Movie Sequels That Should Never Have Been Made

Currently my 13-year-old is in the process of educating me about the Marvel Universe. Each evening we watch one Thor, or Ironman or Avenger or whichever superhero movie… in some mysterious order. Apparently this is for my own good. The cleverly crafted, loosely connected sequence of Marvel movies aside, there are many other franchises that should have stopped when the going was good. It is my view that some sequels were just not meant to be made:

Toy Story was lovely. Even Toy Story 2 was nice. Number 3 was when it all got dark and grim and just plain weird. An evil teddy bear? What, were they trying to ruin stuffed toys for kids forever? I haven’t watched the fourth edition, but I am assured that it comes as close to a horror film as it can; sure to give unsuspecting kids nightmares.

It was a hilarious premise – waking up in a Las Vegas hotel with a baby in the closet, tiger in the bathroom and a chicken somewhere in the mix – with no recollection of how all this came to pass. It was fun, enjoyable ride. One was enough, but they had to go and labour the point with the second and third editions.

Again, an interesting premise done to death! We can be convinced that a kid was accidentally left behind as the family leaves for a holiday once. It’s difficult to digest but we can suspend disbelief once. It is difficult to accept that a family can be that careless repeatedly. Plus the gags felt repetitive and derivative.

It was a very entertaining idea – that there are all these aliens among us – hiding in plain sight. For me, all those hideous ‘aliens’ were difficult to look at – even that first time. More of the same? Why, I ask. That said, the pairing of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones was a winning combination – to that, I could say more please.

The first film was about ageing action heroes that may have lost their youth but none of their testosterone-fuelled daring and swagger. That is it. That's the whole film. And then another, and then yet another. Apparently we are to have the next one in 2021 and then some more. Don’t mind me; I don’t even think the first one needed to be made in 2010.

OK, it’s not the sequel but the remake that totally destroyed the original 60s animation for me. The original was sweet and funny; peopled with cute and quirky characters and some of the most delightful songs. The remake was realistic, dark, menacing and so not funny.

The original 1995 Jumanji featuring Robin Williams was a classic: gripping, startling and a bit scary. There was the sequel Zathura: A Space Adventure, which I confess passed me by completely. The recent ‘sequels’ are supposed to be funny or something. While they were nice and entertaining, they were just too different to be sequels – they were a whole other genre.

I don’t know if this one can be considered a sequel in the strictest sense of the term, but it was a disaster in the strictest sense of the term. A war of superheroes? With the flimsiest of conflicts? Where one of them dies? Who wants to watch that? It was dour and pointless and incoherent and annoying – just another (non) sequel that should never have been made.