10 Long-Delayed Sequels That Weren’t Worth The Wait

There have, throughout cinema history, been some excellent late-appearing sequels. Only last year we got Creed, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Force Awakens, respectively released 9, 30 and 32 years after their predecessors, while this year we've got or are getting both 10 Cloverfield Lane and Everybody Wants Some, two 'spiritual sequels' already receiving ecstatic reviews from critics. Long-delayed sequels aren't always worth the wait, however. Last year we also got Dumb and Dumber To and The Transporter Refueled, while already 2016 has dropped the immensely disappointing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny on us. These are the kind of sequels that were better off just staying unmade, the kind that you wish you hadn't ever gotten excited over in the first place. Seriously, they were that disappointing. So on that note, join us as we look at ten more long-delayed sequels that definitely weren't worth the wait. 10) Zoolander 2 Previous movie: Zoolander was a mini-comedy gem from the mind of Ben Stiller, featuring David Bowie on ostentatious cameo duty, and both Stiller and Owen Wilson giving two of their surest comedic performances. It's the winningly stupid satire that the fashion world never even knew it wanted. The sequel: Zoolander 2 is an under-developed cameo-fest produced with more money and less wit than the original, regrettably made in an era of late-sequel comedy cash-ins (Anchorman 2, Dumb and Dumber To, Vacation etc.). Stiller and Wilson return, but they bring with them an overbearing cavalcade of stars all making appearances just because. Washington Post's Ann Hornaday went so far as to call it "a betrayal of public trust." 9) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Previous movie: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a solid trilogy-capper that succeeded the marginally less-successful Temple of Doom and the bona fide classic Raiders of the Lost Ark. The original Indiana Jones trilogy is one of the greats, bringing old-school movie serial fun into the modern age. The sequel: The recent announcement that Steven Spielberg intends to make a fifth Indiana Jones movie proves his heart is still in it, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - made almost 30 years after its immediate forebear - suggests he may have lost sight of what originally made these movies so spectacular. Crystal Skull stars the inimitable Harrison Ford, but he appears alongside some weird aliens, a nuked fridge, some dodgy CGI ants and Shia LaBeouf. Disappointing doesn't even begin to describe it. 8) Superman Returns Previous movie: Technically, the Superman movie released immediately prior to Superman Returns was 1987's Quest for Peace, but Superman Returns ignores that that movie ever existed. Instead, Returns acts as a sequel to the considerably better-liked Superman II, which is regarded along with 1978's Superman as a milestone in the superhero genre. The sequel: Coming 36 years after Superman II, Superman Returns seeks to both continue the legacy and start over with its own new story. The problem is that Bryan Singer's film is overly-reverential, short on decent action and quite frankly, dull. One of the film's bigger problems is Brandon Routh, who doesn't do much to alter the notion that Superman is a boring superhero. 7) Alien vs. Predator Previous movie(s): The two franchises that collide in Alien Vs Predator didn't leave off at particularly glorious moments before the 2004 movie, but the series still bore between them three stone-cold classics (Alien, Aliens and Predator). This was enough to generate excitement for a new film that combined both Xenomorph and Predator. The sequel: No Alien movies for seven years. No Predator movies for 13 years. The anticipation, surely, was high for Paul WS Anderson's Alien vs. Predator, though perhaps it shouldn't have been considering Alien Vs Predator was preceded by the words Paul WS Anderson's. The film turned out to be a complete bomb, with none of the invention or intelligence that the two individual franchises had even on their worst days. 6) Die Hard 4.0 Previous movie: Die Hard With a Vengeance was a cheeky reinvention of the Die Hard franchise and a great film in its own right. It comes only second to 1988's Die Hard, one of action cinema's all-time best, featuring Bruce Willis swearing, killing and getting hurt, a lot. The sequel: A diluted, confused mess made for the PG-13 crowd, Die Hard 4.0 - or Live Free or Die Hard if you prefer, which you shouldn't - brought back John McClane but none of what made him so endearing the first (and third) time around. He's not even allowed to say his own catchphrase, while Timothy Olyphant and Justin Long hardly make ideal replacements for Alan Rickman/Jeremy Irons and Samuel L Jackson. 5) Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines Previous movie: Terminator 2: Judgement Day was an action masterpiece, which succeeded The Terminator, a sci-fi masterpiece. They are two films that utilize Arnold Schwarzenegger better than anyone else has been able to, and two films that prove genre pieces can still be full of big ideas. The sequel: Terminator 3 is a purpose-free turd, made merely to generate cash and keep the franchise alive. Schwarzenegger looks bored, while the rest of the cast appears lost trying to lend some heft to both their under-written characters and a story which is just a mash-up of what we already know. 12 years is a long time to wait for a rehashed plot that repackages details and ideas from the two previous movies. 4) Land Of The Dead Previous movie: Day of the Dead is the weakest entry in George A. Romero's trilogy of the dead, but still a highly accomplished zombie almost-classic. It was preceded by two actual classics, the claustrophobic, suspenseful Night of the Living Dead, and the darkly comical, slyly sharp gore-fest Dawn of the Dead. The sequel: 20 years on from Day of the Dead, George A. Romero was looking for the hit that had eluded him ever since he'd left the zombie sub-genre behind. 2005's Land of the Dead, unfortunately, offered some of the gore but none of the smarts present in his earlier flesh-eating sagas. It's a pale imitation of Romero that unfortunately happens to have been made by Romero himself. 3) TRON: Legacy Previous movie: An initial financial disappointment that grew in stature over the years, Tron went from being a cult movie to a respected near-classic that paved the way for special effects-laden films becoming the industry standard. It also stars Jeff Bridges, which just automatically makes any film about 30% cooler. The sequel: All flash, no soul. Tron: Legacy looks and sounds great: the design and the use of CGI is incredible, while the score comes courtesy of mystical dancefloor-fillers Daft Punk. Unfortunately, the film is basically about nothing, and unlike the original features no real lasting action sequences. Worst of all, TRON: Legacy turns Jeff Bridges into some creepy cartoon facsimile of himself, thus squandering the cool factor the actual Bridges would have brought. 2) Jurassic World Previous movie: The last dino movie we got from Spielberg's classic series was Jurassic Park III, which followed The Lost World. Neither of those are especially terrific films, though. Their predecessor, however, is a true-blue great. Jurassic Park is one of Steven Spielberg's finest contributions to blockbuster cinema, packed with iconic moments and featuring some landmark special effects. The sequel: Jurassic World, though successful at the box office, was a misogynistic, dumbed-down, CGI-slathered actioner. Which doesn't sound too different from most of the blockbusters these days, but that's the problem: no one waited 15 years for something so generic, personality-free and obnoxious. You could say that audiences showed their approval by making Jurassic World the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, but remember the Star Wars prequels and Avatar did pretty well at the box office, too. 1) The Godfather: Part III Previous movie: The Godfather Part II is a classic like no other. Unless you count its predecessor The Godfather, which is also a classic without peer. These are basically just two of the greatest films ever made, directed by a filmmaker at the height of his powers. The sequel: The third film in this series is a complete shitshow made by the same director years after he'd peaked, by his own admittance simply because he needed the money. Since The Godfather: Part III's critical evisceration in 1990, some have come to reassess it as a good and perhaps even great movie. Those people are wrong, though. It is almost three hours of thin storytelling, self-consciously knotty plotting, and Sofia Coppola failing to act. It's as awful as they said it was on release.