The Rise and Fall of Sequels
What would it take to make a series of films, one sequel to another, without losing the enthusiasm from the market and if possible, receiving more support ? Well a numerous factors can be considered. Big name actors and actresses or maybe more sophisticated and very high-tech computer effects. For movies that are brought to big screen based on comic adaptation, the producer might want to show up much high profile characters.
The two last reasons certainly fit perfectly to the latest super heroes movie : Fantastic Four : Rise of The Silver Surfer. While not the best, I personally perceive this movie is one of the spectacular super hero movies I’ve ever watched, at least much much better than its predecessor back in 2005. At first I was a bit sceptical about this movie when some friends suggested this one. Had one friend of mine not made an appointment to catch Shrek the day after and I had not watched Ocean 13 before, then I guess I’d be settled for a piece of dvd in the next few months. Well, no surprise then if you recall how crap is the first movie of Fantastic Four which I labelled the worst ever made super hero movies.
Speaking about sequels, we have seen a lot of them has been and will be thrown out to the market. It’s summer time.. time regarded as the most perfect time to screen a movie and also probably the most profitable time! Spiderman 3, the final sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Fantastic Four : Rise of The Silver Surfer, Ocean 13 and Shrek 3 (the final one ? no?). Not to forget the upcoming Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix. In span of just few weeks, those Hollywood producer is really using this period to scoop big bucks! No problem though since each of them is unique and has its own fans base. What about the qualities ? Well, I’d say some of them are disappointing (spiderman 3 for example), some of them are better (F4), while some of them can’t be judged due to completely different plot between the former and the latter.
Disappointing or not, the rise and fall of sequel would very much depend on its predecessor and the viewer’s expectation. If the first one is so good that it makes you difficult to find a suitable word to describe it, then viewer would raise the bar for the upcoming sequels. That’s just normal.. One thing for sure, I personally think that sequels should be planned beforehand before the very first movie.. Not to be decided following the successful of the first one. Well, unless the movie-maker is so damn creative to turn the plot and write the scenario. Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of The Ring would certainly fall under the first category. And I think no one would argue with me those are really good movies. However, there’s also example of good movie in the latter category. Ice Age 2.. The hillarious one! For this case, we must give credits to the teams for their creativity! Creativity and ‘out of the box’ idea are certainly needed to produce a sequel not planned before. Or else, we would see disappointing sequels such as Infernal Affairs or our very own Tersanjung! Haha…
