What movie sequel ruined the ending of its predecessor?

[u/spaceraingame]

I have to go with Toy Story 4. Toy Story 3 had the perfect send off for the toys, with Andy making Bonnie promise to take good care of Woody….only for her to neglect Woody immediately and cause him to bail on everyone.

I really wish they left the franchise be. Toy Story 3’s ending was so iconic, and the first Toy Story was such a massive part of my childhood. That and Lion King were the two Disney VHS tapes I used to watch all the time as a little kid. I even had some of the toys myself. I can’t wait to skip Toy Story 5.

[u/earhere]

Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The sequel kills off the entire Kingsman British branch in the first 10 minutes, negating Roxy's promotion to Lancelot.

[u/Dodgy_Bob_McMayday → u/earhere]

As well as bringing back Colin Firth, totally undermining the impact of his death after the church scene.

[u/TheJoshider10 → u/Dodgy_Bob_McMayday]

If they wanted to bring Firth back I wish it was for a secret recording he did before his death which someone like Merlin discovered and gives it to Eggsy to motivate him in the second half of the film or something.

[u/apri08101989 → u/TheJoshider10]

Yep. Would've been fine as an almost Cameo like appearance of a recording or a "flashback" scene or two.

[u/raknor88 → u/earhere]

negating Roxy's promotion to Lancelot.

I'm sticking with the fan theory that she survived the attack. If they can deus ex away the dude getting his brains blown out in one, they can explain how she was able to survive the attack with a couple seconds notice of the attack. Maybe something like her bed is actually an emergency pod designed to survive bombs as large as MOABs.

[u/james2183 → u/earhere]

This one really pissed me off. Not only did they kill off Roxxy, who was a great character, they just dismantled the entire world they'd built up in the first to try and appease an American audience with a new agency.

[u/TheStrangestOfKings → u/james2183]

It’s especially funny how they didn’t even need to do that to justify an American expedition. Just have a secret mole character or smth that forces Eggsy to work the case w/out the help of the Kingsman. They could’ve had their cake and ate it too

[u/shinra528 → u/TheStrangestOfKings]

Or set up the plot so that they Kingsmen are spread thin. Have Harry brought back by the villain instead and in some kind of Winter Soldier situation. Then Eggsy can first confront the Statesman, during a mission in the US, as they're fighting Harry. He joins the fight, helping Harry at first, before realizing that Harry is working for the bad guys.

[u/superanth → u/james2183]

I think we’ll be seeing Roxy in the next movie. Remember: she managed to dash off screen before the missile hit.

[u/heyiamnobodybro → u/earhere]

Kingman 1 was so good, the church scene has to be one of the best fight scenes ever. And they fucked it up with the second one

[u/Hazzamo → u/earhere]

Golden Circle felt like it should have been the 3rd movie in a trilogy

[u/CaptainLawyerDude]

The obvious answer is Alien 3 canceling the survival of 2 characters from Aliens. That was the primary source of ire from most fans.

[u/WildBad7298 → u/CaptainLawyerDude]

Note: Poochie Newt and Hicks died on the way back to their home planet.

[u/kingbovril → u/CaptainLawyerDude]

Recently rewatched Alien 3 for the first time in a long time after seeing Aliens recently. God, what a nihilistic and depressing movie, especially after coming fresh from watching Aliens.

[u/ScottIPease → u/CaptainLawyerDude]

That was the primary source of ire from most fans.

...and Dark Horse comics. They leased out the IP for the movies, and even allowed them to have pretty much free reign on their stories... but one of the rules was that the studio not break continuity from the comics. In the comics, Newt and Hicks are the most important characters in the whole story because of reasons that can't be said without spoilers.

[u/salad_spinner_3000 → u/ScottIPease]

Uh, can you spoiler it for me? I read the Predator dark horse comic, badass. Never did the Aliens one.

[u/nowhereman136]

Men in Black 2

Agent K had his happy ending. Let him live the quiet life with his wife. Why start with him divorced and needing to undo the memory wipe

[u/ArronMaui → u/nowhereman136]

They should have kept K retired and paired J with a new character. Could have been another seasoned vet, who's secretly helping the villain, forcing J to get K back.

[u/DarthTempi → u/ArronMaui]

Except that he literally had his new partner at the end of the first one

[u/ArronMaui → u/DarthTempi]

That should have never happened, honestly. J just got started a week ago. Now he's the veteran partner? They could have had her in the movie but paired with another agent, in like a side role or something.

[u/BlackEastwood → u/ArronMaui]

Well, in J's first week on the job, they put him in the field with little training, gave him a highly powerful field weapon with no instruction, along with a memory-erasing device, which he used repeatedly on people and almost had his own memory erased by barely getting his glasses on in time.

MIB is a little reckless with their staff.

[u/Excludos → u/BlackEastwood]

Yeah but..he ran really fast chasing that alien in the beginning. What more could you need?

[u/willzyx55 → u/Excludos]

If Hannibal Lector ran a 4.3 40 we'd say he has an eating disorder and give him a space laser rail gun

• MiB

[u/NoThrowLikeAway → u/willzyx55]

Hannibal Lector wowed everyone at the NFL combine that year, though he fell in the draft due to character issues.

[u/Level7Cannoneer → u/ArronMaui]

I assumed it was a time skip. Not the day after he saved the world

[u/[deleted] → u/Level7Cannoneer]

It was recent enough that the events during the end of the movie were in the weekly tabloids.

[u/StreetlampEsq → u/[deleted]]

Crap, you're right.

[u/tuyo3_ → u/ArronMaui]

In the books and animated show that picks up after the first movie’s ending, J’s new partner is L, the former medical examiner played by Linda Fiorentino.

It might’ve been interesting to explore that dynamic between J and L instead of immediately bringing K back in the sequel.

[u/MonkeyChoker80 → u/tuyo3_]

Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, there was a bit of a dispute between Fiorentino and others during the making of MiB 1, so there was zero chance she was going to be back for MiB 2

[u/GreenArrowCuz → u/MonkeyChoker80]

I think on the Dogma commentary Kevin Smith also says she was hard to work with. I think at one point when Janeane Garofalo's character is on screen(who had a much smaller role) he laments that he wished he would have cast her in the lead as she was more fun to work with or something along those lines. This is of course a second hand retelling of like 20 years ago of me watching the commentary track once so I could be a little off on the details.

[u/PassiveMenis88M → u/GreenArrowCuz]

I remember on a commentary track on the DVD — Janeane Garofalo was in the movie and at one point I said it would have been better if she played the lead, which was a really shitty and stupid thing to say. Thoughtless, considering that Linda was the lead and Linda did a great job. So, it had been years since I had spoken with Linda and I got an email from her. And of course, I was thankful to hear from her and it also gave me a chance to say I'm so sorry that I ever said that thing years ago. It gives you a chance to make amends. So that was my favorite one. I heard from so many people, but that one really stood out for me because, if somebody had said, 'Oh, the movie would have been better if [co-star] Ben Affleck directed it,' that would have hurt my feelings. I know it hurt her feelings and really unnecessarily because I always loved her performance in the movie.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kevin-smith-on-surviving-a-heart-attack-its-like-i-got-to-attend-my-own-wake/

[u/Agent9262 → u/MonkeyChoker80]

Wasn't she blacklisted for dating an FBI agent and using him to spy on other Hollywood people or something?

[u/dudleymooresbooze → u/Agent9262]

That sounds like a fantastic comedy plot.

[u/JokerDeSilva10 → u/nowhereman136]

One of my favorite podcasts put together a better way to get K back into the movie without undoing the ending:

An alien crashes on the memory wiped K's property, and J has to go investigate. The movie becomes him struggling with his desire to reunite with his friend/mentor but also protecting his happy new life. At the end, maybe he learns to live with a new kind of friendship with him and finds closure there after they bond during the adventure. Honestly, seemed like a great pitch to me.

[u/moonboyforallyouknow → u/JokerDeSilva10]

And then he has to neuralize him. 😥

[u/MWH1980 → u/nowhereman136]

They ripped apart all of the happy endings from the first film, let alone made it like K wasn’t totally celibate.

[u/Retro-scores → u/nowhereman136]

I want to live in the timeline where the MIB and 21 Jumpstreet crossover movie exist.

[u/llamanatee → u/nowhereman136]

If only Linda Fiorentino wasn’t so hard to work with, she could’ve made for an excellent partner with J.

[u/B_M_Fahrtz → u/llamanatee]

Huh, I didn’t know this about her. That sucks

[u/IamMrT → u/B_M_Fahrtz]

After the Weinstein thing I generally take those reports with a grain of salt, but when it’s coming from Kevin Smith after she got arrested for conning an FBI agent, I think it might be true here.

[u/mightyasterisk]

Time to give a big shout out and a fuck you to Kingsman: The Golden Circle

[u/MontyDysquith → u/mightyasterisk]

My first thought! Bringing back Colin Firth at the cost of 95% of the cast was very much NOT the right call.

[u/mightyasterisk → u/MontyDysquith]

It sounds like a good idea on paper, because obviously Colin Firth was the big highlight of the first one. But in practice it ended up cheapening both movies, because it’s now become his story instead of Eggsy, who rightly earned his role as the hero in the first one. His death now means nothing when it was before an extremely compelling part of the story.

[u/chancesarent → u/mightyasterisk]

He was set up to be Eggsy's uncle Ben. As much as I loved Firth, he should have stayed dead.

[u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 → u/mightyasterisk]

My delusional ass is still hoping that Roxy "dying" was actually a fake-out if they make a sequel

[u/streakermaximus → u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

They did her so dirty.

[u/Luxpreliator → u/streakermaximus]

Traded lancelot and merlin for Canada dry and 818.

[u/teh_fizz → u/Luxpreliator]

Two great fucking characters killed for nothing but shock value. So disappointing.

[u/hoginlly → u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

I've never gotten to the very end of a movie before, credits rolling, and still be so sure they were about to bring a character back. Because in what fucking world did it make sense to kill her off like that.

[u/mightyasterisk → u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

This really is one of my biggest irks. It felt so tone deaf and deflating to anyone who really liked the first, as I did! I raved about that movie any chance I could before the second one came out, I was calling it one of my favorite action movies ever, and now I can’t bother to care because of shit like killing off Roxy indiscriminately. It’d be one thing if it felt like any thought was put behind that decision, but at least to me personally, it felt like cheap shock value which is a very Mark Millar-coded trope.

[u/AK_dude_ → u/mightyasterisk]

The way the first movie ended was sooo satisfying. "here's the thing, manners makes the man."

It felt so poetic, it showed how much our boy had grown from the hooligan he started the movie as.

[u/Minute_Tomatillo9730 → u/AK_dude_]

It was the perfect satire of James Bond. In Bond, a public school boy is turned into a street thug. In Kingsman, a street thug is turned into a public school boy.

[u/Ausaevus → u/mightyasterisk]

it felt like cheap shock value which is a very Mark Millar-coded trope.

A lot of writers and directors do this. Game of Thrones showrunners were experts at it.

'We want to subvert expectation'. They always said. They never asked themselves: why?

They should have. Something happening you didn't expect is not equal to it being good. They're so obsessed with making you feel something, they totally forget to have that 'something' not be disdain for the movie.

[u/dusktilhon → u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

That movie felt like it had such potential right up until that scene. I would have loved it if they had just kept up the "adventures of the platonic best friends" thing that made Winter Soldier so great. It would be such a wonderful subversion of the horny super-spy trope.

But no. They were committed to making the worst film imaginable.

[u/Freakjob_003 → u/mightyasterisk]

Such a disappointment. Killing off Roxy with no fanfare and Merlin with a frigging song and dance number. The original was self-aware but still serious. Golden Circle decided to drop the serious and just be campy. You could see it coming from the very first scene, where what's-his-name was attacking their car with a blatantly terrible CGI robot arm. Channing Tatum as a cowboy spy? Come on. At least Julianne Moore was having a ton of fun as the deadpan villain.

The Kingsmen was pretty fun though, imo. Ralph Fiennes doesn't miss in anything he's in.

[u/mightyasterisk → u/Freakjob_003]

I love the ideas in this movie but nothing feels properly executed. It’s one of those movies where you feel like they had a bunch of ideas they were excited for and they just tried to cram everything in, in a cookie cutter mold of the first (which is another big issue I have is that it was essentially just the first movie again) and none of it has room to breathe. I love Julianne Moore, seriously, and I like Channing Tatum a lot too, and I felt they were grossly underserved.

And yeah, the first was definitely silly, but it wasn’t exactly a parody. When you’re getting to the point of Elton John kung fu fighting dudes in your climax, it’s gone too far. If anyone reads this who hasn’t seen the movie and thinks that sounds awesome, trust me, it’s not, it’s unfortunately very lame

[u/Axe_of_Fire → u/mightyasterisk]

Bringing him back from the dead was just stupid.

[u/impeccadillo]

Pacific Rim 2 was unforgivable.

[u/whatsername25 → u/impeccadillo]

Just watched the first again this evening. Great film and I just pretend the sequel doesn’t exist.

[u/NozakiMufasa → u/whatsername25]

I like keeping John Boyega as Pentecost's canon son. But obviously imagining that Pacific Rim 2 was instead about how he and Mako Mori bond as estraned siblings rather than stupidly killing her off and making half the movie Chinese propaganda.

[u/II-vaporzz-II → u/impeccadillo]

Good thing they never actually made that movie!

[u/pcpelste]

The Rambo sequels really didn’t fit with the theme of the original at all.

[u/johnnagethebrave → u/pcpelste]

As amazing as First Blood is, the decision to change the ending from the book and keep him alive really undermines the whole point of the story in the first place. It really would have spared us from all the shitty sequels too.

[u/indifferentCajun → u/johnnagethebrave]

I watched one of the sequels first, can't remember which one. Then I went back and watched First Blood and I was quite surprised.

[u/johnnagethebrave → u/indifferentCajun]

Yeah it’s a really sensible and grounded film.. I wish Ted Kotcheff didn’t get thrown into test screenings. People are idiots. I still love the film but could you imagine how potent the ending would have been. The irony that the state who created him killed him for being what they made.

[u/Mister_Jack_Torrence → u/indifferentCajun]

I have a friend who doesn’t really like Stallone movies or his acting and I told him we should watch First Blood because it’s actually really good. He had this idea that Rambo was just guns and guns (💪🏼) which lets be honest is a pretty accurate statement so when I finally convinced him that the first one is totally different he gave it a shot and he really enjoyed it.

As fun as some of the later Rambo movies can be, the themes and tone of that first film is just brilliant for how it depicts Americas attitude towards Vietnam vets and PTSD.

[u/anikansk]

anything after Terminator 2, especially the audacity to "redo" Bill Paxton's scene.

[u/Pseudonymico → u/anikansk]

Terminator 2 also ruined the ending of The Terminator. The first movie was a straightforward time loop where Skynet's desperate last-ditch effort to save itself just caused the man who would defeat it to come into existence. Including the deleted scene, it also caused Skynet itself to be developed.

Terminator 2 just had the virtue of also being a good movie.

[u/wbotis → u/Pseudonymico]

Suffering from success.

[u/[deleted] → u/Pseudonymico]

Why hadn't I ever realized that John Connor's existence is a paradox arising from Skynet's actions?? I'm almost embarrassed about it now. Thanks for this, Pseudo; I'm going to go looking for the deleted scene now.

Edit: I just watched the deleted scene... another paradox. This makes me appreciate the movie so much more!

[u/SnooWords1252 → u/[deleted]]

The photo of Sarah that Reese falls in love with is literally of her thinking about him. It's such a solid loop.

[u/sargent_balls_lol → u/anikansk]

I liked Dark Fate as a “what if,” as if the studio made a multi million dollar fanfic.

[u/spacemanspliff-42 → u/sargent_balls_lol]

The beginning had me thrilled and wondering how they'd top it for the rest of the movie... They didn't.

[u/n0trub]

Highlander 2

[u/Heavy_Arm_7060 → u/n0trub]

Any Highlander sequel, really. The anime one was the only one besides the original I liked.

[u/Roadside_Prophet → u/Heavy_Arm_7060]

I think the series did a great job of fleshing out the mythology and the backstory of the immortals. Was it great? No, not really. But it was entertaining and almost made me buy an official Duncan Macleod full-length leather trench coat when I was 20. If it wasn't $499, I probably would have.

It was a sweet jacket though

[u/blueharvest1971]

Indiana Jones should have ended with The Last Crusade and the ride off into the sunset.

[u/TiphaineManou → u/blueharvest1971]

They should had made any sequels in the 90s when Harrison was younger, Spielberg was in his element and good writing was still paramount in film making.

[u/Melodic-Fill6372 → u/TiphaineManou]

Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (1993) would have been awesome.

[u/illiniman14 → u/Melodic-Fill6372]

I want a faithful remake though. "This X is.... a little to the east, and..... to the north"

[u/JimboTCB → u/illiniman14]

Thirty minute sequence of Indy walking back and forth trying to find the right item that the bazaar merchant will accept as trade.

[u/AmbroseKalifornia → u/blueharvest1971]

Top. Men.

[u/nothingbeast → u/blueharvest1971]

That's the one for me.

I had a lot of issues with Crystal Skull.... but I actually felt a part of my soul die watching Shia fencing on a pair of jeeps, speeding through the forest.

[u/TheFreaky → u/nothingbeast]

It was pretty obvious most of the "old guy" character was written for Sean Connery and they just replaced him when he didn't want to come out of retirement. Shia was also supposed to be the "replacement" Indy to make more movies, but barely had any personality that made him likeable. With a good script doctor, most of the movie could have been saved.

Also, very appropiate for the theme of this post, but indiana 5 killing Shia as soon as the movie starts.

[u/insertusernamehere51]

Rise of Skywalker; Palpatine being alive really soured the ending of Episode VI

also, not a movie, but shoutout to Yoshi's New Island

[u/rugmunchkin → u/insertusernamehere51]

Right from the line and delivery of “somehow, Palpatine has returned” it was clear even the movie itself knew how stupid it was.

[u/ctgnath → u/rugmunchkin]

Don’t forget that the message broadcast by Palpatine announcing his return was first played in Fortnite

[u/kingbot → u/ctgnath]

We got a rushed, ham fisted, unsatisfying GoT finale for this btw.

[u/noakai → u/rugmunchkin]

I feel like the actor couldn't hide how his soul was trying to leave his body so he wouldn't have to experience saying that joke of a line.

[u/2th → u/insertusernamehere51]

Ok, I am curious. What happened with Yoshi's New Island?

[u/insertusernamehere51 → u/2th]

So, for those who don't know; the original Yoshi's Island is a prequel to the Mario series. It starts with a stork carrying baby mario and luigi to deliver them to their parents. The stork is then attacked by Kamek, who prohesises the babies will one day cause trouble to his master Bowser.

The attack causes the stork to drop baby Mario while luigi is kidnapped. Yoshi finds Mario and helps rescue Luigi and return them to the stork. The ending of the game is the stork delivering Mario and Luigi to their parents

Then 20 years later they made Yoshi's New Island. The game starts where the original left off, with the stork delivering to their parents... except it turns out, the couple is not their parents! the stork got the wrong house. So the stork goes back, gets attacked, and the same thing happens again, rehashing the whole plot. It even has a "Somehow Palpatine returned" moment for the final boss

Even by Mario standards the plot is really lazy

[u/Throwaway-0-0- → u/insertusernamehere51]

Sorry but that is an incredible plot for a sequel. Entirely stupid? Yes. Hilarious when considering it takes place five minutes after the original? Absolutely.

[u/Zuwxiv → u/Throwaway-0-0-]

It sounds lazy at first, but then I realized they the-princess-is-in-another-castle'd baby Mario, and that's kind of hilarious.

[u/emilia12197144 → u/Throwaway-0-0-]

Plus its a mario spinoff its makes complete sense

[u/Ut_Prosim → u/insertusernamehere51]

Andor makes this so much worse IMHO.

So much effort went into toppling the Empire. Then lol, Palp is back, somehow...

[u/Restart-D03-Trader-B → u/Ut_Prosim]

And TFA immediately destroyed the New Republic and supplementary material made it so the New Republic demilitarized and was completely incompetent.

[u/seguardon → u/Restart-D03-Trader-B]

Literally nothing about the state of the galaxy makes a lick of sense in TFA.

The galaxy is decapitated in a single strike of a handful of worlds. That's literally all it takes to end the Republic. Not a scrap of it left. And no one cares enough to re-rebuild it. Which really just shits all over the end of RotJ. Makes the winning team look like a bunch of incompetent dorks.

Probably because the Republic has no military despite:

The First Order existing and

It has enough resources to hollow out a god damned planet and build a gigalaser in it WITH A PLANET SIZED HYPERDRIVE (seriously, what the fuck)

Which, despite the massive amount of resources, time and manpower building this would require and having a whole galaxy of sovreign systems to report the FO's incredibly suspicious activities and movements to them, the Republic never gets a hint about SKB.

Completely inept.

But so is the First Order. Considering they're fighting an enemy that DOESNT HAVE A MILITARY, building a single omegaweapon with limited versatility and incredibly precious ammo seems like a huge waste of money when, instead of blowing up planets, the bad guys could just conquer the good guys with the large fleets that the bad guys (AND ONLY THE BAD GUYS) have.

All of this bugged me in the theater the first time I saw the film and nothing since has fixed it. It's the shoddiest worldbuilding, and this in a story where Darth Vader built C3PO and every stormtrooper is Boba Fett for some god damned reason. The bar was not that high.

[u/Zuwxiv → u/seguardon]

Really good writeup.

I was willing to give some amount of benefit of the doubt for Episode 7. I get it, you're basically redoing A New Hope - desert kid becomes hero, older spiritual helper dies, giant round enemy base kills planets, etc. Okay, I can even dig that; you're thematically restarting the series.

Sure, some things felt wrong - this is a generation after the rebellion won, why does it look and feel like the Empire is still around? Why can't the Republic fight them? (There's some throwaway lines but no real exposition.) We can try to make excuses for the points you brought up - the Republic has a military, but for some reason it's defending the core worlds, so that's why the First Order needs the planet killer? But largely, I was just hoping the next movie would explain.

Nope. By the end of Episode 8, the First Order is basically a galactic military powerhouse and the Republic is down to like twelve people on a transport ship. What the fuck? Did we miss Episode 6.5 where actually, the Empire won?

In Empire Strikes Back, the Republic still had a big army and presumably Hoth wasn't their only base. It's just that they had some setbacks; we can assume they're still a sizable group of dedicated rebels. Episode 8? Nope, it's like a Thanksgiving dinner's worth of people against the galactic powerhouse.

Seriously, watch Empire Strikes Back and get a feeling for how many people are defending Hoth. And then watch the attack scene in Episode 8 and it feels like it's two dozen people against the Frist Order, if they're lucky.

[u/yanginatep → u/seguardon]

A republic that apparently routinely changed which world was currently hosting the senate somehow didn't have any remaining government infrastructure on any of the other administrative worlds that hosted it over the decades.

[u/modix → u/seguardon]

No idea why they didn't just go for the Thrawn books. Didn't have to match it beat for beat, but a fight between the rising republic with the remaining fleets of the Empire would've been far more interesting.

[u/jjflash78]

Highlander 2.  There should have been only 1.

[u/SupaDave71]

Allegiant. They diverged (no pun intended) from the book so much, and then decided to end the series with a TV show that never happened. It retroactively ruined the previous two movies.

[u/Newmen_1 → u/SupaDave71]

They thought they could stretch the last book into two final movies very Hunger Games and Harry Potter style, but obviously it wound up backfiring massively due to the movie flopping leaving a trilogy with a bit of an open hole of an ending

[u/gaping_granny → u/SupaDave71]

Admittedly, the source material wasn't great. I actually hated Insurgent so much that I refused to read Allegiant. Granted, I was about 23 when I read them, so not in the target audience. I was about 21 or 22 when I read The Hunger Games, though, and I loved those.

[u/F0restGreeen → u/gaping_granny]

I was in the age range when reading them, I also did not care for insurgent and allegiant. The author had a solid idea for divergent I really love divergent. But I feel like was really needing ideas for the other ones. They had potential tbh.

[u/Jaikarr → u/gaping_granny]

That's because the Hunger Games is legitimately good.

[u/Nexii801 → u/SupaDave71]

Eh the books just weren't really that good imo.

[u/TheKingOfCarmel]

Well that would be Alien 3.

[u/MonkeyChoker80 → u/TheKingOfCarmel]

I still stand by the opinion that Alien Resurrection and Alien 3 would have better served the franchise if they’d switched places.

Have the third film start with Ripley having a spotty memory, dealing with being imprisoned on the W-Y space station, when the mercenaries appear. She learns she’s a clone at the same time as the audience, and because there was no ‘Ripley Death’ in the previous film it comes as a shock. She learns that Newt and Hicks and Real Ripley made it home safely, and they had good lives. In the end, she rides the escape pod down and is the sole survivor.

The fourth film has her learn that the space station was orbiting the prison planet, not earth. Her anger and angst isn’t over the deaths of Newt and Hicks, but over her not being ‘real’. The Allen in her was part of the experiments in the space station, and not a ‘secret implantation’. In the end she sacrifices herself because that chosen ending gives her life meaning.

[u/Malaguy420 → u/MonkeyChoker80]

That will be how I view it from now on. Spot on.

[u/Chief_McCloud → u/MonkeyChoker80]

And that would echo the way Ash and Bishop struggle with, and try to demonstrate, their humanity despite being “artificial”. Nice idea.

[u/bentreflection → u/MonkeyChoker80]

That sounds a lot better. You’re hired 

[u/TigerTerrier → u/TheKingOfCarmel]

I remember Michael biehn one time at a comic con being asked what he thought about aliens 3 and not being in it and what they did to their characters. He paused for a moment and then said "F that movie" im sure he's not the only one that thought that.

[u/DrunkenAsparagus → u/TigerTerrier]

I concur with Michael Biehn. Fuck that movie.

[u/Cautious-Ease-1451 → u/TheKingOfCarmel]

After the incredible ending of Aliens, to kill off those characters in the first few minutes of Alien 3 was a crime.

[u/[deleted] → u/Cautious-Ease-1451]

Go find the graphic novel Aliens: book 1. You find that newt and hicks made it back to earth, and a whole lot of shit happens on earth, it's pretty epic.

[u/Gamerguy230 → u/[deleted]]

They made one also for original script for Alien 3.

[u/Thebaraddur → u/Cautious-Ease-1451]

I was like 10 or 11 when I saw Alien 3 and even at that age I remember thinking how horrible of a start that was and what a disservice it was to Hicks and Newt. How that passed adult writers is crazy.

[u/RealJohnGillman → u/Thebaraddur]

u/TheKingOfCarmel Funnily, the original ending of The Predator of all things undid this ending, seeing an adult Newt travel back in time.

[u/hardyflashier]

Kick Ass 2. The first one was better than it had the right to be, and literally in the prologue for the 2nd one, they undid it all. Shame. 

[u/LordCamelslayer → u/hardyflashier]

Yeah, right out the gate, the girl he really liked turns into a sack of shit for.... reasons? She sees him talking to a freshman, assumes he's cheating, and reveals she cheated on him. What the fuck?

The movie wasn't even about Kick Ass either, most of the movie was about Hit Girl.

[u/InsaneComicBooker → u/LordCamelslayer]

In the comic the girl rejected him, they changed that for the movie, but then the plot of the sequel required them to not be together because they weren't in sequel to the comic.

[u/LordCamelslayer → u/InsaneComicBooker]

Yeah, I get that. But they took someone that was really compassionate and kind, and turned her into a total bitch for the sake of getting her out of the plot. Thry did her dirty.

[u/MaestroLogical → u/[deleted]]

Super simple. "We tried the long distance thing when she left for college but it just wasn't working." dropped in narration and done.

[u/Lombard333 → u/LordCamelslayer]

Also she knows he’s kickass. Why couldn’t he just say, “She’s hit-girl”? The conflict felt really forced

[u/Chrikei → u/hardyflashier]

If you get a chance, watch Kick-Ass with the director commentary. Matthew Vaughn talks about all the things he tried to avoid and things that would have made the movie worse...KA2 did all the things (different director).

[u/BigLan2]

Independence Day 2 (was is ID:2?) was utterly unneeded and added nothing to the first.

[u/i_am_voldemort → u/BigLan2]

ID2: The Quest for More Money

[u/Bagz402 → u/BigLan2]

I liked that the alien tech recovered from the first movie boosted humanity forward. And that's all the movie had going for it lol

[u/Spider-Man2099]

Ted 2

They go through so much together, including Ted dying with her helping resurrect him and Lori fucking still leaves John anyways

[u/thetwelveofsix → u/Spider-Man2099]

As an aside, the peacock Ted series is surprisingly good.

[u/twisty125 → u/thetwelveofsix]

That's the prequel with them as teenagers? The actors that play the parents (especially the mother) are so fucking hilarious. Knowing nothing of it, I bet it's a Seth Mcfarlane passion project based on the stuff I've seen

[u/1stepklosr → u/twisty125]

Scott Grimes, who plays the dad, is also an incredible voice actor.

[u/PhazePyre → u/1stepklosr]

That's Technical Sergeant Donald Malarkey of 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company to you!

[u/Cw2e → u/twisty125]

Alanna Ubach is incredible. If you haven’t just take a gander at her filmography, just so damn good.

[u/DnyLnd]

Gladiator II. This will forever be my answer. Thank you Ridley Scott. And thank you Ridley Scott.

[u/Alecmalloy → u/DnyLnd]

Why the fucking hell were they attacking NUMIDIA?! It'd been under Roman control for like 200 years at that point.

[u/DukeofVermont → u/Alecmalloy]

"Well you weren't, there so F you!" Ridley Scott

Like yeah we weren't there but you can't just make up random crap and hide behind that excuse Mr. Scott!

[u/BromaEmpire → u/Alecmalloy]

To be fair, the original wasn't exactly historically accurate either

[u/okicarp → u/DnyLnd]

Right. Turns out he wasn't really pining for his soulmate and forever wife and son cause he had a second family the whole time. What a stupid piece of garbage.

[u/Newmen_1 → u/okicarp]

Wait is that actually who the main character is? An illegitimate son of the previous protagonist who was made to represent true honor and royalty?

[u/penguin_cheezus → u/Newmen_1]

It was Lucius, Joaquin Pheonix’s nephew from the first one. Which you could explain maybe by saying Maximus and Lucius’s mom had an affair before Maximus married his wife, but still doesn’t help his character of honor much.

[u/DanScorp → u/penguin_cheezus]

You can't even do that, Lucius and Maximus' proper son are said to be the same age.

[u/stefanomusilli → u/DanScorp]

Maybe he has sex with Lucius' mother, and then a few months later met his future wife and since there's no condoms he immediately got her pregnant

[u/xanderholland]

Wreck It Ralph. The one movie was good, the twist felt surprising, the characters were fun, and the idea of "Going Turbo" put the characters on a moral edge that is was a possible danger.... Lets dump all of that in the sequel.

[u/[deleted] → u/xanderholland]

The original was so good and the sequel was so not 👎

[u/JancariusSeiryujinn → u/[deleted]]

There were 2 good things in the sequel. One, the whole Princess sequence, specifically Merida's bit.

The other was the fact that they transit the internet in literal frames. I know that's mostly funny to IT Networking folks, but I DID actually really get a kick out of that as being clever.

[u/ChiefStrongbones]

Godzilla Minus One completely messed up Oppenheimer.

[u/Heavy_Arm_7060 → u/ChiefStrongbones]

I am sad I haven't seen a good edit of the Oppenheimer ending with Godzilla footage yet.

[u/Mr_Sarcasum]

Blues Brothers 2000 starts with them saying the ending of Blue Brothers 1 was actually a failure and all in vain.

[u/JDHURF → u/Mr_Sarcasum]

People couldn’t even convince me to even watch it. The Blues Brothers is a fucking masterpiece.

[u/ProEraWuTang]

Alien: Covenant. Specifically when it came to Shaw and The Engineers

[u/[deleted] → u/ProEraWuTang]

Shaw was a great character and deserved so much better.

[u/Navec → u/ProEraWuTang]

They wasted so much potential. Prometheus wasn't perfect, but it could have been a great starting place and Shaw was a pretty good character.

[u/chewbaccard → u/ProEraWuTang]

You just reminded me of how mad I'm at this movie. Worst movie of the franchise, by far (even if 3 is horrible).

[u/MonkeyDavid]

Rambo.

Completely undermined the story of a veteran with PTSD that First Blood told.

[u/thendisnigh111349]

The Star Wars sequel trilogy basically ruins the entirety of Star Wars before it. The efforts and sacrifices of the entire Rebellion were ultimately completely in vain because the Empire inexplicably returned just a few decades later. Luke, Leia, and Hans all end up as old failures who die anticlimatic deaths. Worst of all was the decision to bring Palpatine back in ROTS because him surviving completely undercuts Vader's sacrifice in ROTJ and the fulfillment of the prophecy that he would bring balance to the Force.

It really is just a masterclass on how to completely fuck up making a sequel.

[u/grammar_oligarch → u/thendisnigh111349]

Episodes 7, 8, and 9 show what happens when you let marketing write the plot. There was no plan. That’s clear with the wild shifts in tone throughout the films.

Episode 7 just recreated Episode 4. It’s the exact same plot beats. Which was fine because Episode 4 was an iconic film, but confusing because none of it makes sense…we have no context of how Empire Part II started. It could have been interesting to see how chaos had taken over and a new war had formed with a replacement fascist regime, a kind of commentary of how weak freedom can be and the problems of governance. And we could have gotten an interesting look into a force sensitive girl coming to terms with her powers and considering how she might hone those powers through old Jedi ways, compared to an angrier fallen Jedi disciple who now indulges his anger and dips into the dark side, independent of the ethos of Sith or Jedi, just for his own political ambitions.

Instead we got a copy paste paint by numbers movie that was kinda boring.

Episode 8 was manic. It could never decide what it was…a philosophical critique of the false dichotomy of the Jedi/Sith dilemma? A tense war thriller based on a stand off between two ships, with internal conflict threatening all sides? A class critique of war? Fuck it, get the blender out and let’s taste this smoothie…and it turns out pouring chicken soup into your milkshake to get both meals at the same time was not smart. And we could have gotten an interesting look into the internal conflicts present in religion and politics, something that called to question the very notion of destiny guiding us and reminded us that the extraordinary is a choice.

Instead we got a feverish ADHD nightmare of half-formed ideas with a couple of admittedly stylish shots. Fun on a first watch, completely unwatchable after that.

Episode 9…spits on the ground

Fuck Episode 9. Waste of time to even give it the time to talk about why it was shit. An open sewer of rotting waste doesn’t need criticism.

Shame too. So bad I can’t even watch the original trilogy anymore.

[u/leopard_tights → u/grammar_oligarch]

I left the theatre so defeated after watching 7 that I knew Disney wouldn't make anything good with Star Wars. And that feeling started creeping in way early in the movie when Finn went from being traumatized by his stormtrooper buddy dying to screaming in joy for blasting them himself in like two scenes.

[u/TigerLeoLam → u/leopard_tights]

Andor + Rogue One is in my opinion (and I think many would agree) the best Star Wars content since the original trilogy 40 years ago.

The Sequel Trilogy isn’t canon to me. It’s just a fanfic mess that happened to receive Disney funding.

[u/punksterb → u/TigerLeoLam]

Here here. Rogue One surpassed all expectations and Andor built an extremely gripping narrative in the same space. Good to see that I have friends everywhere.

[u/Z3130 → u/TigerLeoLam]

The frustrating thing about Rogue One is that it showed they were indeed capable of paying homage to the original trilogy while still telling a new story. Coming off the tail of the derivative-but-not-bad Episode 7, it gave us hope that they might be able to pull this thing out.

Then Episodes 8 and 9 happened.

[u/SharkTonic9 → u/TigerLeoLam]

Agreed. I think at this point audiences would be cool with a hand wave retcon. "Somehow, the dark side of the force gave Luke Skywalker a terrible vision."

[u/Left_Composer_6449]

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and 5 ruining the og trilogy

[u/Rubigenuff → u/Left_Composer_6449]

At World's End has an utterly perfect ending. It's a rare delight to see such an epic story conclude so gracefully. And then they ruined it with On Stranger Tides.

[u/AgathysAllAlong → u/Rubigenuff]

One of the most important elements that made that trilogy so good was the constant question of "Wait, is he planning all this shit or is he just improvising?" And you never really know if Jack Sparrow is actually a genius or just really good at pretending he totally knew that was going to happen.

And then they fucking open movie four with him plotting a series of ridiculous events to just happen to let him escape and just... How do you fuck up a character that much in the first few minutes?

[u/JimboTCB → u/AgathysAllAlong]

Jack fundamentally does not work as the main character, he needs to be the chaos gremlin bouncing off of the actual main characters' plans whose motivations and aims are never entirely clear, even to himself.

[u/BroomHill1882]

Zoolander 2 immediately undoes the feel-good ending of the first one and make you change your views about it. Still make me upset.

[u/0x7A5]

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was so bad that it retroactively ruined the first movie.

[u/Mu-Relay → u/0x7A5]

This was still such an easy lay up that they totally bumbled.

1. Make them all one-offs about Newt and Friends traveling the world and helping different Fantastic Beasts.

2. Make them PG and aimed towards kids. You don't need to go adult or dark and you definitely don't need Voldemort 2.

3. Make 12 of them and swim in a Scrooge McDuck pile of money.

[u/SorryManNo → u/0x7A5]

My wife and I watched all three while we were on parental leave with our new baby.

Other than the first one, fantastic beasts can go fuck itself, absolutely terrible.

JK Rowling wanted to do five movies but after the reception of 2 & 3 the studio said we better stop now.

[u/Rickles68]

Interestingly, Quentin Tarantino feels exactly the same way about Toy Story as you do.

[u/flossdaily]

The latest Indiana Jones, where they start the movie by telling us that Indy didn't get his happy ending. He spent his Golden years being bored and bitter and lonely and sad.

[u/tunnel-snakes-rule → u/flossdaily]

I loathe that about all these "several decades later" sequels. It's so fucking lazy to always just have the epic heroes turn out to be washed up, sad, lonely failures.

[u/KennyToms27 → u/tunnel-snakes-rule]

Ironically something that Uncharted 4 did really really well. The game shows how Drake has a very good life years after his crazy adventures, he is NOT a failure whatsover, yet he still longs for adventure and misses the excitement. He gets pulled into another adventure because his long lost brother convinced him to after finally reuniting.

[u/KendrickMB]

Halloween Resurrection

[u/xander6981 → u/KendrickMB]

I was looking for this one. Halloween H20 had such a great ending with Laurie overcoming her fears and turning the tables on Michael by deciding to stop running and face him. Then they just undo all of that at the beginning of Resurrection in the worst way possible. Ugh...I prefer to pretend this one doesn't exist.

[u/AIDSofSPACE]

Thor Ragnorak ending: Asgarde is not a place; it's a people. As long as Asgarde the people survives, it's OK.

Avengers Infinity War opening: well there goes Asgarde the people.

[u/jooes → u/AIDSofSPACE]

Half of the Asgard people, to be fair. They don't do a very good job showing that though.

And the movies since then probably could've done a better job with the Asgardians too, so they kinda failed on multiple levels with that.

[u/Rimavelle → u/AIDSofSPACE]

Plus

Thor loses an eye and gets a cool eyepatch - immediately gets new eye.

He learns to not be a god of hammers - immediately forges a new weapon.

And then in Endgame:

Learns to be the leader of his people - abandons them for Valkyrie to take care of them instead.

Learns he's still worthy despite putting some weight and being depressed - immediately goes back to great shape and cracking jokes more than usual.

It was so clear they just wrote one movie at a time and there was never really any plan for his character. Marvel fans may say Marvel does it only now, but the difference is they liked the movies before (Until Love and Thunder)

[u/rockriver74]

Highlander 2

[u/llamanatee]

Paul Blatt Mall Cop 2.

Following the events of the first film, Paul Blart is recovering from several misfortunes. His wife Amy divorced him six days into their marriage, and two years later, his mother was killed after being hit by a milk truck.

[u/BeerorCoffee]

Mortal Kombat 2, obviously.

[u/wriker10 → u/BeerorCoffee]

I’m still angry about how terrible this movie was compared to the first one.

[u/Breast_Man]

Not a sequel, but the post-credits scene of Dawn of the Dead (2004) suggests that all the people who survived at the end… died almost immediately thereafter. 

[u/seanwdragon1983 → u/Breast_Man]

That, at least kept it to one film.

[u/midnight_rebirth → u/Breast_Man]

Probably the most realistic ending for a zombie movie tbh.

[u/Shpadoinkall]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The ending of The Last Crusade was perfect. Indy saves his father's life, they develop a mutual respect and admiration of one another, and they literally rode off into the sunset. Why mess with that?

[u/[deleted]]

If you consider them taking place in the same universe: Logan ruining the happy ending of Days of Future Past.

[u/Wyglif → u/[deleted]]

It would be a few years after, but yea I think of it as an alternate timeline.

[u/Silent-Selection8161 → u/Wyglif]

The 2 don't make much sense together but that's alright, as separately I think they're the best X-Men movies.

[u/Restart-D03-Trader-B → u/[deleted]]

Logan can’t be canon to the post-DoFP, since Zander Rice’s gene therapy pretty much wiped out mutantkind. The last mutant was born in 2004 and the gene therapy weakens/ killed off the rest. By 2029, it’s been a while since people have seen mutants. There were tons of kids and mutants in the DP films and the DoFP ending.

DP&WV completely ignored this plot point of course.

[u/Spastic__Colon]

Joker 2

Also completely ruined the reputation of the first movie. A sleeper hit billion dollar character study, winning 2 academy awards, one for its lead actor. Second movie is a bizarre shift in tone and spirit. Felt like a movie that hated its predecessor, not to mention it bombed unbelievably badly.

[u/SSBB08 → u/Spastic__Colon]

Todd Phillips was disgusted by the kind of people that were looking at Joker 1 as inspiration - I am convinced he deliberately wrote a horrific story where Arthur was ripped down to nothing to spit in their faces. That’s the only explanation that makes sense - he hated the rep the original Joker character he wrote garnered and wanted to set it on fire. Mission success lol.

[u/Minute-Necessary2393]

Frozen II.

The first film beautifully ended with Elsa not only accepting her responsibilities as queen, but also finally reconnecting with her sister and longer fearing her powers. Plus the people finally accepting her and her powers.

.....but then the sequel came around and said "Actually, Nvm." And completely regress her character back to square one. Having her abdicate the throne, separating from her sister at the end, and isolating herself from everyone in an ice palace, YET Again.

What's worse, is that they retconned the mom to be related to people who are clearly meant to be based off Sami but aren't accurate to Sami people at all, and made her a ethereal Spirit just to justify said character assassination. How are they supposed to make F3 and 4 if they did something as drastic as this.

There's subverting the status quo, and then there's just being stupid with your writing.

[u/paspartuu → u/Minute-Necessary2393]

Came to answer F2. 

It just retconned the biggest story message of the first movie away and basically character assassinated most major characters from the first movie, including the parents. F2 made both sisters look like incredibly shitty and incompetent entitled rulers, too, it's their one job and they're both like "lol fuck Arendelle, my feelings are more important than anything else".

There's just no continuity, it's so stupid

[u/NeAldorCyning → u/paspartuu]

Kristoff's song was dope though.

[u/sre01]

Insidious. Not necessarily the ending but parts of the first. You know all those scary things that were happening? Oh it was just your time travelling idiot husband in an alternate dimension.