A good sequel should carry the story of the original film but not rely on it. If a moviegoer has not seen the first film, he or she should be able to understand what's happening in the second all the same.
At the same time, people who have seen the original film need to benefit either with a few in-jokes, or having something happen in the sequel that throws light on events or characters in the first. It's a fine line to tread and I'm sure you all know it.
I don't generally like sequels but I'm one of those suckers who will go and see the second film just to know for sure that it's worse than the first and they never should have made it. I have been pleasantly surprised more often than I care to admit.
The best sequel I've ever seen is The Dark Knight, the second of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. In many ways it actually surpasses the original. I think the villains get a good workout, for starters, and share the spotlight with party boy/psychopath vigilante Bruce Wayne.
But my favourite sequel (if you could call it that) is Three Colours White, directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. How to describe it? It's about an award-winning Polish barber whose wife wants to divorce him because he can't satisfy her in bed. The barber leaves France and goes back to Poland in a suitcase... I won't say more but it's funny and touching.
I'm not sure you can call it a sequel, though because there are only cameos of characters from Three Colours Blue (the first movie) in it, rather than it being a continuation of a narrative but I'm going to nominate it all the same because this is my blog.
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.
Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.
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