The Dark Side

Now this question didn’t bother me until quite recently when I was talking comic books with a friend: why can Superman fly? More specifically, why can Superman fly vertically and hover? It doesn’t make any logical sense. But let me explain: For those of you who don’t know the mythology, Superman derives his power from our yellow sun. His home planet of Krypton played host to a red sun which is why Kryptonians didn’t have any superpowers on their home planet. When Kal-el (more commonly known as Clark Kent) ended up on Earth, the yellow sun eventually gave him powers: his skin became impenetrable, he obtained the ability to shoot heat from his eyes and he was granted super strength (which is why he can “leap tall buildings in a single bound”, he is able to generate enough force defy Earth’s gravity for a short amount of time.) The problem is that none of these powers would allow him to fly for any length of time nor would he be able to take off vertically. Yes, he could run fast enough that he would generate lift, but in that scenario he would have to be running to take off. Yet as we have seen time and time again, he can take off vertically, and even more surprising, he can hover, which really doesn’t make sense. Are we to believe that Superman’s powers include the ability to place a layer of electromagnetism beneath him at any given time?

Perhaps this is why when Superman was first created, he did not have the ability to fly. Yes, he could still leap tall buildings in a single bound, but there was no flight. This makes far more sense to me. But since they gave him a cape, and let’s face it, capes really only look great in flight (or opera), they had to have him fly. Ah well… I guess this mystery will never be solved.

Recently I was talking with a friend about Michael Bay movies. My friend found them detestable, but as of late he has come around to the thinking that maybe Bay simply gives audiences exactly what they want. His opinion is far tamer than others I have read; some reviewers go as far as saying that Bay even has contempt for his audience. After years Bay movies and discussions, I have decided that Michael Bay is not so terrible, and maybe he simply is doing what movies were invented for in the first place, giving the audience a thought free escape.

People originally went to the movies to escape, not to be reminded of the horrors of daily life. If one goes back and looks at many of the movies of yesteryear, they were not gritty true to life stories, they were fantastic nonrealistic stories that made us forget about everything depressing in the world, if only for a couple of hours. They were non-realistic, non-plausible movies, but none of that mattered because people were simply entertained. The easiest way I can relate this to you is by getting you to try to remember what it was watching movies as a kid. The plot holes and bad special effects never mattered, what did matter was that the movie was exciting and took you someplace else; this why we loved movies like The Neverending Story, Masters of the Universe, and even The Goonies to some degree.

Essentially, that is what Bay has been doing, giving the audience a thought free escape from reality; a fun thrill ride much in the style of the old Flash Gordon serials. The problem is that we have moved into such a cynical age, if things are not “realistic” (and by realistic I mean ultimately depressing) we immediately dismiss them and call them sophomoric. So sure, Transformers and Pearl Harbor are not stylized works of art, but I say who cares? Should they have to be? Sometimes I want the good guys to win and all kinds of things to blow up on screen, and I thank Michael Bay for delivering.

Now I know that this is a subject which has been discussed to death.  Scream 2 brilliantly approached the subject, and I have had this conversation many times over.  The problem is, I don’t know whether or not there has ever been a definitive answer as to why.  Well, here I am to rectify that oversight.  So let’s get into it: why can’t a movie sequel be as good as the first?

Special effects

The problem with great special effects in an original movie is that they are usually groundbreaking.  The audience has never seen anything like it before, and they are left stunned, wowed, and amazed at something that they thought was previously impossible.   For example, movies like Jurassic Park, Avatar, or The Matrix were all ground breaking in their special effects.  All three movies left audiences and critics alike wowed.  The problem is that when the sequels came out, the special effects used were no longer “special” and therefore lacked that wow factor.  So much of what made these movies so groundbreaking was no longer groundbreaking, so in order to wow the audience, a sequel would have to rely solely on storytelling alone, and that is often where they end up stalling.

The Story

Many times movies are written as a standalone movie.  I’m talking about The Matrix or another similar movie.  The problem comes when you try to add extra chapters to a story that should be self-contained.  It’s like when Chris Carter tried to write a second story arc into the X-files after the first had concluded;  It simply doesn’t work.  It’s one of the main reasons that as much as I like The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, they are simply not as strong of movies.  Afterthoughts are never as good as the original thought.  Both sequels to The Pirates of the Caribbean suffered because of this as well.  Maybe Hollywood should take notice that milking a movie franchise until its death has not produced great products.  Of course I often forget that as long as it makes money, it doesn’t matter if the finished product is any good.

Expectations

When a movie is incredible and a sequel is announced, people immediately start expecting its sequel to be as good as or better than what they had previously seen.  The more time that passes the more they expect from the movie.  People went in to Terminator 3 expecting another Terminator 2, even though they seemed to forget that the original Terminator wasn’t even a Terminator 2.  An even better example would be Episode I, the audience had to wait sixteen years, which means that expectations built continuously.  To the point where one could even argue that there was no way that the movie could have even been a success with true fans (not that I’m arguing that the movie was good in the first place).  The problem was that so many had built up the original trilogy to a near god-like status, that Episode I no matter how good, could not have measured up to the original,  S 19 (inside joke).    The bottom line is one of the reasons that sequels aren’t as good is because we expect them to be better than they can be.

Exceptions

Now some of you reading this may say that there are some sequels that do surpass the original, and I for one to agree with you.  There are some sequels that defy the odds.  Those movies tend to defy the rules already stated here.  So let’s talk about those movies that defied the odds: Terminator 2, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Dark Knight.

Terminator 2’s far superior special effects catapulted it far beyond what The Terminator was capable of.  In addition, far superior performances by Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a better script make this movie a classic and a sequel that surpasses the original.  I mean who can forget the final scene driving down the highway with their future uncertain, but with hope for the first time the judgment day might be avoided.

The Empire Strikes Back followed a movie which was incredibly well received by the public.  In fact one might even contend that it was global phenomenon.   The question was: how do you improve upon something that ground breaking?  The answer was give it a darker tone, have a major twist, and for the love of God, don’t let George Lucas write the screenplay.  The movie was much darker in tone throughout the whole movie as Luke begins to understand his new powers.   The scene in the cave in which he fights an apparition of Vader and beheads him, only to see his own face, is a good indication of the tone of the overall movie.   Another reason that this movie surpasses the original is because of the delightful twist near the end.  I can only imagine how major this was when the movie originally came out.  Thirdly, although George Lucas is responsible for the story, he did not write the screenplay.  Even the movie’s most famous line (“I love you, I know”) was adlibbed by Harrison Ford.  The lesson here is this: George Lucas is a great visionary and idea man, but when he sits down to write actual dialogue, things don’t go quite as well. (“yousa say people gonna die?”).  The bottom line is Lucas’s choice to not write the screenplay for Empire may have made the movie that much better.

Now who can ever forget The Dark Knight, arguably the greatest sequel ever made?  Christopher Nolan took a near perfect superhero origin movie in Batman Begins, and made it twice as good with The Dark Knight.   The movie once again had a dark tone, but what set this movie apart from its predecessor was first and foremost Heath Ledger’s immortal performance as the greatest super villain of all, the joker.  His performance was so haunting that most didn’t even notice anyone else’s performance in the movie, and considering you had a cast of Christian Bale, Michael Cain, Aaron Eckhart, and Maggie Gyllenhaal , that is no easy feat.

By the way honorable mentions include: The Road Warrior and The Godfather II.

So there you have it.