tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post7776644714365891584..comments2024-03-28T03:10:19.013-07:00Comments on Fraggmented: The Alternate Reality Sequel ListJohn Seaveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07530526320973807452noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-27408501678306993802008-10-05T04:49:00.000-07:002008-10-05T04:49:00.000-07:00I've always cleaved to the idea that I can pick ho...I've always cleaved to the idea that I can pick how far I want to read/watch something. Whether by the original team or not, a sequel that betrays the characters or their sacrifice, is not something I'm interested in.<BR/><BR/>I agree with all your picks, and with the commenters' choices. I would add "Scream" to the list - the second and third parts really force the copycat killer idea and forget about the dark comedy. <BR/><BR/>Comic books can also suffer from this. I'm not opposed to change or growth, provided the change isn't just to negate what has gone before. Xorn-was-never-Magneto... what?<BR/><BR/>I haven't read "The Incredible Hulk" since Peter David's final issue of his original run: he'd said everything that needed to be said. I got rid of any issues of the old "Titans" title after the ludicrous shock tactics of "Titans Hunt" started: the book had lost its way, and the new direction betrayed the characters and their heroism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-19536080577140316022008-10-01T01:55:00.000-07:002008-10-01T01:55:00.000-07:00Well said. This sort of pick-and-choose personal c...Well said. This sort of pick-and-choose personal canon is the only way I can still enjoy some of my favorite TPBs from the old days; acknowledging the utter crap that some of the characters get put through under later writers is too much of a damper to contemplate.Suzenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15041954083341395158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-70518373823068673872008-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:002008-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:00Eryn - Do not read the current Buffy Season 8 arc ...Eryn - Do not read the current Buffy Season 8 arc (written by Joss, even). They got time travel in your Buffy. I don't know if you were making a veiled reference to that or just didn't know, but anyway, there it is. <BR/><BR/>The best example I think of other than those already mentioned is a TV show - Veronica Mars. The first ends perfectly, beautifully. The other two are kind of ridiculous. Not bad, but season two got increasingly implausible as it went on, and 3 is just kind of there. <BR/><BR/>I like to imagine that Veronica only had to deal one murder as a teenager, not a string of them.Anthony Strandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170406011301084809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-70934891163359028452008-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:002008-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:00Pirates of the Caribbean - No logic or memory betw...Pirates of the Caribbean - No logic or memory between the first movie and the second two.<BR/><BR/>Defeating Barbossa is cheapened by the fact that he's brought back to life anyways.<BR/><BR/>The Cursed Gold hangs heavy over the next two movies. If you knew you had to fight Davy Jones, would you go as yourself or as a skeleton pirate that can't die? Just go grab a gold piece, fight some pirates, win, and then return it.<BR/><BR/>Or, if you were part of the sinister East India Company and wanted to rule the ocean and end piracy, why not get a bunch of your loyal soldiers to steal some of the cursed gold, become skellie-redcoats, and storm through the pirate capitol killing everyone without worry of reprisal?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-4048479095074930272008-09-28T13:31:00.000-07:002008-09-28T13:31:00.000-07:00Oh, and The Godfather part III might affect my per...Oh, and The Godfather part III might affect my perceptions of I & II if I ever really thought about it. However, I like Coppola and Puzo's idea for IV to be another dual story, this time of Sonny and his bastard son (the Godfather after Michael). Puzo's death prevented that.Kyle Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11585645795214120227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-43683487736203151652008-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:002008-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00While you make valid points about Star Wars, I fee...While you make valid points about Star Wars, I feel that Empire was the superior film and added much more than it took away.Kyle Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11585645795214120227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-75948188583847034042008-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:002008-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:00It's funny you mention 'Nightmare on Elm Street', ...It's funny you mention 'Nightmare on Elm Street', because the movie I've always wanted to do was a prequel. Get Robert Englund back without the make-up, cut out all the jokes and black comedy, and just turn it into this tense, psychological study of a serial killer's bloody swathe through a small town, and end it with his death.<BR/><BR/>...I'm off-topic in my own blog, aren't I?John Seaveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07221569513392130884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-44668964399809437782008-09-26T16:46:00.000-07:002008-09-26T16:46:00.000-07:00Nightmare on Elm Street. In the first movie, we h...<B>Nightmare on Elm Street</B>. In the first movie, we have Freddy Krueger as a killer of children. That's all we know about him.<BR/><BR/>But with each sequel, we get more pieces of the back-story (the mother was a nun, he's the guardian of a dream gate, he was given his powers by three dream demons) and the character becomes less mysterious. It's not necessarily that the bits of origin were stupid; but he just worked better as a mysterious character who lurked in the shadows.<BR/><BR/>The same goes for <B>Halloween</B> and <B>Friday the 13th</B>. I've only seen the first two <B>Saw</B> movies; but I'm guessing that the Jigsaw Killer becomes less scary the more we find out about him as well.<BR/><BR/>Back to <B>Highlander</B>, I liked the fact that nobody knew why this was happening. Sometimes the mystery is just better.Michael Penkashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05953666009258680380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-77129451313774998122008-09-26T14:01:00.000-07:002008-09-26T14:01:00.000-07:00Aliens, of course. Touched on in the commentary, ...<B>Aliens</B>, of course. Touched on in the commentary, but still valid. Frankly, the Dark Horse comics with adult Newt and Hicks as the protagonists was MUCH better than Aliens3 & Resurrection. <BR/><BR/>We should also flip the question and mention things that are good as they are and shouldn't get sequels. <BR/><BR/>I'd argue, for example, that the reason that nearly 35 years later William Goldman still can't seem to finish <B>Buttercup's Baby</B> is that <B>The Princess Bride</B> is perfect as it is....no sequel will live up to the original, so he may be best off if he just quits trying.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12555754666136648223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-67513257084751815332008-09-26T06:03:00.000-07:002008-09-26T06:03:00.000-07:00Since everyone is bringing up Star Trek: I don't c...Since everyone is bringing up Star Trek: I don't consider Enterprise to be canonical. The producers gave me some nice ammunition for that in the last episode, where it seems like the whole show could have actually been a holodeck program in the 24th century. So I say all of Enterprise is a bunch of Federation-propaganda holodeck stories passed off as real history. The <I>real</I> history of the Federation's founding was a lot less idealistic, a lot more messy, and a lot more interesting.<BR/><BR/>That's what I tell myself, and I hope some future Star Trek series has an episode about not trusting history books where they start to realize it's all fake.<BR/><BR/><BR/>But you seemed to be asking specifically about movies, so I have to say Back to the Future. When I see the end of that movie, I always pretend there were no sequels. It takes so much away from the ending to think that Biff turns evil again and the McFly family turns back into the mess it used to be. Not to mention the whole silly wild west thing.<BR/><BR/>Nope, didn't happen. They flew off into the sunset, and that's all there is to the story. The End.Moryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00811255096467614445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-60966575263751341622008-09-25T17:42:00.000-07:002008-09-25T17:42:00.000-07:00I think you're dead-on about 'Highlander', but I'm...I think you're dead-on about 'Highlander', but I'm not so sure about 'Star Trek V'. Because I'm not talking just about sequels that are bad, I'm talking about sequels that in some way change the viewing experience of the original. When you watch 'Star Trek V', sure, it sucks, but it doesn't actually make 'Star Trek II' worse. You don't think about it while you watch the other films.<BR/><BR/>Whereas 'Highlander', yes, when you watch the original, you can't help but think of all the dementedly bad directions that the franchise went from there. (Although I liked the TV series, but that openly admitted it was in an alternate reality. So it used my solution pre-emptively.)<BR/><BR/>'T3' would probably qualify in that same vein, in the sense that when you watch 'T2', you now know that their efforts to change the future were futile...but I actually liked that about the third film, so I don't generally include it. But I'm aware that others might feel differently.John Seaveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07221569513392130884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-72168371091371582142008-09-25T11:01:00.000-07:002008-09-25T11:01:00.000-07:00Highlander. The movie did not need a sequel. They ...<B>Highlander.</B> The movie did not need a sequel. They got to the forth one and it felt like they just threw darts at different scripts, then mixed them together. If you're going to do a baton hand-off from movies to television, that is not the way to go. They're not the first to fumble that ball, the failure should have been foreseen with that mess. That's only a smidgen better than using the same script over again, as they did with the third movie. I rank it just under the stupidity of establishing a universe and then turning it on its ear for no reason. It's not broken, don't try to blend your old ideas with currently trendy ones.<BR/><BR/>I want to pretend the Highlander produces are not still out there. Waiting. Waiting for Scifi Channel to screw it up - as only they can - by adding their television movie mark to it. Waiting for us to forget so they can do a remake in 2010. <BR/>They keep reminding me, despite the fact that I don't even have cable tv, or turn on the television for anything other than news. Blasted RSS feeds.<BR/><BR/>The things I hate most about doing sequels are the bad hybrids. Like putting aliens or science in your fantasy a magic script. Most likely it wasn't needed, it confuses everyone new and satisfies no one who's returning to their beloved childhood favorite. <BR/><BR/>You got your X-files in my Indiana Jones! You got your peanut butter in my chocolate! Aargh! You got your explainable science my Jedi myth! If you put your time travel in my Buffy, I will end you.<BR/>Damn it.<BR/>[Eryn Puts on a bonnet and pulls out a gun.]<BR/><BR/>Some things will never taste great together, many people just have different tastes and will never agree what works for them in terms of simply a movie.<BR/><BR/>For all the generic predictability that is Stargate, at least the myth and science fiction elements are worked in together early on. The problem is that they really needed a television show to make it work best. They just need to stop beating their dead horse. They're taking the easy route, Paramount still isn't over that one now. I was hoping they were since even the Star Trek Experience is shutting down. They're resorting to Hollywood's other cop-out: Ret-con! Enterprise did not work, but that didn't stop them from doing a prequel to TOS. <BR/><BR/>Actually, it's TOS, so I don't actually care what they do to it.<BR/><BR/>Star Trek V and Highlander II don't exist - they were never made. You can't prove that anyone liked those movies, so they don't exist in our minds. The original Star Trek movie is a toss up of good and bad sides. Without it there would have been no Next Generation, but then they would have made Star Trek II: The TV Series. Uuugh! TNG Season 2 scripts. Double UGH!<BR/><BR/>Are there really <I>any</I> good sequels that deserved to be produced or spun-off? That could be a topic for another day.Eryn Tzunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05388261557350382078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-10279009469437617472008-09-25T10:07:00.000-07:002008-09-25T10:07:00.000-07:00I dunno...maybe I'm too anal-retentive, or too muc...I dunno...maybe I'm too anal-retentive, or too much of a rule follower, to embrace this concept. <BR/><BR/>To use your Star Wars example, sure, when I watched the movies as a kid I imagined what the deal with the Clone Wars was, but that was just my imagination. I wanted to know what "really" happened, even if "what really happened" hadn't been thought up yet. <BR/><BR/>Thus, even if the "official" version of events wasn't as good as what I came up with myself, that was what "really" happened, and to me, that "official-ness" overcompensated for any relative quality issues compared to what I imagined. <BR/><BR/>This might be why I've never written any fan fiction...anything I wrote wouldn't be "official"...<BR/><BR/>And yes, I have this same problem when it comes to comic books, and and I am pretty lame as result :)<BR/><BR/>Oddly enough, for some reason, I don't have this problem with Star Trek; there I just sort of cherry pick the continuity I like and ignore the stuff I don't. No idea why I can do it with that property and not something else...Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15742539.post-19062805167817700512008-09-25T08:43:00.000-07:002008-09-25T08:43:00.000-07:00Fans of classic film have pretty well roundly igno...Fans of classic film have pretty well roundly ignored the attempts to provide sequels to Gone With the Wind, Casablanca & Psycho.<BR/><BR/>Although it occurs in the middle of a series, Star Trek V is usually considered a non-entity by Trek fandom.<BR/><BR/>I haven't watched past Terminator 2 in that franchise - it seems to me that after T2 any attempt at a sequel would only be a retread of where the first two films had already gone.<BR/><BR/>And I submit that 2010 is an example of the reverse situation - I think it's had a bad rap and is actually superior to 2001.Michael Hoskinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11302540308587868138noreply@blogger.com