Beware
of Sequels
By Hunter
Lowe
Magis staff writer
Sequels,
either the saving grace or last nail in the coffin for movies
throughout the ages. Classics such as the revered Aliens series
have recently fallen prey to the debilitating disease brought
on by too many terrible sequels.
Time and time again directors use the same techniques that
have turned spectacular movies into garbage, and I use the
term garbage generously.
To demonstrate my point, let's take a look at the recent "sci-fi
action extravaganza" known as Alien vs. Predator.
There are so many ways this movie could have been successful,
but the poor soul who wrote this monstrosity probably caught
the same bug as our friends the Wachowski brothers came down
with while writing the last two installments of The Matrix.
Before this movie even starts ask yourself one simple question,
is there any sort of respected actor in this? If the answer
is no, then do yourself a favor and do one of two things.
Save your 7$ and walk away, or suck it up, sit down in the
theatre, and come to terms with the fact that the movie is
probably going to be about as fun as eating glass.
Now granted, there are some exceptions I'm sure, but for all
intents and purposes that is usually the case. Back to the
topic at hand, what made Aliens vs. Predator so terrible you
ask?
Well I'll tell you. Hopefully these comments won't ruin any
of the "surprise" of this cinematic gem for you.
First of all, the previews make you think, wow, massive amounts
of cool alien fight scenes, how could that be bad?
You soon notice that every fight seen takes place with the
camera seemingly half an inch away from the slug fest. You
can't tell who is punching, biting, kicking, stabbing until
the very end when the victor emerges (which is usually the
wussy alien and not the technologically advanced predator).
Most people I know would go to see this movie if only for
the reason that Predators are cool, and if you saw the first
one you know the only way to kill one is to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Much to my dismay there are only three predators in the entire
thing and two of them get knocked out within the first two
fights.
If you saw the second title in this series, Aliens, you witnessed
four or five marines laying waste to legions of the aliens,
and then in Predator about ten soldiers get massacred by one
predator. Using this reasoning you would think the predators
would win without breaking a sweat, right?
Wrong.
The last predator forms a "bond" of sorts with the
last surviving human female (who seems to be channeling Ripley
from the last four movies).
What is wrong with this situation? Predators don't hang out
with people, we don't go CD shopping together on the weekends
and invite them over to slumber parties. Predators usually
annihilate people for fun.
I could go on for days about the flaws in this movie, but
let's move on to what makes a sequel actually good.
Take the earlier discussed Aliens movie for example, an all
around good movie, and one of the few sequels that actually
outdoes its predecessor in many ways. What aspects about this
film make it a good sequel you ask?
First of all, don't use all of your material in the first
movie (i.e. The Matrix). Save something unexpected to help
flesh out the story more, don't make up random things to milk
some more cash out of the series.
Add in some new characters that actually enhance the viewing
of the movie and aren't just filler. Don't waste all of the
action in one movie and fill the next with dialogue that no
one really cares about, no one wants to sit through two and
a half hours of two people chatting.
Aliens has all of these aspects. Don't ask me what they were
thinking with the next two in the series, I don't even want
to know.
Until next time, beware of sequels, they can either be fantastic
or so horrible you will never want to watch another movie
again.
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