Some sequels add one or more things to a franchise’s running narrative that only serve to make a great sequel better. Terminator 2: Judgment Day made the T-800 the protagonist, which was continued in Terminator Genisys and most of Terminator: Dark Fate (and one other installment, which we’ll get to). Aliens made Ellen Ripley a surrogate mother (and a mother by blood, in the deleted scenes). Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back revealed Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father. Captain America: The Winter Soldier revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infested by HYDRA, which wasn’t forgotten by subsequent MCU movies even outside Captain America: Civil War.
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But what about the sequels that expanded the lore yet aren’t held in such high esteem? They’re the ugly step-siblings of the franchise, condemned to be mostly forgotten, but their importance makes that impossible. Here are the biggest examples.
5) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
The first time we meet Dr. Terence Wynn is actually in the original Halloween, when Dr. Loomis exits the hospital and begins his journey to Haddonfield. But he was just a doctor there, not “the Man in Black.” Many fans would argue that he should have remained in that single scene in the first film.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is the installment that really dives into the silly Cult of Thorn stuff, but the bones of that narrative swing were established in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Coated in smoke, Wynn enters the Haddonfield jail, guns down all of the officers, and sets Michael free. It comes out of nowhere. All of a sudden there are other people who actually want Michael to be out and about, murdering countless people? As it turns out it’s even worse: Michael is more or less the pawn of a cult. It was much scarier when Myers was just a vapid void of a man with a butcher knife, not a tool for others to turn upon society.
Stream Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers on AMC+.
4) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is basically the copy-pasted version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Even with Arnold Schwarzenegger back much of the magic is gone. It just feels like a standard blockbuster with nothing much to say.
However, it did establish two things that were continued in an even worse film. Namely, Terminator Salvation. The first was the character of Katherine Brewster, played by Claire Danes here and Bryce Dallas Howard in Salvation. The second was the notion that Judgment Day was fully inevitable. In the first two films the event was something that could be prevented, even if it would be extremely hard to do so. Hence, we get the war in Salvation.
3) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom suffers from being two very different movies stuffed in one. However, it’s not nearly as bad as Jurassic World Dominion.
It also introduced a trio of characters who went on to appear in Dominion: Isabella Sermon’s Maisie Lockwood, Daniella Pineda’s Zia Rodriguez, and Justice Smith’s Franklin Webb. Speaking of Maisie, her decision to let loose the dinos was a major part of Dominion (and should have been an even larger part, given how it was bizarrely focused on silly mega bugs).
Stream Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on Peacock.
2) Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the least effective Monsterverse movie by a country mile, which is odd considering it really is a wish-fulfillment project for anyone who grew up watching Godzilla’s Shลwa era movies. But it’s overstuffed, has a weak script, and even weaker human characters (which is pretty consistent for the Monsterverse, but is especially noticeable here).
However, it did establish the core of what makes the Monsterverse’s, well, monsters, tick. Specifically, they have reverence for the one amongst them that is the biggest and strongest, hence the sequel’s subtitle. This was a factor in Godzilla vs. Kong and doesn’t look to be going away, which is good as it gives the monster population a bit more personality.
Stream Godzilla: King of the Monsters on HBO Max.
1) Predator 2
For years it seemed as though no one knew how to turn Predator into a franchise. Time has been kind to Predator 2, but it was once seen as a massive step down from the original film (it is a step down, but not a massive one). However, the very average Predators and the horrid The Predator and two Alien vs. Predator movies showed that things could in fact be quite worse than this installment.
At the very least, it contributed as much if not more to the IP than the original film. For one, the Yautjas’ arsenal was increased to include the glaive, the spear, and the constricting wire net. Two, it was established that the Yautja reward the humans who best one of them. And three, it established that the cinematic worlds of Alien and Predator are in fact one and the same.
Stream Predator 2 on Hulu.
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