Top Ten Tuesday: Movie/TV Sequels That Could Use A Do-Over

There is probably nothing worse than your favorite movie franchise or television series being worsened by a sub-par sequel or season, but it unfortunately happens often. Sometimes it’s a combination of acting, recasts, or overall story structure, but most of the time, it’s the writing that dooms a sequel. With that in mind, here are ten movies/seasons that we think could use a do-over.

 

10. Arrested Development (Season 4)

The magic of the first three seasons of Arrested Development was difficult to re-capture, but Netflix gave it a shot in 2013—seven years after the show originally ended. It was still funny, but the Bluth family couldn’t get together because the cast couldn’t get together due to scheduling conflicts, which hurt the final product. However, creator Mitchell Hurwitz did re-cut Season 4 in chronological order to improve it, so we kind of got our wish here. Plus, the first half of the recently-released Season 5 was more like the original Arrested Development that everyone loves, and the show has a good chance to end on a high note later this year.

 

9. Home Alone 3

Again, to be clear, these are not the worst sequels ever, but instead the sequels we wish could be remade in some form or fashion—or in the case of everything after Home Alone 2, never made again. Seriously, though, Home Alone 3 was doomed to fail because it didn’t have Kevin McCallister, so perhaps more than anything else on this list, a complete recasting with the original characters would be needed to keep the spirit of the first two movies alive.

 

8. That ‘70s Show (Season 8)

No Eric? No Kelso? No thanks. That ‘70s Show would have been better off waiting until Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher—or at least one of them—were available to shoot a full season rather than keeping the show alive for a weak final installment. It was difficult to become invested in Foreman’s basement hangouts without Foreman himself.

 

7. The Office (Season 8)

The Office still had its moments over the final two seasons following Steve Carrell’s departure, but Season 8 in particular had too many episodes and no real payoff. NBC would have been better off condensing everything into one final season with a miniature time jump, as it would have allowed the final handful of episodes—which were excellent—to remain basically the same without all the unnecessary drama between Jim and Pam (and of course, Andy’s entire storyline).

 

6. Spider-Man III

The first two movies of the franchise were great, but not much not needs to be said about Spider-Man 3 other than this:

 

 

 

5. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

It would be great if we could get a do-over for everything about Superman IV, starting with the title, as it almost sounds like a parody and not the fourth installment of a hit Superman franchise. The downfall probably began with Superman III, but The Quest for Peace took things to another level with poor special effects and cheesy writing.

 

4. Batman & Robin

The third straight superhero film, Batman & Robin was without question the worst movie about the Caped Crusader ever made—and a sad ending to the universe Tim Burton kicked off with Batman. For as bad as it was, though, it wasn’t that far away from being redeemable, as Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) could have been solid villains with better direction/writing. And someone other than George Clooney probably should’ve played Batman.

 

3. The Godfather: Part III

As a standalone movie, The Godfather: Part III wasn’t bad by any means; but the final chapter of The Godfather saga could have been much, much better. The overarching story was in place, and Al Pacino was great with what he had to work with, but it just didn’t come close to reaching the heights of The Godfather or The Godfather: Part II. If it could be done again, it’d probably be better to have Michael Corleone less open with his regret for past deeds, most notably killing Fredo, as he probably would have been better with his usual icy demeanor—because as the end of The Godfather: Part II showed, that’s who he really was.

 

2. Westworld (Season 2)

Sunday night’s season finale of Westworld was the main reason for doing this article, as the first eight episodes were a fine lead-up to a huge payoff, but it began falling off in the penultimate episode before completely going off the edge—literally—in the finale. Season 1 had twists for the sake of storytelling, while Season 2 seemed to have twists in an attempt outsmart everyone. Episode 4, “The Riddle of the Sphinx”, was easily the best of the season with the Man in Black continuing to wreak havoc (this time honorably to save Lawrence and his family), but besides that, Shogun World didn’t seem to advance the plot much, and the MiB was basically ruined over the final two episodes. There were infinite possibilities about how to conclude the season, but humans apparently always come to the same conclusion, so disappointment was inevitable.

 

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

There has never been a greater disservice to an iconic character than what was done to Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. People seem to want to defend the film at all costs—with some even going as far as convincing themselves that it takes a handful of viewings before fully appreciating the movie—but Mark Hamill’s reaction to the script says all you need to know about how TLJ ruined Star Wars: “I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character [Luke Skywalker]. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.” Case closed.