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Sequels Suck II: The Revenge By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman Previously… While recently browsing gamefaqs.com for some mage building tips on Disgaea DS, I found one of the site’s rotating affiliate ads very intriguing. “Johnny Depp Signs Up for Pirates 4,” the ad read. I honestly wondered about the quality of this 4th movie, as Depp stated that he would not be doing another pirate movie unless “they had a good script.” Quite frankly, I can’t see how good another “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie would be when they’re all basically the same crappy film about pretty boy pirates with good teeth and their flat chested wench.
Knowing the trends that the entertainment industry takes; I’m almost certain that this new pirate movie is not going to be revolutionizing the way we see men dressed in tricornes and long coats. In fact, I’m almost certain this movie is going to be sub par in comparison to its previous titles and merely made as a check cashing endeavor. Another example, which not ironically is another movie series produce by Walt Disney Pictures are the High School Musical films. I’ll admit I really liked the 1st installment of the trilogy, to the point where I can sing about 75% of the songs from the film by heart. However, the second one is complete rot. There’s such a noticeable drop off in song and script quality, that even my sister (who was in the target demographic for this film at the time of its release) didn’t like it. But apparently, there’s still some sort of following as the third film is actually going to be releasing in theatres, rather than cable as the 2 before it had.
I can easily say that this is a problem of the production studios forcing sequels and remakes upon us because they’re “safe.” However, allow me to put a different spin on the situation. The problem is with us, the consumers and the studios are just giving us what we want. But how can that be? I’m sick of rehashes and sequels; I really want an original concept in movies and games. I seriously doubt that’s the case, as a sequel to a blockbuster will outsell intellectual property with a similar premise solely because it’s more recognizable. A good example of this is Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. While the game could have effectively been set in some steam punk fantasy world; Square-Enix chose to bring back Vaan, Penelo, vieras, bangaas, and nu mous in some lackluster story about sky pirates. I’m now certain that the game wouldn’t have sold as well as it had, if it didn’t have that “Ivalice Alliance” sticker showing its connection to FFXII.
Another example to solidify my point is the upcoming (or recently released, depending where you’re from) Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars. We all know that it’s going to pale in comparison with the original 6 films (shit, I just put the classic Star Wars trilogy in the same bracket as the prequels), but that won’t stop us from geeking out and cheering at that bright yellow title marquee. Deep down we want another Star Wars movie and would probably watch the mediocre cartoon version over some totally new space film by Lucas, if we were given the choice. What does this say about us? Are we just a bunch of doctor fish just looking for dead skin, while ignoring real feed? Of course we are, it’s in our natures. We’ll go after what we know to be for certain, rather than take the risk and check the unknown. Perhaps, we’ll break free from our dependence of the familiar by some sort of production revolution (which the above mentioned Disney is trying, as they want to start phasing classic 2-D animated films back into their feature film line ups). But more realistically with the ease and accessibility of putting homemade games and film onto the web, it’s only a matter of time until independently made streaming media becomes more main stream than the cinema & video store (and in some cases I think it already has in a way).
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