Whether or not a movie is good often has very little bearing on whether a sequel is made. What really matters is how much it makes at the box office and how likely the studio execs think it is that people would be willing to pay to see another movie. As such, the quality of movie sequels can be very hit and miss. Some are able to recapture the things that made their predecessors work while others end up flopping harder than a lead balloon. Sometimes, however, producing a sequel might not actually be possible.
It may be because of the death of a character or the protagonist reaching the end of their natural arc (although this doesn’t always seem to matter to producers). Whatever the reason, studios wanting to continue a franchise are sometimes left with little choice but to look to the past rather than to the future. As with video games, there have been some incredible prequels over the years, but Hollywood has squeezed out its fair share of stinkers as well.
10 Best: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)
The underwhelming performance of 2001’s Planet of the Apes left 20th Century Fox in a difficult position. Rebooting the franchise again less than a decade later wasn’t really an option, nor was producing a sequel to a movie that many viewers had disliked. With that in mind, a prequel was the only thing that really made sense.
As far as origin stories go, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is up there with the very best and is the embodiment of that old adage about making lemonade after being handed lemons. It’s captivating from start to finish and features some eye-catching performances from some very talented actors. Better still, it served as the perfect foundation upon which future installments could stand and helped to return the franchise to the big time.
9 Worst: The Scorpion King (2002)
The Mummy is a decent movie and its sequel isn’t too bad either. The Scorpion King, however, is perhaps one of the worst movies ever made. Dwayne Johnson reprises his role as the titular character and viewers are subjected to some of the laziest and most uninspired writing to ever play out on the silver screen. It did have a decent soundtrack though.
Mathayus’ origin story is incredibly dull and the characters he encounters along the way could not be more uninteresting if they tried. That the movie somehow spawned four sequels is baffling, even if they were all direct to DVD releases and didn’t feature Johnson. In fact, Mathayus is played by four different actors across the five movies, but not one of them is able to save this terrible train wreck of a series.
8 Best: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984)
It’s not immediately obvious that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a prequel, but it’s actually set a year before Raiders despite releasing several years after it. It’s probably the weakest of the original trilogy, but, considering the standard, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, Temple of Doom has some wonderful moments that are every bit as memorable as those found in the other two movies.
From the delightfully disgusting monkey brains scene to the movie’s take on discount heart surgery, there really is a lot to enjoy. Of course, its portrayal of Indian culture hasn’t aged too gracefully, but Temple of Doom is still infinitely better than The Crystal Skull and is unlikely to be topped by the series’ fifth entry either. Fans can still hope though, right?
7 Worst: 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
The first 300 movie was far from a masterpiece, but it at least features some decent performances and plenty of really well-choreographed action scenes. 300: Rise of an Empire, on the other hand, has no redeeming qualities whatsoever nor does it offer anything remotely unique. It’s a run-of-the-mill origin story with about as much to say as a decomposing corpse.
Anything close to resembling a narrative gets drowned in a pool of blood and body parts as the movie instead chooses to rely solely on gore to keep viewers engaged. While it’s typically presented with the style that one might expect from something based on the works of Frank Miller, there comes a point where it loses any impact through sheer excess. What remains is a dreary and uninspired piece of cinema that has no right to bear the Frank Miller name.
6 Best: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the third and final installment in the Dollars trilogy and sees Clint Eastwood’s last appearance as the iconic man with no name. Despite what the release order might suggest though, the movie actually serves as a prequel – and it’s a bloody good one at that. In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s the best western movie ever made.
Set during the American civil war, the movie tells the story of three men racing to get their hands on a concealed cache of Confederate gold and features some incredible action scenes as well as many memorable moments. Eastwood continued to perform in Westerns after the movie and even went on to direct some of his own, but this was perhaps the pinnacle of his wonderful career.
5 Worst: Carlito’s Way: Rise To Power (2005)
Carlito’s Way might not get as much respect as some of the other crime and gangster movies of the eighties and nineties, but it is every bit as deserving. It tells a wonderful character-driven story about a criminal looking for a way out of the life of crime in which he finds himself trapped. Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power explains how he found himself there. Badly.
It’s one of those movies that nobody was asking for, nor were there too many people yearning to see P. Diddy return to the silver screen either. That’s not to say that a movie exploring Brigante’s past was destined to fail, but success would have required a much more coherent and compelling narrative and at least some attempt to connect the movie to its predecessor beyond the inclusion of the titular character.
4 Best: Prometheus (2012)
Anybody looking for an example of a movie prequel done right should look no further than Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. It’s set about thirty years before the first Alien movie and while it doesn’t provide all of the answers that some series fans may have been hoping for, it still has plenty to offer.
Every scene is perfectly composed and there are some fantastic performances too. Most importantly, perhaps, it feels like a true prequel to the original Alien movies without ever needing to lean too heavily on them. Sure, there are callbacks here and there, but Prometheus isn’t afraid to bring new ideas to the table and contributes its fair share to the series’ lore as a result.
3 Worst: Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003)
Dumb and Dumber is one of the best comedy movies of the nineties, maybe even of all time. The chemistry between Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey is absolutely fantastic and their performances and delivery couldn’t be much better. It’s for that reason that so many eyebrows were raised when a prequel was announced without them.
Expectations for Dumb and Dumberer were exceedingly low and yet the movie still somehow managed to find a way to disappoint. The jokes are asinine, the characters aren’t interesting and the whole thing is just incredibly forgettable. Whichever way one looks at it, it’s a loveless imitation of the original movie and a reminder of how some franchises are best left untouched.
2 Best: The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part II serves both as a sequel and a prequel to the original movie, with Al Pacino continuing Michael Corleone’s transformation in the present day and Robert De Niro filling out Vito’s backstory in early twentieth century Sicily. Both actors deliver phenomenal performances, but De Niro’s is particularly impressive and won him the Oscar for best-supporting actor.
Only those with a severe aversion to reading subtitles could argue that The Godfather Part II is not a cinematic masterpiece. It somehow manages to surpass the original movie in almost every possible way and serves as the perfect continuation of the story while simultaneously setting it up through its exploration of Vito’s past. Never mind greatest prequels, this is one of the greatest movies ever made.
1 Worst: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
Midi-chlorians, terrible CGI, and Jar Jar Binks were just some of the many reasons why Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is looked upon with such disdain by the fandom. Of course, it also didn’t help that they had been waiting for nearly two decades for a new Star Wars movie. Sadly, these were not the prequels they were waiting for.
To be fair, Duel of the Fates is up there with the very best of John Williams’ Star Wars pieces and the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul was incredibly well choreographed. Sadly though, these alone aren’t nearly enough to redeem the movie’s many indiscretions. The trilogy did improve with each new movie, but not one of them came close to the brilliance of the original movies.
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