The old adage that “sequels suck” no longer applies, and to a pretty good extent we have superhero sequels to thank for it. Based as they are on serialized comic books (many of which only got better with age), superheroes tend to have multiple great storylines built into their characters. Once the origin stories are out of the way, superhero sequels are free to revel in their characters and get straight to “the good stuff,” i.e. the classic stories, villains and challenges that put the new, fully formed hero through the ringer. These are our picks for the Top 11 Superhero Sequels.
But you know, Hollywood still has a tendency to screw things up, and just because a movie warranted a sequel in the first place doesn’t mean the filmmakers and studio executives have any idea what to do next, or at least how to do it right. Sequels still suck as often as original movies to do, which is to say most of the time, so these are also our picks for the Top 11 Worst Superhero Sequels, right here at CraveOnline.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 11 Best (and 11 Worst) Superhero Sequels
CraveOnline presents the greatest and most terrible superhero sequels ever made, from Batman to Batman, Spider-Man to Spider-Man and beyond.
-
11th Worst: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
It may not be as dull and pointless as Tim Story's first Fantastic Four movie, but Rise of the Silver Surfer still suffers from terrible casting, lame dialogue, dumb product placement and one of the biggest cop out endings of the modern cinematic era.
-
11th Best: The Wolverine (2013)
Wolverine finally got the solo movie he deserved in The Wolverine, a movie that balances drama, humor and action in equal measure, and actually makes a little sense. It probably deserves to be higher, but let's be fair... it JUST came out.
-
10th Worst: Batman Forever (1995)
A lot of people defend Batman Forever - it made a ton of money at the box office at least - but this was where all the Batman franchise's problems started, with shoddy storytelling, confusing action sequences, flamboyant villains and yes... even nipples on the batsuit.
-
10th Best: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Louis Leterrier's underrated sequel to Ang Lee's bizarre Hulk (2003) doesn't have the same dramatic heft as most of the other Marvel Studios movies, but it does make the most of a very thrilling premise: it's The Fugitive if Richard Kimble was also King Kong.
-
9th Worst: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace derailed the franchise for over a decade, and while it's not "quite" as bad as you may remember, it's still disappointingly cheap, it has a dumb villain, and Jon Cryer, as Lex Luthor's nephew Lenny, is still annoying as all hell.
-
9th Best: Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980/2006)
Richard Donner's director's cut of 1980's Superman II removes most of the non sequitur sight gags and random superpowers, and it even puts Marlon Brando back in the movie, but the hero still spends half the film selfishly banging his girlfriend while the world burns, courtesy of General Zod. Don't get us wrong, it's still really, really good but there are better superhero sequels out nowadays.
-
8th Worst: Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Sam Raimi's bloated, messy Spider-Man 3 has its heart in the right place but Venom and Sandman feel tacked onto the story, and those weirdo musical numbers make some audience members want to blow their brains out.
-
8th Best: Batman Returns (1992)
Those rocket launcher penguins are still kinda dumb, but otherwise Tim Burton's second Batman movie is a remarkably mature and dramatic examination of the superhero psyche, with a sultry Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, a creepy Danny DeVito as The Penguin, and Michael Keaton's best performance as Batman.
-
7th Worst: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
A good cast can't save this terrible X-Men follow-up from dumb plot points, ridiculous action sequences and the utter tragedy that is Deadpool's story arc. They made the "Merc with a Mouth" mute, for God's sake. We still don't know why anyone thought that was a good idea.
-
7th Best: Iron Man 3 (2013)
It also only just came out, but Shane Black's Iron Man 3 still blew us away with a witty, unexpected and thrilling superhero sequel that proves the real star of these movies is Tony Stark, not a CGI suit of armor.
-
6th Worst: Superman III (1983)
To his credit, Christopher Reeve is actually pretty good in Superman III, especially when he turns into a douchebag after an encounter with synthetic kryptonite. Unfortunately, almost everything else about Superman III is laborious and insipid, especially the villains, led by a Lex Luthor-lite Robert Vaughn and a woefully miscast Richard Pryor.
-
6th Best: X2: X-Men United (2003)
Bryan Singer's original X-Men (2000) did a pretty good job of introducing the comic book's sprawling universe, but the follow-up actually told a great story with memorable action sequences, complex characters and intriguing ideas.
-
5th Worst: X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Unfortunately, Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand squandered all that good will with a lifeless threequel that wasted good characters and good concepts with disrespectful plotting and mediocre action, at best.
-
5th Best: X-Men: First Class (2011)
The X-Men franchise got back on track in 2011 with Matthew Vaughn's First Class: a prequel that wisely set the outsider themes of the series in the politically tumultuous 1960s, embraced a sexy spy movie aesthetic and proved the original "classic" costumes could be cool.
-
4th Worst: Blade: Trinity (2004)
After two decent Blade movies (1998, 2002), screenwriter David Goyer took the director's chair for an awkward, limp follow-up with a "hip" young cast and one of the worst Draculas in movie history. (Although it IS pretty funny to see him tear apart the employees of a faux Hot Topic.)
-
4th Best: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Sam Raimi's second Spider-Man movie raised the bar for superhero cinema with fascinating visuals like Doc Ock's lifelike cybernetic arms and a thoughtful, funny storyline about the personal sacrifices required to put everyone else's needs ahead of your own.
-
3rd Worst: The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)
Wes Craven's original Swamp Thing (2002) wasn't that good to begin with, but Jim Wynorski's follow-up is almost unwatchably goofy. The sidekick kid characters are shrill, Heather Lockyear gives what may be her worst performance, and the sex scene where she eats cucumbers off of Swamp Thing's body is... oh god, it's just awful.
-
3rd Best: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Christopher Nolan's daring conclusion to The Dark Knight trilogy ruffled some feathers amongst the fan base by challenging the very "idea" of Batman (who probably could have done more good as billionaire Bruce Wayne than a costumed crimefighter), but it's a rich, complex and exciting deconstruction of superhero storytelling whether this is "your" Batman or not.
-
2nd Worst: The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
The only theatrical sequel to Alex Proyas' stylish and emotional The Crow (1994) is an absolute mess of a movie, with a barely existent plot, music videos masquerading as actual scenes and a yellow palette that makes it look like someone peed all over the film. They might as well have.
-
2nd Best: The Avengers (2012)
Technically its own movie, but functionally also Iron Man 2.5, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and The Incredible Hulk 2, Joss Whedon's all-star superhero team up told a crowdpleasing story that respected all the characters and actually continued their stories in a logical, involving manner. It had a seemingly impossible job to do, it did it, and it's a blast.
-
The Worst: Batman & Robin (1997)
The poster child for bad superhero movies really is THAT bad: a nonsensical, poorly shot, embarrassingly costumed nightmare that nearly killed the whole genre in the public eye. Even director Joel Schumacher apologized - constantly - for Batman & Robin on the film's DVD/Blu-ray commentary track. That's big of him, but it's still too little, too late. Batman & Robin is the worst.
-
The Best: The Dark Knight (2008)
And The Dark Knight is the best, expanding Christopher Nolan's smartly conceived Batman Begins reboot (2005) into a morally grey, but beautiful and action-packed follow-up featuring an Academy Award-winning performance from the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, one of cinema's all-time greatest villains. The rest of the movie is nearly as transcendent as he was. Which is to say The Dark Knight isn't just the best superhero sequel... it's nearly perfect.
