Today: Mar 28, 2024

‘Sequelitis’: a pop culture movie trend on the rise

J’Mari HughesReporter

“Sequelitis” is a popular culture term that refers the overproduction of movie sequels, particularly ones that fail in comparison to the original.

“There are movies that are into their fifth one,” said freshman Juan Perez, “and it’s like, okay be done.”

According to TV Tropes, a pop culture source, classic movies such as “The Santa Clause” initially gain a large amount of popularity. As film companies produce sequels, some movieviewers find them lazy, unnecessary and poorly written, a dramatic decrease in popularity occurs from both film critics and audiences.

“With some movies, you just need to stop after the first one,” said computer science major Kayla Corey.

IMDb said in 2018, 35 books were adapted into movies. As some books are a part of a series, success may lead to a production of movie sequels based on their novel predecessors.

“The Hunger Games—,” Perez said, “I know it was a book series but the first movie was really nice. The second, not so much and the third was even worse.”

For Corey, “Fast and Furious” should have ended after Paul Walker died, while Perez and freshman Neisha Rivera agreed the “Spider-Man” franchise should have started and ended with Tobey Maguire, the original Peter Parker.

“Some series require long stories,” Rivera said. “Some have really good fans and assume they’re gonna keep them if they keep putting these movies out.”

Rivera said moviemakers may overdo their production, but in the end they care about the money.

But before the longawaited “Incredibles 2” hit theaters in summer 2018, director Brad Bird promised the film was to entertain audiences and was not solely a cash grab, as said in an interview with Screen Rant.

“I feel like Disney as a franchise doesn’t like to produce anything that isn’t going to be popular,” said interdisciplinary studies major Rachel Pierpont. “They probably do a lot of background research to make sure the audience is going to like it.

Pierpont, a junior, and communication disorders major Sam Widomski both said they are excited for the upcoming Disney Pixar movie, “Toy Story 4,” set to release nearly 25 years after the original. Despite it being the fourth film of the franchise, Pierpont said Disney movies are still creative in their plotline. Everyone knows about them, she said, there are even parks dedicated to Disney, so people are not going to forget about the company.

“I feel pretty good about them,” she said, “especially with the new technology they have today to make the animations that much better, you could really live within that movie, but the way our culture is changing, they can change their movies to be a little bit more appropriate for today’s Times because obviously things were different now.”

Widomski said she enjoyed the third “Toy Story” film and likes that Disney is producing more because she thinks it is fun to see where the company will go with it.

“Sometimes they answer questions that weren’t answered in the first movie,” Rivera said, “so they can get even more interesting in the sequel.”

To Rivera, “The Avengers” movies will never get old. She said she can watch any of the three and is excited for the new ones that will follow.

Pierpoint said sequels can botch the original movie but that it all depends on the specific movie. Sometimes they are better, sometimes they are worse, she said.

“If you’re gonna do a sequel, make it better than the first one,” said Corey, “and if not, don’t do it at all.”

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