2009 – The year of the sequel?
"Boldly going where no man has gone before...for the eleventh time"
This summer you would have been forgiven for thinking you had gone back in time. Yet again the box office was dominated by teenage wizards, terminators, X-Men, autobots and Vulcans. Sequels are nothing new, especially in the horror genre, but this year they seemed, for the first time, to actually outnumber original films. And that’s before we even get started on the remakes and adaptations.
Just look back ten years at the films of 1999. Yes, there were sequels (the superlative Toy Story 2), prequels (The Phantom Menace), and adaptations (The Green Mile), but there were no remakes or reboots. 1999 saw the release of genre-creating films including The Matrix and The Blair Witch Project, as well as American Pie, Galaxy Quest, American Beauty and Fight Club. The latter may have been an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk‘s novel, but they were all risky and daring films, creating a remarkable year for originality.
All of which makes 2009 seem even more like a year of derivative rip-offs and spin-offs, and a rather inauspicious end to the decade. But we have to remember that 1999 came at the end of a prosperous, peaceful decade, when jobs were secure and people could take a punt on risky film ventures. Now, money is scarce and producers are increasingly relying on projects with an in-built fan-base. Big-budget action movies have always spawned safe-bet sequels, while cheap horror movie franchises have always run and run, so this year’s Saw 6 was no surprise.
Producers have relied heavily on adaptations this year. 2009 saw weepies The Time Traveler’s Wife, My Sister’s Keeper and The Lovely Bones take a big screen sob, Watchmen became practically a live action version of the graphic novel, while Coraline, The Fantastic Mr Fox and Where the Wild Things Are freaked out a whole new generation of kids.
Adaptations proved so popular that traditional sequels fell out of favour. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and New Moon, neither of them classics, were the next film in a book series rather than straight forward sequels. Terminator Salvation is really only memorable for being the first film ever to be both a sequel and a prequel, while X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the most unnecessary prequel ever made, re-telling a story that X2 told far better.
After a slew of disappointing, repetitive and downright awful sequels, along came Star Trek on its white steed, proving that reboots can work. It might be the 11th film in the Star Trek series (and god knows how many TV episodes there have been), but it managed to be brave and original, splintering off from the previous Trekkie canon and elbowing itself some space on an overcrowded dancefloor. It is not just a damn good sequel/prequel/reboot – it’s a great action movie, and probably the most entertaining film of the year.
The message here is that there is no reason for sequels to be bad. Sometimes they can be better than the original, dispensing with the character intros and launching straight into the story, which is particularly true of superhero movies. The trick is simply to have some balls. When a sequel is brave enough to create its own identity, a classic is born. Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and The Godfather Part Two are widely (and correctly) regarded as some of the greatest sequels of all time, and they are all wildly different to their predecessors. Aliens even goes so far as to be in a completely different genre to the original. This allows them to pick up new fans while giving the old ones something new and exciting, but still in the world they loved from the first film. Star Trek does the same thing.
This rule also applies to adaptations. Harry Potter was an occasionally boring re-tread of the book, unimaginatively loyal to the source material. Compare that to Coraline and Where the Wild Things Are. Both stay as true to the material as they can, while also developing the book’s world and doing it in wonderfully creative, spooky visuals. They are proof that you can be original within the confines of an adaptation.
It’s worth remembering that 2009 also boasted some great original films, including The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, Drag Me to Hell, Inglourious Basterds and the forthcoming Avatar, which, if the rumours are to be believed, will be as much of a genre-definer as The Matrix was ten years ago. But, to be honest, for every Zombieland there were three Night at the Museum 2s. Unfortunately, good sequels do seem to be the exception to the rule. But having said that, who isn’t looking forward to Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3 and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland next year? As long as there are great books to be adapted and wonderful worlds and characters to be revisited, fans will be crying out for sequels and reboots, and producers will be more than happy to provide. It’s just a shame that for every The Dark Knight there’s always a Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Let’s hope that the end of the recession will see a return to big original blockbusters, like Waterworld. Hmm, maybe it’d be best to stick to Batman…
Abigail Chandler
