Holly's Lists: Good sequel(s)

These are the sequels which turned out much better than the first part

1. Toy Story 2

I actually watched the sequel first. It was so good that i had to look for the first part. I enjoyed it but it was not as good as Toy Story 2!

2. The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars was brilliant - but The Empire Strikes Back was a major improvement in terms of effect and more importantly, storyline + emotions!

3. X2

X-Men was alright but X2 just blew me away. I loved how the 'good' mutants worked together with the 'bad' mutants. The inclusion of the Nightcrawler was superb! Too bad X-Men 3 did not follow in the way of its predecessor.

4. Spiderman 2

Spiderman was a huge disappointment for me. I thought Tobey Maguire was the wrong choice and Kirsten Dunst was so irritating. I did not like how they changed things from the original Spiderman comics. But Spiderman 2 was just really really good! The leads improved a lot and made the role theirs - and it had so much more heart and emotions. Plus a great villain!

5. The Harry Potter series

They just get better and better!!!! Just when i thought that Order of the Phoenix was the best, they surprised me with a brilliant Half-Blood Prince! The downside to it is that i cannot help but have great expectations for the last 2 installments!

Just note that i left out "Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones" which was no doubt better than Episode 1 but was still pretty bad that i refuse to put it in the list!!!!

OK - here are some movies where the sequel(s) were pretty good too, some where it was just as good as the first one. In fact, the first 3 on the list below almost made it into the list above - but i felt it would be an injustice to the first part which was just as good but different in nature compared to the sequel. The others on the list as usual are in no particular order:-

1. Terminator and Terminator 2 - Judgment Day

Yes, the sequel blew me away. But the first was a different kind of action. It was more of a thriller than a full-out action movie, with the Terminator seeking out Sarah Connor.

2. Alien and Aliens

Again, the sequel blew me away - both Terminator 2 and Aliens were made by James Cameron. But the original was more like a horror movie!

3. Die Hard and Die Hard 2

I loved Die Hard 2 but at the same time, Die Hard was really good as it was all within one building!

4. The Pirates of the Carribean trilogy

With Johnny Depp in all 3, you can be sure that all are just as great!

5. The Indiana Jones trilogy

When i was young, i used to love the Temple of Doom and did not like the Last Crusade too much. Now i find the Last Crusade to be pretty good. Raiders still set the standard.

6. Back to the Future trilogy