Movie Polls

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

divinemsjunebug — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:56:43 GMT

For me it's Aliens too - it's really hard to compare since they are all so different.

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

Risselada — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:19:51 GMT

Wow, I'm the first one to vote for Before Sunset!

I'll tell you why.

The article in the paper I picked up didn't define their criteria further than the phrase "unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway"

Here's what I think they mean by that.

1. The original film must have been great

2. After finishing watching the first movie you do not necessarily feel like a sequel is warrented or required to fulfill the full movie experience

3. The sequel must be almost equally great

So here's my reasoning.

First of all, I just have not seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 so I can't say much about that.

I absolutely LOVED Alien. And after watching it you do not feel like a sequel is necessarily required. As for Aliens, it was cool that since it was unnecessary it was in a different genre, more of sort of a straight up action movie than horror / suspence. But I did not like it nearly as much.

It is kind of the opposite for me with the Mad Max movies. While I enjoyed the original I did not think it was really THAT great. Also the same as before, the sequel was not necessary and it was in a different genre of sorts. The Road Warrior is really more of a straight up action movie over Mad Max which had a lot more drama. In fact it's maybe my favorite action movie. But since I did not find the original as great, I didn't vote for it. Is that fair? Maybe not.

As for the Godfather series, I'd say that both movies are fantastic! But, maybe it's difficult for me to judge on this since as long as I've been alive I've known that there was a sequel, so the first time I watched the original I had that in mind. And so to me the sequel didn't seem that uncessary. I felt like I needed to know more. You may disagree with me.

You may disagree with me even more and say that the same is the case with Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, that in that case you also want to know what happens later! Maybe it's because the movie was made so much later with such a different outcome than you would have assumed after watching the first movie that makes me love it. Anyways, I think both of these films are fantastic.

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

SkyPilot — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:19:51 GMT

I haven't seen the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the sequel, but I'm surprised to see #2 here. I can tell you that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) is both unnecessary and not great.

Can you believe it took 12 years for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to come out? It's hard to imagine that, since these days more Saw films than James Bond flicks come out.

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

dibot — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:26:35 GMT

I need to check out this Onion AV list, because what's unnecessary about Godfather II?

I was torn between Godfather II and Aliens, but went with Godfather II because I think it's a better film. Still love Aliens, though.

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

JimBell — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:20:50 GMT

Yah, I haven't seen a lot of the films on these polls either, but I voted on this one because Aliens was so good. I watched all three in one week, and they blur. I know that afficiandos have heavy discussions about the effect different directors had on the Alien films, but I liked them all. At the other end of the spectum, I could not force myself to finish watching Before Sunset or was it Before Sunrise, whatever. But the deep, philosophical qyuestion is "Were the other Alien movies 'unnecessary'?"

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

QFLW — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:14:37 GMT

Risselada:

Aliens
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Before Sunset
THe Godfather Part II

OK, so I haven't seen all of these, either. Another close choice--Road Warrior or Godfather II? Love them both. In the end I went with Road Warrior, mostly because it's better than its predecessor (and certainly better than the following Thunderdome). Better written, better filmed, more sophisticated. But I really wanted to vote for both.

Aliens didn't impress as well as the first one did; have no desire to see any of the Chainsaw films ever. Never got around to Sunrise or Sunset.

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

superdrive0 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:39:54 GMT

Wow, I seriously need to watch more movies. I can never answer any of these polls because I haven't seent he films they're about. ^^;;

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

pippin06 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:35:53 GMT

mercurial:

Aliens. No contest.

On the contrary, for me, it's between Aliens and Godfather II, and there's quite a contest between them. I love them both so much, and they're so hard to compare to make a choice between one of them!

I think if I had to choose for the sake of the poll, I'd probably go with Godfather II because, as a film, I think it's both artistic and entertaining, whereas Aliens strikes me more as just a kickass good time (there's artistic finesse there, but it's not like the operatic tale of the moral degredation of Michael Corleone). But it's a really narrow margin between the two in light of the poll question! Are you sure I can't vote twice?

Re:The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

mercurial — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:44:29 GMT

Aliens. No contest.

The Onion AV Club recently featured a list of "5 unnecessary film sequels that are great anyway." Which do you find the best?

Risselada — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:40:08 GMT

Please reference this thread for the rules of this group.

Please vote only once in each poll.

Movies referenced in this poll:
Aliens
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Before Sunset
THe Godfather Part II