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I Saw the Sequel First


(BP)

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Based on my age and what was playing on rotation on cable at the time, there are a lot of movies from my childhood that were huge to me personally but were sequels often regarded as inferior to major films. Later I'd see the original and say irrational things like, "Ghostbusters is good, but it's no Ghostbusters II."  It doesn't come from a place of objectivity; it's just my first experiences with those characters or premises as a kid were so vital and I watched them so often.

Some examples besides the aforementioned Ghostbusters:

Waynes World 2, Terminator 2, Gremlins 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Major League II, Mannequin Two: On the Move, Weekend at Bernies II, Short Circuit 2. 

Those obviously vary between legitimate classics and huge pieces of shit, but then there's movies I watched all of the time that I had no idea were part of huge franchises. I spent a part of my childhood thinking Temple of Doom and Return of the Jedi were the only Indy and Star Wars movies. When I finally saw Raiders and Empire my brain imploded. 

Anyway, I was curious if anyone else had the experience of having an affection for a sequel they grew up on in a vacuum. 

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You know when you're too young to legit watch an R rated movie, but you wait till your folks are gone or asleep and watch one anyway? Thanks to a long gone channel called ON-TV, I saw Halloween 2 umpteen times before I saw the original, simply because it seemed like they only had the sequel in their library of flicks.

 

 

 

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Aliens before Alien, Rocky 3 before Rocky 2 and then Rocky 2 before Rocky, Terminator 2 before Terminator, and Return of the Jedi before Star Wars. More than the obvious ones (Aliens and Terminator 2), I hold Rocky 3 is way more regard than Rocky or Rocky 2. 

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4 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

I saw Beyond Thunderdome before I saw either of those.

Road Warrior was soooo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Mad Max.   I think I could've skipped it.

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1 minute ago, odessasteps said:

Does seeing Spy who Loved Me as my first bond movie count?

No.  The franchise is too long and subsequent reboots and re-images don't make all movies in the Bond franchise feel like true sequels anyway.

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I saw the second half of Halloween: Season of the Witch before seeing any other films in the franchise (or really even many horror movies) and it freaked me the fuck out.  As cheesy and frequently boring as that movie was, the last 30-40 minutes are incredibly tense if you haven't sat through the bullshit that comes before (being 12 and not exposed to many R-rated horror films helped).  

 

I saw Star Wars on TV and Jedi in the theatre before I saw ESB, if that counts.  (and because of the toy ads, I thought Tauntaun were marsupials people could ride in, and was a little grossed out when it got sliced open).

 

I saw Alien 3 (which I still like more than most do), then Alien, then Aliens.  As a result, I never had much attachment to Hicks and friends. (I think if I had seen Resurrection first, I just wouldn't have bothered with the predecessors).

 

Fury Road was my first Mad Max movie, somehow.

And like BP, I saw T2 first.  (I also saw Mannequin Two on a date, but have still never seen the original nor am I in a hurry to do so).

 

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Empire, T2, Aliens, Phantasm II, Halloween II (possibly, iffy on that one), probably one of the Friday the 13ths (likely 3), Texas Chainsaw 2 (possibly, again iffy). To me as a kid it was fun to go back and see the originals which tended to blow away the sequels in different ways. Except Empire, that was always the best. 

Speaking of iffy I honestly have no idea whether I bought Mad Max at Walmart or saw Road Warrior on bootleg HBO first. 

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Mad Max has grown on me after repeated viewings, but the post apocalypse of the Road Warrior resonated more with me than the apocalypse is nigh setting for Max. 

I am a Cold War Kid after all. 

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Oooooo! Ooooo! I got another one: Godzilla vs. Megalon. Then again I doubt many of us ever started watching Godzilla films with Godzilla, King of the Monsters. 

EDIT: I didn't see JT's post about Bond and that's kind of the same thing with Godzilla. Also, pretty sure I saw Temple of Doom before Raiders. It certainly deserved the PG-13 rating they made for it...

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I was fortunate enough to see Gojira before Godzilla.   The Japanese original smokes the Americanized version. 

I didn't like the Gojira, Defender of Children and Small Puppies incarnation at first.  It took a while to warm up to it. 

The whole point of Gojira is that he is a walking nuclear war.  Nuclear wars are not kid friendly.

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Not sure if this counts but I saw Oldboy before I saw Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.  IFC used to be so fucking awesome.  What happened?

I still liked Sympathy and I also like Lady Vengeance and think that they are very good movies, but I have no idea why people think that either of those films is as good as Oldboy.

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I saw Oldboy first, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a let down comparatively. Lady Vengeance is very good. They aren't really sequels, but sort of a larger piece so I'd count them. 

Another one that occurred to me was never being able to sit through more than 20 minutes of Jurassic Park, but then going to see The Lost World in a theater and loving it because I'm a huge Goldblum mark. I wore out the LW VHS (with holographic dinosaur cover!), but I don't think I saw all of Jurassic Park until the rerelease a couple of years ago.

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Just an aside about Jurassic Park (a film and concept that I feel is way played out, btw), I saw it in a theater in Carbondale, IL one time where the screen was floor-level so you were sitting directly in front of it. Pretty gnarly seeing it like that. They played Alien there once and I'm actually glad me and my buddy didn't go cause that would have seriously freaked me the fuck out. 

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