Are Movie Sequels Ever a Good Idea?

After news broke that there will be a Mrs Doubtfire 2, Emma Rhodes decided to look back at some of the best and worst film sequels.

As Robin Williams gets ready to join Chris Columbus and put on his cross dressing attire, there are definitely a few doubts as to whether the film should even go ahead after it has been left for twenty years. Williams is a fantastic and credible actor and I am sure many have grown up to love his work including the voice of the genie in Aladdin, Happy Feet, Night in the Museum and Flubber. Williams has created some more thoughtful work as well such as Good Will Hunting.

Child star Mara Wilson (Matilda) has already ruled out her joining the reforming cast as she declares that she has never been in a film sequel and has no plans to start, “Sequels generally suck unless they were planned as part of a trilogy or series. I think Doubtfire ended where it needed to end.”

Sequels can definitely add flavour to the first and are often much anticipated. The Die Hard films (the trilogy at least) did extremely well by audiences and did even better for Bruce Willis’ career, especially as he has not got the greatest reputation throughout Hollywood. However it should have been left there as Die Hard 4 (2007) starring Justin Long was good for an action film but I refused to go see the most recent instalment (2013) due to poor reviews and to prevent disappointment for myself as to not reflect on previous works.

Harry Potter is probably one of the more famous line of films, released over a number of years, closely following the books and direction of author J.K.Rowling. These book adaptations followed a well-directed and thought out plot, allowing for characters to get older as they develop through the school years and adding more depth to each film. One issue fans faced was that the last book was stretched into two books, which really did not need to happen but producers probably wanted to see how much they could get out of an additional film.

Fast and Furious has become a franchise and the 3^rd film “Tokyo Drift” did not even star any of the original and staple cast. These make audiences believe they may be created for the sole purpose of creating revenue, not for the purpose of a plot. There is simply no plot to any of these films now and they definitely need to end very soon.

Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Back to the Future and Indiana Jones (apart from the last one with aliens) sequels all did commercially well as the plot does not really need to be the most solid part of the film, as long as there is either blood, guts, screams or laughs and a complete feeling of righteousness, then these sequels were always going to work.

Batman, Jurassic Park and Toy Story have probably all got to be my favourite sequels of all time and even at times challenge the first film they follow. However not every sequel is as successful. Welcome Anacondas, Grease 2, The Ring 2, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and of course Speed 2: Cruise Control amongst many others.

Sequels can be a tricky thing and at times unpredictable. After going over some of the best and worst, I really hope the Mrs Doubtfire somehow can meet the standards of the first film as I really cannot see it trumping it twenty years later.