie of all time, especially within Daniel Craig’s era. I don’t think it’s his best film, but it’s still very good and a great kickoff to this era. Then the second film is Quantum of Solace, a film that is a mess largely due to its production. It’s hard to blame the film because it was being written under terrible circumstances but that doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t put out a great film. There’s an interesting idea within the film about Bond going on a revenge mission after the events of Casino Royale. But the actual revenge mission didn’t really do much for me, it wasn’t something that I cared about. I think the reason for that is because this film was being made during the writer’s strike. Daniel Craig was having to work on the script for the film and he’s made several comments saying that he wasn’t happy doing that. All of the other Bond films in Craig’s era have villains played by great villains from Mads Mikkelsen, Javier Bardem, Christoph Waltz, and Rami Malek, this film has by far the least memorable villain of this run. There’s something in here that I enjoyed, Craig if of course great but it’s easily the weakest film of Craig’s Bond era.
7 Joker to Joker: Folie Á Deux: This is one of the most bizarre sequel dropoffs of all time because when you watch the film and interviews with Todd Phillips, it’s clear that he didn’t really want to make this film. The direction Phillips goes with this film basically undoes what the 2019 film was trying to make. I don’t think this film is as bad as people make it out to be. It’s not one of the worst comic book movies in my opinion. But it’s a film that’s deeply flawed and a HUGE step down from the original. The whole point and arc of Joker was having Arthur rise up against society with society being the antagonist of the film. You get Folie Á Deux and everything that was set up in the 2019 film gets a big middle finger from Todd Phillips. It leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth because you feel like the journey of Joker is totally pointless and it’s so weird and frustrating to me. There was so much talent in front of and behind the camera in the film. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga both deliver great performances that fit this film nicely. The cinematography for the film is great, it’s beautiful to look at but ugly to watch. It’s probably not much of a surprise that this film is on the list because of how it actively undoes what makes 2019 so good and one of the most interesting comic book movies of all time.
6. Independence Day to Independence Day: Resurgence: Do any of you guys remember that we got a sequel to Independence Day 20 years after the original? Not many do, I’m one of the people that forgot about the film. Independence Day is quotable and so much fun. It’s the film that turned Will Smith into a movie star and continued the rise of Jeff Goldblum. It’s a classic alien invasion film and widely regarded as Roland Emmerich’s best film. The film is a very simple alien invasion film and it’s not obvious where a sequel would go 20 years later. They did a sequel and did a very similar plot to the original. The aliens return and do more damage to the world, but without the magic and spark of that original film. So much of the fun of the original was the chemistry between Smith and Goldblum. This film has Jeff Goldblum, but into Will Smith. The two new leads of the film aren’t bad but they don’t have the movie star charisma that Smith and Goldblum have. One of our leads is Liam Hemsworth and he’s fine but he hasn’t found his project to make him a movie star and close to being as famous as his brother. The film ends with the idea of Earth taking the invasion to them and that sounds like a much better plot then what we got. The first film has the invasion on the Earth but the sequel takes the invasion to them, that’s more interesting and that’s not what they went with.
5. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi to Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker: This might be the hottest take on this list because some people hate both of these films and wouldn’t consider it for this list. But I’m actually a fan of The Last Jedi, it’s not fantastic, it has BIG flaws but I think in general it’s a solid film. The Rise of Skywalker is one of the saddest blockbusters of all time. I don’t mean sad in the sense that it’s filled with sad scenes, but it’s sad because this was the end of The Skywalker Saga. Especially when this film came out the same year as Endgame which provided an emotionally satisfying conclusion to The Infinity Saga and its characters. You then watch Rise of Skywalker and everything set up in The Force Awakens doesn’t really mean anything and completely wastes doing a satisfying conclusion to The Skywalker Saga. They introduce a bunch of ridiculous ideas from the force being able to heal people which makes no sense that this would be a power. It strains so much credibility when we had multiple Jedi die throughout the films and nobody thought to use this power. Qui-Gon Jin and all of the Jedi killed in Order 66 wouldn’t have died if they just used this power. The dialogue here is pretty bad, most notably “somehow Palpatine has returned.” I’ve never liked The Rise of Skywalker and I find it so sad that this show The Skywalker Saga ended.
4. Jaws to Jaws 2: Jaws is probably the ultimate example of a film that doesn’t need a sequel. Jaws is one of the best blockbuster thrillers of all time and it’s one of Spielberg’s best films. Despite it being a classic it’s not obvious what a sequel would be or where it would go. You watch Jaws 2 and really of the sequels and it’s obvious they didn’t have a plot, they just wanted to make more films because they printed money. Jaws 2 is probably the best Jaws sequel because tonally it’s the most like the original but it lacks Spielberg’s direction and the great characters. A lot of the cast from the original didn’t return for the film, except for Roy Schneider’s Brody. Brody is a good and interesting character but he’s good and interesting because of his dynamics with the other characters. It’s a film that’s not bad, it’s fine but it’s a film that while you’re watching you’re thinking to yourself, why would I watch this film? If I want to watch a more serious Jaws film, I’m going to watch the original and not the sequel. I put Jaws 2 on this list because that’s the next film after Jaws, but I’m using Jaws 2 as a place holder. All of the sequels went downhill and got worse as the franchise went along.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge: A lot of horror or horror adjacent franchises on this list and spoiler alert, this isn’t the last film. I think the original 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the greatest horror films of all time. That’s in my top 3 favorite horror films of all time. It has great direction by Wes Craven and Freddy Kruger is one of the great horror villains. There’s solid sequels in this franchise, in particular with Dream Warriors and New Nightmare. Freddy’s Revenge isn’t a terrible sequel, it’s in the upper half of the franchise but that’s just to say that there’s a lot of crap in this franchise and Freddy’s Revenge isn’t bad. It’s a creepy Freddy that touched in the more campy sides of the character without hurting the character’s reputation as a whole. But the film is a very big step down in quality from the original. Given how good the original is, it was always doomed to happen that a sequel wasn’t going to be as good because the original is a classic, but it’s still a big drop in quality. Freddy’s Revenge is an interesting film because the lead character is hinted at with “sub text” that he’s gay. The way Freddy kills people and traumatizes the lead hints at the lead’s sexual awakening taking place. You also don’t have Wes Craven behind the camera so the film as a whole isn’t great.
2. Aliens to Alien 3: I’m fairly new to the Alien franchise, I watched all of them for the first time last year. There’s a big debate on the internet as to whether Alien or Aliens is the better film. I much prefer Alien, I think it’s a fantastic film but Aliens is a great sequel directed by James Cameron. The next installment in the franchise, Alien 3 is directed by my favorite director, David Fincher and is not a good movie. There’s a lot of infamous reports about the production of the film. Fincher has said “nobody hates Alien 3 more than me.” They do something in the opening scene that many people view as unforgivable, they undo the ending of Aliens by killing people off. Is that a good idea? No it is not. The behind the scene story about Alien 3 is fascinating because of how they made the film. This was David Fincher’s directorial debut for a feature film. They hired him because he directed music videos and liked his style, this was before he became DAVID FINCHER. They didn’t have a finished script when they started shooting, they didn’t finish the script until they started doing reshoots on the film. It’s not a shock that the film didn’t turn out well, the studio horribly mismanaged this film and because of that it’s not on the same level as the first two films. Aliens is just a great sequel that’s a great continuation of the original with great characters and big James Cameron action spectacle. Alien 3 is a great looking bad movie.
1. Halloween (1978) to Halloween II (1981): Halloween (1978) is my favorite horror film of all time, so naturally any sequel is going to be a step down. In the case of this film, I think Halloween II (1981) is a borderline bad movie. I don’t normally call films bad and I’m close to calling this film bad. In terms of tone, this film is the most similar to the 1978 film. These two films can make for an interesting double feature because they go together and watch it as one big film. But without John Carpenter behind the camera, Halloween II isn’t as good and it shows. This film does nothing interesting with Laurie Strode, she’s stuck in a hospital bed the entire film not aware that Michael Myers is out there killing people. There’s no sense of urgency or tension in the film, it’s just Michael Myers walking around a hospital killing people every now and then. As I was watching it, I was legitimately bored watching it. It’s a pretty short film like how most slashers are but it felt so much longer and out right boring. You contrast this with Halloween (1978), a film that has tension right out of the gate. You’re scared of Michael Myers because of the opening scene and it never lets up until the credits roll. You get this great dialogue from Loomis about the mystery of Michael Myers and all of that is gone with this film.
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