Why Are We Never Satisfied With Movie Sequels?

At first glance of the title, I'm sure you had a few ideas floating around in your head of sequels to movies that were actually pretty good, I can think of a few myself, (Harry Potter for example - I'm a huge fan of the series).

But in general, we never expect sequels to be as good as the original, and it's my task today to find out why.

Halloween Remake

The main reason in my opinion, is that usually the original film has a good cast, and unique plot line. Creating sequels will need some change. Introducing new characters is a common tactic, but having to introduce yet more characters makes things a little more complex, especially as it can't draw too far from the original story. In many cases it feels although these random characters have just appeared from nowhere and I always find I'm asking myself "how did these guys meet?". The new characters need to be explained to the audience, which takes up a substantial part of the movie, and it's not exactly what we want to see in a movie at all.

The greatest offender to our dissatisfaction is ourselves! We expect the sequel to be just as good, or better than the original - because if the first was good, the second should be too right? Maybe our standards are just too high.

The reason people think sequels are made is to finish off a story which has already begun. Though usually this isn't the case unless the whole sequence of movies are made at the same time, and the story is pretty much completed. The main reason for sequels is sadly for advertisement and branding. It's not uncommon to see merchandise released to celebrate an upcoming sequel, and typically this is to draw in more sales of both the movie and the merchandise that goes with it.

It seems we are not the only ones dissatisfied though, reports state that the late Robin Williams and director Chris Columbus refused the idea of a sequel to movie 'Roger Rabbit', once 'Roger Rabbit 2' was put to them, mainly because the path the story was following wasn't what they expected and neither were happy with it. This is one of the minority cases though, many directors go ahead with the plan of sequels just to bring in the profits, which is totally understandable.

I was thinking of a particularly disappointing sequel that I had watched, and The Exorcist was what first came to mind. The Exorcist is a wonderful film for it's time, back in the day it must have been truly terrifying to see all the jumpscares and semi-realistic effects. The sequel however was ridiculously boring, the same kind of story with painfully similar jumpscares and spooks. It was too predictable for my liking, and I think that is definitely a reason not to like sequels, as in many cases with other movies.