As I watched Chris Pratt wrangle with velociraptors and get the girl on the silver screen, something didn’t sit quite right with me. It was the same feeling weighing on me when I watched “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
At the time it wasn’t as apparent, but now I know that the feeling I had was the cold, hard truth poking me right in the gut. Something I didn’t want to acknowledge, but was looking me right in the face. “Jurassic World,” like most other movie franchise reboots, was just an OK movie, and nothing more.
Sure, I was entertained for the time.
But the truth is, I was just as entertained when I spent two hours playing with new Snapchat face filters between classes. Some sequels are simply riding the wave of their predecessor’s popularity to sucker in movie-goers.
More and more films are emerging that attempt to get everyone all jazzed and nostalgic by opening a new chapter of an adored film.
It’s cool to see old characters return to the screen, and to see what everyone is up to and how time has passed. But sometimes all the new movie has going for it is the fact that it’s part of an already liked franchise.
Usually, the plot is lazily quilted together from previous movies and the only thing that has really changed is the bad guy is even badder, or the Death Star is even bigger.
And sometimes a sequel or a new addition after so long seems forced and feels so disconnected from the originals.
The recent “Independence Day: Resurgence,” is a perfect example of a completely unneeded and failed sequel. The original Independence Day film wrapped up everything so nicely, a sequel 20 years later that doesn’t even have Will Smith in it just isn’t a movie I’m itching to see.
For a sequel to be successful, the last movie can’t be that old, the original should be quite popular, and the plot should be fresh. I don’t want to feel like I’m watching the same thing twice.
Fearless in the face of disappointment, I saw “Finding Dory” over the summer with skepticism. But when I walked out of that theater, I knew it was a winner. “Finding Dory” was good because it didn’t need to rely on the fact that it’s a sequel to be popular.
There were a bunch of cute new characters, lots of new jokes, and the plot was very different from the original without being completely alien. Although its predecessor is a bit in the past, it is still relevant because it was so popular when “Finding Nemo” first released.
Just because there could be a sequel, doesn’t mean there should be. If a movie ends on a satisfying note leave it alone. Too many times I’ve watched movies I love get diminished by a sequel that should have never happened.
Not everything has to be a nod to the past and film makers should try to come up with new and exciting franchises instead of mooching off past successes.
Steven Spielberg, if you’ve received your subscription to The North Wind and are reading this now, please leave Indiana Jones alone. I cannot sit through another one and neither can Harrison Ford.