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The trend in DVD collections - which is a good idea - is to be as inclusive as possible when making a document of a television or movie series. That's why you see extras like bloopers, making-of documentaries, screen tests, film trailers, TV ads, and so forth. But it also means you include the bad installments with the good. Where a TV show is concerned, that's sort of what you bargain for: you wouldn't expect something labeled "the complete first season" to exclude episodes that failed to meet expectations. But in the case of movie series, it means you will end up with some films in your collection that you never thought would be there.
Take for example, the recent box set Superman: The Ultimate Collection (click here for review), or last year's Batman: The Motion Picture Collection box set. Both contain worthy films, but each contain films that are so poorly thought-out and executed that the series themselves went on long exiles from movie screens while they were creatively re-thought. Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, director Joel Schumacher's attempt to revive the campy spirit of the '60s Batman, were so awful that they're better off forgotten. (The 1966
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The real problem is sequelitis. Far too often, sequels become parodies, instead of
The danger in making these sequels comes because the filmmakers want you to have a good time seeing old friends. Who didn't laugh when the characters we'd followed for two great Star Wars films appeared in Return of the Jedi in funny circumstances?
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Or take the Star Trek films, which go back and forth between worthy and unworthy so much it's like a tennis match. In Generations, we see the beloved character of Data finally get the emotional awareness he'd sought for seven years on The Next Generation.
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The decision to make the audience laugh, to try to make the film like a reunion party with your old friends is how sequels descend into parody. They don't feel like creative decisions; they feel like marketing choices, and those are the kinds of decisions that result in bad films. (They don't have to, though. For example, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a very funny movie, but it respects the characters and the material that came before it, and as a result, is a successful film. That's the power of good writing. What's the old saying? Dying is easy; comedy is hard.)
Another common problem among sequels is to simply use the title of the movie as a brand name slapped on a generic product. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible films are one such exercise, as they have almost nothing in common with the 1960s television show and are simply action films with a familiar title affixed. (Mission: Impossible 2, directed by John Woo, is so full of movie cliches and empty plot devices that it might just be the worst film ever made.)
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Watch out, though. Because if Joel Schumacher ever gets near the set of The Hobbit, we'll know studios weren't paying attention.