It’s extremely rare that a sequel manages to exceed the quality of the original. Many agree that The Godfather Part II is slightly better than The Godfather while most agree that The Dark Knight is better than Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2 is better than Spider-Man. As for horror, Evil Dead II is better than The Evil Dead, Bride of Frankenstein is superior to Frankenstein, and plenty of people like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter more than Friday the 13th. But what about the science fiction genre? There are quite a few examples of sci-fi movies that beat their predecessor at their own game. Though, admittedly, some come just as close to being ties as outright improvements.
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Excluded here are films that hover just outside the sci-fi genre, e.g. both The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road, which are more action, adventure, and fantasy than pure science fiction. The same goes for superhero movies, like X2: X-Men United and the aforementioned Spider-Man 2. The following sci-fi sequels are standouts in their genre, and we didn’t even include every great example out there.
5) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
There’s been no better twist in the Terminator franchise than turning the soulless, murderous T-800 into a lovable hero, but that is exactly what James Cameron pulled off with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Coming off of the already highly impressive and extremely ambitious The Terminator, Judgment Day had a tall order in even coming close to its predecessor’s quality, but it managed to surpass it in every regard.
Sarah Connor is more interesting here, the T-800 is infinitely more interesting, John Conner made for an immediately iconic performance, and the T-1000 is certainly among the most famous movie villains of all time. Even with a lengthy runtime, this movie breezes by courtesy of enthralling action sequences and characters you can’t help but root for (save for the T-1000, of course).
Stream Terminator 2: Judgment Day on Paramount+.
4) Prey
Yes, Prey is a prequel not a sequel, but it still came decades after Predator, so we’re counting it. Speaking of the original, there’s an argument to be made that it is still the best of the franchise, but it’s impressive that an equally strong argument could be made of Dan Trachtenberg’s first Yautja film.
The further success of Predator: Killer of Killers helped cement the notion that Prey was no one-off win, instead serving as the first chapter of the most exciting era of the IPs history. With fantastic cinematography, a much deeper protagonist, and the best performance of the franchise by Amber Midthunder, Prey is a modern classic.
Stream Prey on Hulu.
3) Tron: Legacy
Plenty of people have a soft spot for the original, but Tron: Legacy is the best installment of the trilogy. Save for the de-aged CGI Jeff Bridges, the film is visually stunning as well as ambitious and a fine love letter to what came before.
There are a few other things that work in Legacy‘s favor. Bridges is clearly having fun in dual roles, Garrett Hedlund’s Sam Flynn is an underrated protagonist, and the film made a star of Olivia Wilde for good reason. It may have underperformed at the box office back in 2010, but this was one of the best theater experiences of the 2010s, and is about a dozen times more fun than Tron: Ares.
Stream Tron: Legacy on Disney+.
2) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is one of those movies that so greatly expands the already impressive world built in its predecessor that it’s just a wonder it didn’t suffocate under the weight of its own ambition. But it doesn’t, it breathes perfectly fine.
Now, there are plenty of people who consider both Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back perfect films, and perfection can’t top perfection. But there is a lot to be said about how this film’s scope is both larger yet also more intimate for Han, Luke, and Leia. It also brought in a little green puppet guy and made him feel both real and compulsively lovable. That’s pretty impressive.
Stream Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Disney+.
1) Godzilla vs. Kong
The apex of the Monsterverse, Godzilla vs. Kong was the box office success it very much needed after the humongous in scope Godzilla: King of the Monsters faltered during the 2019 summer movie season. It says a lot that Adam Wingard’s introduction to the series outgrossed its immediate predecessor even though it was both released during the height of COVID fears and debuted simultaneously on HBO Max.
It makes sense, too, because while the human characters are still pretty lame, Godzilla vs. Kong is easily the most purely enjoyable installment of the entire Monsterverse. The monster mash sequences are all any fan could hope for, the lengthy Hollow Earth set piece couldn’t be any more enthralling, and Wingard clearly understood the assignment. He also did a great job with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and it’s a bit of a shame he won’t be able to return for Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
Stream Godzilla vs. Kong on tru TV.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
