Sequels and second chapters get a bad rap, especially in the modern era where you can’t make a movie without some sort of existing property involved. Even so, a lot of Part II editions are pretty okay. Sure, ‘Before Watchmen’ was terrible, and ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ unraveled most of the threads of character development in the first one. ‘Ghostbusters II’ wasn’t very good either, but at least we’ll always have “Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan”, leading us inevitably to today’s secondary query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is really torn between ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe’ on this one, so I guess I’ll go with ‘Friday The 13th Part II’ because why not, asking: What’s the best Part II ever made?
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The Empire Strikes Back. No contest.
Its probably The Empire Strikes Back, even if I prefer the first film. Terminator 2 is a strong contender.
My first thought was Friday the 13th as well, but then Bride of Frankenstein came to mind. It’s very gonzo and i love it.
Honorable mention to After the Thin Man because it meant more time in the fine company of Nick and Nora.
I can’t give it to Empire. The whole scene with Vader and Luke and the cutting off of the hand scared the crap out of me as a child, and I’ve never quite gotten over it. I mean, I can watch the movie now, and it has some great dialogue and moments…. But I still harbor a little bit of resentment toward that scene and the downer ending from when I was a kid.
I’m gonna give it to either Aliens, or The Two Towers. (Rohan and the Ents were always my favorite parts of LoTR, and the movie captured them beautifully.)
Or wait, maybe I throw all that out and give it to Christmas Vacation!
FWIW, Christmas Vacation would be a part III; the second was European Vacation.
I thought Euro Vacation was the third…
‘European’ was second. Christmas Vacation came third.
Some great choices by people here and I might add the Godfather Part II.
Road Warrior has it all over Mad Max, not the least of which is audio that’s actually in sync.
Empire already has a mention, so I’ll go in a completely unexpected direction: Before Sunset, the sequel to Before Sunrise.
90% of the time, I’m just not a romantic drama movie fan. But there is something about this film series (there is a third entry, Before Midnight) that just draws me in. No major action or anything, just a couple of people spending the day together. By all accounts, I should have lost interest moments in, but I’m inexplicably intrigued by the movies. The sequel surprised me by holding my attention just as well as the first.
Awesome choices. Wrath of Khan is up there, so is Xmen 2 and Dark Knight
The obvious best choice, Gandhi II, was sadly never made, so I have to go with a book. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, follow-up to Over Sea Under Stone, is so good that the series is named after it. They Grey King (book 4) is better, but can’t stand alone.