SIMONWHO'S BLOG

SimonWho

First among sequels
Sunday, December 5, 2004

There's an awful lot of unnecessary sequels out there. I grant you, Lethal Weapon 2 was neither better nor worse than 3 & 4 but surely just one of them would have been enough to show us the pattern that they all would have followed. Contrast this with Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and that other not very good one. Each sequel could stand alone and if you recast Ripley and redesigned the Aliens, you wouldn't necessarily think "Alien rip-off" on viewing them.

What brought this to mind was a reminder of thoughts I had years ago that there really should be a sequel to A Knight's Tale. For those of you who haven't seen it, A Knight's Tale is a fun reworking of history with its tongue firmly in cheek. Well written, funny and with a good heart, I would certainly have paid to see the characters again. My personal take on it would have been A Knight's War, seeing Sir William take on those dastardly French, with his faithful lieutenants by his side, his girl very close by but the scunner Adhemar also on the battlefield, fighting alongside William.

Another strong contender is Unbreakable. I suspect this won't happen unless M Night Shamalyan gets rather desperate simultaneously with Bruce Willis but I think the universe created deserves another visit. It would be interesting to see what 'Mr Glass' does now he has discovered his destiny and the same for 'Security' as well. Now that all the elements have been set up, it could be a little faster paced too and more intensive.

Now one of the movies I would have suggested, Get Shorty, has its sequel coming out in a few months, Be Cool, so we'll see how my theory works out. Mind you, history is littered with sequels that we thought we wanted such as Men in Black II, Blues Brothers 2000, Fierce Creatures, The Godfather part III. Who knows, maybe one day we'll all think "Ah, they should have stopped after the tenth Serenity movie."

Though the prospect of Jewel doing a belly dance when she is the same age as Nichelle Nichols was in Star Trek V is perversely appealing (Nichelle was 56 so that would make Serenity IX: the Wrath of Badger due at some point in 2038).

COMMENTS

Monday, December 6, 2004 9:05 AM

CHOSEN1


Ahhh. A Knight's Tale. That was the first time I laid eyes on the semi-muscular man who would be my longtime obsession: Alan Tudyk. I'd love to see him play that character again.

Sunday, December 5, 2004 7:46 PM

EBONEZER


I'll write one! I LOVED Alan in A Knights Tale. Seriously a great movie right there.

Sunday, December 5, 2004 3:09 PM

HEB


Ooh why don't we start the 'A Knight's tale - told in three parts' campaign.

This would have to rank as one of my top 5 ever films; we should seriously start a letter writing campaign.


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