
These sequels were made for no reason except to make money. And some of them didn’t even do that.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

You know that whole happy ending at the end of Return of the Jedi? This movie ruins it by revealing that Han and Leia went on to have a whiny child, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who spoiler alert, kills his dad.
Yes: The movie kills an iconic character for the sole purpose of establishing Kylo Ren as a baddie to be reckoned with — and of course to free Harrison Ford from an altogether embarrassing affair.
The movie sets out to pass the lightsaber to a new generation, but none of the new characters feel authentic or interesting.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Probably the worst Star Wars movie ever made, which is really saying something. A completely incomprehensible mess that includes two out-of-nowhere, unearned and uninteresting twists (spoilers): 1. The Emperor is still alive, somehow; and 2. He is the grandfather of Rey (Daisy Ridley)
This lame revelation isn’t enough to make poor, underwritten Rey more interesting. Then there’s an appalling return of Han Solo (let the dead rest) some talk of possession, and a lot of nonsense, ending the Skywalker Saga with a pathetic whimper.
By the way, we’re fine with the middle film in the new trilogy, The Last Jedi. Mark Hamill was great in it, and we appreciated director Rian Johnson’s efforts to broaden the Star Wars universe and show us how regular folks view the conflict between our heroes and the Empire. It wasn’t a bad sequel at all, especially considering that it was sandwiched by two borderline-unwatchable movies.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford is one of our favorite actors, ever, and we’re sorry to include another of his films on this list. But: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny feels like an exercise in “we can do this, so we should,” even though the Indiana Jones ended very satisfactorily with Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade more than three decades ago.
Yes, technically, that’s Indiana Jones cracking wise and cracking his whip, but the thrill is gone.
We even preferred Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which also probably shouldn’t have been made.
Batman & Robin

For our money, this is perhaps the worst movie ever made, when you consider how good it could have been vs. what it turned out to be. It had a red-hot cast including Arnold Schwarzenegger (above), George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone and Uma Thurman, plus Batman, maybe the single-best character in American fiction, and a budget of more than $125 million.
So there are no excuses for the debacle that resulted: Weird costumes, cartoonish execution, and Mr. Freeze puns that are, in retrospect, the only worthwhile part of the movie, in a so-bad-they’re-good kind of way.
But don’t take it from us, take it from George Clooney, who gets many points for honesty: “When I say ‘Batman and Robin’ is a terrible film, I always go, ‘I was terrible in it,” Clooney told GQ in 2020. “Because I was, number one. But also because then it allows you the ability to say, ‘Having said I sucked in it, I can also say that none of these other elements worked either.’ You know? Lines like ‘Freeze, Freeze!’”
We’d much rather see a movie that does that best that it can with a $5,000 budget than a mess like Batman & Robin.
Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Exactly one good thing came from the third Jaws sequel: Michael Caine’s quote about doing the movie for the money.
In his 1992 memoir, What’s It All About, Caine wrote of the film:
“I have never seen the film but by all accounts it was terrible. However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.”
Sometimes bad sequels that should never be made beget nice houses for actors we like, so that’s a silver lining.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

The first Ant-Man is one of the best Marvel movies because of its goofy charm and low stakes. This bad sequel throws out everything that made the original so likable in favor of a gloomy, weightless journey through CGI hell with a villain (Kang, played by Jonathan Majors) who has a confusing set of powers and limitations.
It’s humorless and boring, despite the presence of Bill Murray, whose arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe should have felt like a much bigger event.
The Thor and Captain America franchises yielded some sequels that were superior to the original. Not so with Ant-Man.
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

If the star of the movie doesn’t come back, you probably have a bad sequel on your hands. The exit of Keanu Reeves — and lame decision to relocate the movie from the streets to the sea — should have made this a non-starter.
To her credit, Sandra Bullock has expressed public regret for coming back to the franchise minus Reeves, telling Variety she is “still embarrassed” she appeared in it: “I’ve been very vocal about it. Makes no sense. Slow boat. Slowly going towards an island.”
Even Willem Dafoe (pictured), taking over crazy man duties from original Speed baddie Dennis Hopper, couldn’t save this.
Caddy Shack II (1988)

The original Caddyshack couldn’t help but be funny thanks to the presence of three brilliant comedy stars — Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield — under the guidance of one of the greatest comedy directors, Harold Ramis.
But Caddyshack II put the comedic onus on Jackie Mason, peppering things up with special appearances by Chase and another Saturday Night Live alum, Dan Aykroyd. Ramis came back to write, but it wasn’t enough. The original Caddyshack in one of the most quoted movies of all, and Caddyshack II just isn’t. It’s the epitome of a bad and unnecessary sequel.
Also: Roman numerals, Caddy Shack II? Really?
American Psycho 2: All-American Girl (2002)

American Psycho, based on the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, was often considered unfilmable due its mix of graphic violence and esoteric humor — until Mary Harron cracked it magnificently with her outstanding film adaption in 2000.
Two years later, distributor Lions Gate cheapened the original film with this baffling bad sequel starring Mila Kunis and William Shatner. Abandoning all the social satire of American Psycho, the film stars with a young girl murdering Bateman, and subsequently becoming a killer herself.
Unsurprisingly, it was based on a script that initially had nothing to do with American Psycho, but was misguidedly linked to it to capitalize on the success of the Mary Harron film.
Don’t blame Kunis, who has expressed regrets: “When I did the second one, I didn’t know it would be American Psycho II,” she told MTV News. “It was supposed to be a different project, and it was re-edited, but, ooh … I don’t know. Bad.”
The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Reloaded was fine. The Merovingian, Persephone, and The Twins were all cool additions to the Matrix mythology, and the car chase with The Twins was excellent.
But does anyone remember a single thing that happened in The Matrix Revolutions, the third film in the original trilogy? The magic was long exhausted by that point, raising the question of whether the whole Matrix franchise should have been left at the original film, which is basically flawless.
2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, meanwhile, is so detached from the other films that it almost feels more like a reunion special than a film. It’s not a good or bad sequel, it’s just there.
Highlander II: The Quickening

The original Highlander was a wild, way-better-than-it-needed-to-be celebration of ’80s excess. A very cool movie filled with visual delights, courtesy of director Russell Mulcahy, one of the greatest of all music video directors.
Highlander II is almost universally derided as a baffling misstep, despite the return of Mulcahy and Highlander stars Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.
According to the documentary Highlander II: Seduced by Argentina, the film suffered due to conflicts between Mulcahy and the film’s bonding company, and the bonding company took control of the final film. The original deserved better than this bad sequel.
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