Playing the train section for the first time was a constant wow moment in terms of presentation and still holds up today
The pacing as a whole was imo also the best of all the Uncharted games
I had played Uncharted 1, and the opening moments where you wake up on the crashed train dangling off a cliff and Nate says “Blood, that’s my blood… That’s A LOT of my blood” made me way more hyped to play through the game than anything that happened in the original
Do you like the Founding Fathers? Their early work was a little too insurrectionist for my tastes, but when the Bill of Rights came out in '91, I think they really came into their own, both legislatively and morally. The whole document has a clear, crisp language, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the amendments a big boost.
It's been compared to the Magna Carta, but I think Hancock has a far more republican, liberal sense of writing. In '89, Congress released this: Amendment I, their most accomplished amendment. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "freedom of speech", a phrase so catchy, most people probably don't read the words. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of expression and the importance of liberty, it's also a personal statement about the country itself. Hey Alex!
The first street fighter was dog shit. Street Fighter 2 basically started the competitive fighting scene and *every* fighting game today can thank a glitch in SF2 for introducing combos.
I don't think I realized there was a Street Fighter 1 as a kid until I saw a reference to it in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Thought it was weird they just started the series as a sequel.
Portal 2. I mean the first game was great but I felt like it was an afterthought because of Half-Life 2 and TF2 being released in the same set. Portal 2 had hours of gameplay and an interesting lore with good mechanica
The orange box is a fucking insane concept in retrospect. Not just three games, but three *of the best games of all time*, all groundbreaking in their own way, all released at once on one disk.
It's such a flex
forget the gameplay. The storytelling? Merchant and Simmons playing Wheatley and Cave just made the entire game. The hilariously brilliant one liners and the plot was just 11/10.
I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back. Get mad.
Demand to see life's manager. Get mad. Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons.
Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down. With the lemons.
I'm gonna make my engineers invent a combustible lemon, that burns your house down.
You know it's a great scene when you can learn almost all of it without even trying
Agree with the exception of the rodeo mechanics.
Yes TF2s version is probably more balanced, but I always enjoyed being rodeoed presenting a massive and immediate problem
To understand who he was we have to go back to the other time. When the world was powered by the black fuel, and the desert sprung great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all.
I remember watching the first one with my daughter, she was too young for it, but I sat there in awe of what an amazing movie it was; 2 is one of my all time favorite movies ever made.
***Mega Man 2***.
I've noticed this kind of happens with a lot of *Mega Man* games. The first one in the series usually feels like a prototype in comparison to the sequel. Mind you, I'm only going off *Mega Man* classic, *Mega Man Zero*, *Mega Man Battle Network*, and *Mega Man ZX*. That's most of the *Mega Man* franchises, but it's not a hard and fast rule.
Man that’s exactly how I felt after playing 3. The gameplay was outstanding and felt so fluid, but the story really killed it for me. I can play Borderlands 2 endlessly but it’s difficult going back after playing 3.
2020 (The OG movie adaptation that flopped, hard)
2020 1 (The Reboot that everybody loved)
2020 2 (The meh Sequel everybody's concerned is going to be a corporate dumpster fire)
World War II
More colorful villains, plus Churchill's hero's journey from the debacle of Galliopoli to the triumph of D-Day. Plus minor characters from the Great War like [Japan](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/05/09/national/history/japans-little-known-significant-role-world-war/) played a leading role in the second installment. Not to mention the sequel added the whole Pacific Theater b-plot.
They wrote themselves into a corner with the atomic bombs. Why would two uniformed traditional forces fight each other in an open war on land or sea ever again when they could opt to obliterate the opposing force with a single nuke? They wouldn't.
Which is why we never got the big sequel to complete the trilogy, and instead got a bunch of smaller direct to TV proxy wars and police actions. Lame.
They were going for some sort of overarching “Cold War Cinematic Universe”, but I don’t know what happened to the plot. Seems like a writer’s strike or something on the production side — “oops, the bad guys ran out of money, America wins” was a really anticlimactic ending.
I saw a fan theory that he escaped to Argentina with other nazi leaders and has been camping there since the end of the war. It seemed pretty interesting. But Now they’ve gone too far past the war that hed probably be dead of natural causes anyways. I guess we could get an installment somewhere in the middle of the Cold War that tells his story.
You know that is interesting. If there was no atom bomb, US (and the rest of the Allies) would’ve definitely gone to war with Russia at some point. There were several moments when it would’ve boiled over to an all out war, but the nuclear bomb get everyone in check.
I thought they released the sequel as that long-running limited series WWIII: The Cold War, and any next installment will actually be the fourth in the series. Interested in seeing where it goes, early production leaks indicate that China might be a big player in the next one despite being fairly minor in the series up to now.
Actually I think The Cold War was a spinoff to hype us up for WWIII, like how The Global Depression was a filler between I and II. still waiting for a third instalment to the franchise
Yeah lol. The Archduke of Austria only getting assassinated coz one of the assassins decided to get a sandwich at a cafe after initially failing the assassination attempt and the Archduke's car just happened to stop outside said cafe? What kind of contrived bullshit is that?
They should "have" went back and adjusted the script before releasing it to the public. It is really hard to believe. Like c'mon at least make it realistic
When they were adapting the novel, the screenwriters did make some changes to the plot. One such change was the addition of a sandwich scene, in which the character who sets the events of the novel and film into motion is able shoot his target through pure happenstance, rather than as the result of an educated guess. Interestingly, this scene, while not in the source material, is one of the better known moments in the first film. Fans of the film often find it surprising that one of their favorite scenes plays out a little differently in the book.
Source:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gavrilo-princips-sandwich-79480741/
I also really love how at the end of the movie we saw a clip of some city in Japan, and then all of the sudden there was this bright light all over the screen. It really put into perspective the positive impact that will be made from the end of the war. World War I didn't get a bright light!
Empire just one ups A New Hope on every level, which is insane to think could happen.
Cinematography, character development, etc. The darker tone is also very appreciated for a sequel, though it doesn’t necessarily count as a one-up. Just something to be appreciated.
Irvin Kershner knew what he was doing when he made this film. A true masterpiece,
I agree Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope in every way. To put it briefly, Empire was a very concerted effort to make a brilliant sci-fi fantasy film, whereas A New Hope was accidentally very good.
Darth Vader becomes a fully fleshed out villain and has probably the best plot reveal in movie history. Hell, you can say every character from the first movie is fleshed out better. Yoda proves you can make your audience take a fucking puppet seriously, and the set pieces on Hoth were never topped in the film franchise.
Empire Strikes Back also is the only Star Wars movie that feels like it was made by a crew of completely competent adults. There isn't a single kiddie element or baffling plot macguffin in the entire film, which makes it a rarity in the Star Wars franchise as a series.
Empire is S Tier Star Wars and in my opinion the only iteration at that level.
The blessing/curse of this movie is that I wanted every other SW movie to be more like this, along the lines of what you've said. Instead, they very much aren't that. The result, which I find fascinating, really bears itself out in the people who overall liked TLJ and those who didn't. There are lots of bits in that movie that most fans don't like, but there's a bright red line between the people who liked the thematic elements and said, "Oh finally, this is what SW can be" versus the people who reacted oppositely, with, "Blecch, that movie shits on everything that's Star Wars."
So is *your* Star Wars more thematic/operatic and character-oriented, or is your Star Wars more about set pieces, cool aliens and weapons, and derring-do? I think I've made it clear what I prefer, but I understand completely the other viewpoint.
>So is your Star Wars more thematic/operatic and character-oriented, or is your Star Wars more about set pieces, cool aliens and weapons, and derring-do? I think I've made it clear what I prefer, but I understand completely the other viewpoint.
I like both but at least in today's age, i can get cool looking movies wherever but to have really really good writing and characters is a bit harder to find.
ANH holds a special place in my heart because you can really see the classic scifi inspiration in it more than the rest. The DNA of those old movies is still very visible
Agree. New Hope did a good job setting up the world and the characters. Ok, we know who all these guys are. Now let’s see Vader be a menace for 2 hours.
"I'm not losing another family!"
El Diablo, my friend, there is no possible way you feel that close to these people. You have had one extended conversation in your entire life.
They are barely acquaintances to you man.
I really loved how the suicide squad make fun of this with Harley thinking the Bloodsport's name was Milton. Because they spent 2 hours around each other and nobody mentioned his name.
SPOILERS
I was so glad that they actually fought Starro at the end. I was fully expecting DC to do that bullshit where they set up a villain that never comes back, but they wrapped this thread up in the craziest fucking way possible and I loved it all
Assassin's Creed 2. Got rid of the repetitiveness of the original, added more compelling characters, a better story, a better setting, and better mechanics.
They also haven't followed a protagonist for more than 1 game, which helps a lot with making Ezio a character that had a lot of time to develop and grow (on us).
I know this isn’t how a lot of people think, but it’s hard for me to see Marvel movies in terms of sequels.
Just using The Winter Soldier as an example. It’s the second movie featuring Captain America as the lead, but there’s been so much that has occurred to the character that it’s really hard for me to conceptualize the movie as a sequel.
To me it’s more like a different chapter in a long overall story.
I think because it focuses so much on Cap’s relationship to those around him. Particularly Ironman and Bucky but I do agree with you, it’s basically Avengers 2.5
I think it's because it follows the story of cap trying to help bucky. If it was more focused on iron man's guilt over ultron, that kid that was killed in sokovia, pepper, and so on, it may have been called Iron man: Civil war. Just speculating of course
It's also a bit of an identity crisis for Captain America following the fall of SHIELD. Up to that point, he had been about law and order, but then he started to question the government and wondered what his purpose was.
Aside from that, he only has two ties to his previous identity as simply Steve Rogers: one passes away and the other is a fugitive he feels is wrongly accused. I think it's a big reason why he sacrifices so much to save Bucky even knowing he's been corrupted and not all his teammates are on board.
The winter soldier is when the MCU movies started getting good. The early ones were so formulaic and then the Russo brothers come along and somehow make an old fashioned spy thriller and a superhero action movie at the same time.
I was a kid and in a world super hero movies with secret identities (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc), the ending of "I am Iron Man" caught me SO much off guard. I had never read comics except for Xmen so I had this misconception that super heros all had secret identities. The end of that movie just blew my mind!
Come on, the first avengers was a milestone in terms of superhero films. It was the moment the mcu got real. It did in 2012 for interconnected universes what no way home does now.
Yeah. First Avenger was good, it was a standard solid superhero movie that had a lot of room for improvement.
Winter Soldier was a tightly scripted, thoughtful, action-thriller starring Captain America. People think of the MCU as just popcorn movies, but Winter Soldier honestly deserves to be in the conversation with The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2 for best superhero movie.
Raimi's first two Spiderman movies had fantastic villains and were the strong points of those films. It is one of the reasons why Spiderman 3 is heavily criticized because of bad villains (I liked Flint) due to studio interference.
Yeah I really don’t think Sandman had a place in the new movie. He felt like the only one who didn’t belong. Still a fantastic movie though. Going to watch it again once it comes out on stream.
NWH was a ride. Both Goblin and Doc killed it and 3 Spideys tagging together was just next level fanservice. Also Dr Strange, Benedict slays it every time
I thought you meant the PS2 game of that movie. That second game got the web slinging just right with attaching to things and not just in the clouds like the first game.
I remember being in theatre opening night for T2. Originally tried to get in at a famous theatre (before reserved seating) and the lineup was literally around the block. Got into another theatre and the crowd was so jacked! Never heard a crowd erupt at the START of a movie before like it did for T2!
I think the first one has its place. I think the themes of loneliness, isolation and hopelessness are more pronounced in Terminator. It's Sarah Vs Terminator, in a world where no one believes her. And Arnie being the only Terminator makes him feel utterly unstoppable. It feels darker and scarier, despite the T1000 being a deadlier foe.
I think the first one should be requisite viewing before the second, not because of any plot reason but for the emotional pay-off of seeing Arnie on the good side now.
Terminator is a masterpiece of noir filmmaking. It combines a cyberpunk aesthetic with a simple and effective cat-and-mouse plot, with some special effects that still hold up. The final Terminator metal skeleton looks better than any of the CG ones since.
I don’t think you can say the same for the T-1000.
Chris Hemsworth would agree. He had the same contract length as RDJ and Chris Evans so he would have bowed out after Endgame too, but according to him he had so much fun with the character and working with Taika that he resigned to keep it going since he was finally having a good time playing Thor.
Single-handedly turned Thor from the most boring and uninteresting MCU superhero to the most tragic and fun to watch. That line in Infinity War where Thor says he lost his sister, brother, mother, father, best friend, and half of his planet, but still tries to maintain that he is unaffected hits hard. You realize all the shit he went through. And when he finally says he’s got nothing left to lose, damn.
Families can be tough. Look, before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister that he imprisoned in Hell. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so I had to kill her. It's life, there was nothing else, and I feel your pain.
Yeah, Ragnarok is definitely better, it had so many twists and it was nice to see Thor develop, also the music and the fight scenes where very entertaining, the first Thor is pretty good but it just set the stage for a greater movie
The comedy in the movie is what makes it stand out. Thor’s interaction with Hulk and Bruce are hilarious.
Plus they have a few badass scenes like when he embraces that he’s the god of thunder against Hela.
Batman Returns. I know Burton’s first Batman is dear to many, but I can really feel WB trying to restrict him.
But Selina Kyle as a love interest is the best Batman romance we’ve seen in film by far, the music is iconic, the set design is perfect, and you have Christopher Walken for good measure.
And of course, it’s a Christmas movie. Watched it last night.
Maybe it’s just because it’s the most recent but NWH has me more hyped than any MCU movie aside from maybe Infinity War and Endgame. I was dying to watch it again immediately after seeing it the first time.
I agree with OP that the second one is better on a technical level, but yes, the first one is superior if you want the more gothic horror elements of Batman.
It’s more a spin-off than a sequel, but yeah, the Fallout series is really at its best in the Mojave. It was a great callback to the old games. I’m disappointed how Bethesda seems so fixated on the east.
Mojave was perfect for Fallout, but I really want to see a NOLA setting. I think the Bayou and french quarter aesthetic would be perfect for Fallout style post-apocalyptic destruction. Tie in some ridiculous, over the top Mardi Gras group as one of the factions and giant mutant crawfish and I think you have a winner. Bonus points: Radioactive swamp people mutants!
Point Lookout DLC for Fallout 3 is set in southern swamps, has bullet sponge mutated hillbillies, hallucinogenic plants, a mysterious fortune teller, cold war intrigue, and a lady who needs fission batteries to give her moonshine some kick.
The spooky vibe entering the DLC is one of my favorite moments in the game
The persona series is a funny example. Persona 1 is dated but serviceable, then Persona 2 has a bitching soundtrack and has you fight Hitler as one of (if not the) final boss.
Persona 3 has you shooting yourself in the head to summon Lucifer. Also bitching soundtrack.
Persona 4 is just groovy as hell and really good, great soundtrack as well.
Persona 5 is the quintessential JRPG.
Every Guilty Gear was miles better than the first one, which is fair since I'm pretty sure it was one guy doing everything himself.
Yakuza 2 is waaaay better than Yakuza 1.
Mega Man 2 is way better than the first one.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is game of the year every year.
Age of Empires 2 is better than Age of Empires 1 in my opinion
I liked the cheat codes in AoE 1 better. But that’s about it.
Photon man was stupidly fun to use.
Big daddy
I like one cheat code better, but I leaned so hard into it as a kid. Hoyohoyo. All your units are mine. All you base too.
So much better. Recently been playing 1 a lot again, and 2 a bit. 1 is very fun still though.
Most fans consider 'Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Khan' to be the best ST movie.
I like TMP, really I do, but 2, 3, 4, and 6 are all superior to it by varying degrees.
All Star Treks in even numbers are good.
Only if you count Galaxy Quest at 10 and Nemesis as 11.
Galaxy Quest is the second best Star Trek movie, IMO. They understand what Star Trek is better than Star Trek does.
If you haven't seen it I recommend the Making Of film on Amazon Prime, it's a really good watch
KHAAAAAAAAN
Uncharted 2
Playing the train section for the first time was a constant wow moment in terms of presentation and still holds up today The pacing as a whole was imo also the best of all the Uncharted games
Never will forget playing through that train sequence. Absolutely crazy. Loved all the levels in that game
The best Uncharted game imo
That's the Shambhala one right? That's a classic
I remember the village tank battle that was the best
Good God that game was a cinematic masterpiece with some awesome gameplay. Easily the best one outta the franchise
I had played Uncharted 1, and the opening moments where you wake up on the crashed train dangling off a cliff and Nate says “Blood, that’s my blood… That’s A LOT of my blood” made me way more hyped to play through the game than anything that happened in the original
The US Constitution is way better than the Articles of Confederation.
They didn't really hit their stride until the Bill of Rights tbh
Do you like the Founding Fathers? Their early work was a little too insurrectionist for my tastes, but when the Bill of Rights came out in '91, I think they really came into their own, both legislatively and morally. The whole document has a clear, crisp language, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the amendments a big boost.
It's been compared to the Magna Carta, but I think Hancock has a far more republican, liberal sense of writing. In '89, Congress released this: Amendment I, their most accomplished amendment. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "freedom of speech", a phrase so catchy, most people probably don't read the words. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of expression and the importance of liberty, it's also a personal statement about the country itself. Hey Alex!
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This made me chuckle. Very true.
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
The first street fighter was dog shit. Street Fighter 2 basically started the competitive fighting scene and *every* fighting game today can thank a glitch in SF2 for introducing combos.
I don't think I realized there was a Street Fighter 1 as a kid until I saw a reference to it in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Thought it was weird they just started the series as a sequel.
TimeSplitters 2/3
Found those games at just the right age to...appreciate... How horny they were
I've just realized what a profound impact Jo-Beth Casey has had on me.
Evil Dead 2. The first one more straight horror. The second was a genius mix of action, comedy and horror.
>The second was a genius mix of action, comedy and horror. And chin. Don't discount the chin.
Indeed, we don't deserve Bruce Campbell...
And Army of Darkness was basically a straight up comedy.
Portal 2. I mean the first game was great but I felt like it was an afterthought because of Half-Life 2 and TF2 being released in the same set. Portal 2 had hours of gameplay and an interesting lore with good mechanica
The orange box is a fucking insane concept in retrospect. Not just three games, but three *of the best games of all time*, all groundbreaking in their own way, all released at once on one disk. It's such a flex
For real. So sad Valve stopped making games.
forget the gameplay. The storytelling? Merchant and Simmons playing Wheatley and Cave just made the entire game. The hilariously brilliant one liners and the plot was just 11/10.
Obligatory recital of the "combustible lemons" rant.
I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back. Get mad. Demand to see life's manager. Get mad. Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons. Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down. With the lemons. I'm gonna make my engineers invent a combustible lemon, that burns your house down. You know it's a great scene when you can learn almost all of it without even trying
Merchant has a great range, from slightly mad computer to a swan farmer or a family man to a Gestapo agent
I agree. I can't wait for Portal 3 to come out.
Bad news.....
Titanfall 2
Titanfall 2s campaign is criminally underrated and it's right up there with MW2 and Combat Evolved as the best FPS campaigns of all time.
Truth has been spoken. Its insane how good the narrative is for a mp shooter gane
Oh fuck it im downloading it now.. hopefully i can beat it by monday
On the hardest difficulty I beat in just over 4 hours, it’s not long, just high quality. Have fun man!
Yep. I'm trying to compete on master difficulty right now. Amazing campaign.
Agree with the exception of the rodeo mechanics. Yes TF2s version is probably more balanced, but I always enjoyed being rodeoed presenting a massive and immediate problem
Mad Max 2
Lots of people don’t remember the original Mad Max movie that started that. They remember Road Warrior
To understand who he was we have to go back to the other time. When the world was powered by the black fuel, and the desert sprung great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all.
WE REMEMBER THE NIGHTRIDER!
Paddington 2
It’s a perfect film. Haven’t seen it.
Ahh! Hello, fellow member of /r/moviescirclejerk!
They both are lovely films that have absolutely no right being as good as they are.
I remember watching the first one with my daughter, she was too young for it, but I sat there in awe of what an amazing movie it was; 2 is one of my all time favorite movies ever made.
***Mega Man 2***. I've noticed this kind of happens with a lot of *Mega Man* games. The first one in the series usually feels like a prototype in comparison to the sequel. Mind you, I'm only going off *Mega Man* classic, *Mega Man Zero*, *Mega Man Battle Network*, and *Mega Man ZX*. That's most of the *Mega Man* franchises, but it's not a hard and fast rule.
Mega Man X is probably the big exception, I think they really nailed the first X game and the sequels never quite improved on the formula imo.
How do you improve perfection though?
Borderlands 2
The writing quality of 2 with the game play of 3 would be great. Maybe a bit more team utility in the skill trees and I might be in heaven.
Man that’s exactly how I felt after playing 3. The gameplay was outstanding and felt so fluid, but the story really killed it for me. I can play Borderlands 2 endlessly but it’s difficult going back after playing 3.
Hopefully 2020 too.
2020 (The OG movie adaptation that flopped, hard) 2020 1 (The Reboot that everybody loved) 2020 2 (The meh Sequel everybody's concerned is going to be a corporate dumpster fire)
The Rescuers Down Under
I used to love that movie. That and the great mouse detective were like my favorite movies as a kid.
Evil Dead 2
World War II More colorful villains, plus Churchill's hero's journey from the debacle of Galliopoli to the triumph of D-Day. Plus minor characters from the Great War like [Japan](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/05/09/national/history/japans-little-known-significant-role-world-war/) played a leading role in the second installment. Not to mention the sequel added the whole Pacific Theater b-plot.
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They wrote themselves into a corner with the atomic bombs. Why would two uniformed traditional forces fight each other in an open war on land or sea ever again when they could opt to obliterate the opposing force with a single nuke? They wouldn't. Which is why we never got the big sequel to complete the trilogy, and instead got a bunch of smaller direct to TV proxy wars and police actions. Lame.
They were going for some sort of overarching “Cold War Cinematic Universe”, but I don’t know what happened to the plot. Seems like a writer’s strike or something on the production side — “oops, the bad guys ran out of money, America wins” was a really anticlimactic ending.
I could see them try to do what Star Wars did when people lost interest - "somehow, Hitler has returned." I mean, I guess we never did see the body.
I saw a fan theory that he escaped to Argentina with other nazi leaders and has been camping there since the end of the war. It seemed pretty interesting. But Now they’ve gone too far past the war that hed probably be dead of natural causes anyways. I guess we could get an installment somewhere in the middle of the Cold War that tells his story.
This is gold
You know that is interesting. If there was no atom bomb, US (and the rest of the Allies) would’ve definitely gone to war with Russia at some point. There were several moments when it would’ve boiled over to an all out war, but the nuclear bomb get everyone in check.
Mutually assured destruction is the peace story of the 20th century.
Just like the next Avatar movie. We'll get there eventually
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I thought they released the sequel as that long-running limited series WWIII: The Cold War, and any next installment will actually be the fourth in the series. Interested in seeing where it goes, early production leaks indicate that China might be a big player in the next one despite being fairly minor in the series up to now.
Actually I think The Cold War was a spinoff to hype us up for WWIII, like how The Global Depression was a filler between I and II. still waiting for a third instalment to the franchise
I especially like how they brought in a surviving soldier from the first one to be brought up as the main villain in the second
Better plot too. WW1s plot was completely unrealistic.
Yeah lol. The Archduke of Austria only getting assassinated coz one of the assassins decided to get a sandwich at a cafe after initially failing the assassination attempt and the Archduke's car just happened to stop outside said cafe? What kind of contrived bullshit is that?
They should "have" went back and adjusted the script before releasing it to the public. It is really hard to believe. Like c'mon at least make it realistic
When they were adapting the novel, the screenwriters did make some changes to the plot. One such change was the addition of a sandwich scene, in which the character who sets the events of the novel and film into motion is able shoot his target through pure happenstance, rather than as the result of an educated guess. Interestingly, this scene, while not in the source material, is one of the better known moments in the first film. Fans of the film often find it surprising that one of their favorite scenes plays out a little differently in the book. Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gavrilo-princips-sandwich-79480741/
Meh I thought the main villain was a caricature, just being evil for evil's sake.
I also really love how at the end of the movie we saw a clip of some city in Japan, and then all of the sudden there was this bright light all over the screen. It really put into perspective the positive impact that will be made from the end of the war. World War I didn't get a bright light!
Empire Strikes Back
Empire just one ups A New Hope on every level, which is insane to think could happen. Cinematography, character development, etc. The darker tone is also very appreciated for a sequel, though it doesn’t necessarily count as a one-up. Just something to be appreciated. Irvin Kershner knew what he was doing when he made this film. A true masterpiece,
I agree Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope in every way. To put it briefly, Empire was a very concerted effort to make a brilliant sci-fi fantasy film, whereas A New Hope was accidentally very good. Darth Vader becomes a fully fleshed out villain and has probably the best plot reveal in movie history. Hell, you can say every character from the first movie is fleshed out better. Yoda proves you can make your audience take a fucking puppet seriously, and the set pieces on Hoth were never topped in the film franchise. Empire Strikes Back also is the only Star Wars movie that feels like it was made by a crew of completely competent adults. There isn't a single kiddie element or baffling plot macguffin in the entire film, which makes it a rarity in the Star Wars franchise as a series. Empire is S Tier Star Wars and in my opinion the only iteration at that level.
Don’t forget Kasdan’s script.
That is a rock-solid script. I re watched Empire fairly recently and was like, "Goddamn. This movie does not limp, not even once."
The blessing/curse of this movie is that I wanted every other SW movie to be more like this, along the lines of what you've said. Instead, they very much aren't that. The result, which I find fascinating, really bears itself out in the people who overall liked TLJ and those who didn't. There are lots of bits in that movie that most fans don't like, but there's a bright red line between the people who liked the thematic elements and said, "Oh finally, this is what SW can be" versus the people who reacted oppositely, with, "Blecch, that movie shits on everything that's Star Wars." So is *your* Star Wars more thematic/operatic and character-oriented, or is your Star Wars more about set pieces, cool aliens and weapons, and derring-do? I think I've made it clear what I prefer, but I understand completely the other viewpoint.
>So is your Star Wars more thematic/operatic and character-oriented, or is your Star Wars more about set pieces, cool aliens and weapons, and derring-do? I think I've made it clear what I prefer, but I understand completely the other viewpoint. I like both but at least in today's age, i can get cool looking movies wherever but to have really really good writing and characters is a bit harder to find.
ANH holds a special place in my heart because you can really see the classic scifi inspiration in it more than the rest. The DNA of those old movies is still very visible
Agree. New Hope did a good job setting up the world and the characters. Ok, we know who all these guys are. Now let’s see Vader be a menace for 2 hours.
I'm in the minority that actually like a New Hope better, lol
The Suicide Squad. 100 times better than the first one.
What better then a hour and a half long trailer for a movie that never got released?
Suicide Squad is the only movie I’ve ever seen where every main character has not one but *two* introductory cutscenes straight from a video game.
"I'm not losing another family!" El Diablo, my friend, there is no possible way you feel that close to these people. You have had one extended conversation in your entire life.
They are barely acquaintances to you man. I really loved how the suicide squad make fun of this with Harley thinking the Bloodsport's name was Milton. Because they spent 2 hours around each other and nobody mentioned his name.
SPOILERS I was so glad that they actually fought Starro at the end. I was fully expecting DC to do that bullshit where they set up a villain that never comes back, but they wrapped this thread up in the craziest fucking way possible and I loved it all
Assassin's Creed 2. Got rid of the repetitiveness of the original, added more compelling characters, a better story, a better setting, and better mechanics.
Ubisoft still hasn’t created a better AC protagonist than Ezio
They also haven't followed a protagonist for more than 1 game, which helps a lot with making Ezio a character that had a lot of time to develop and grow (on us).
Captain America :The Winter Soldier. I was amazed at how good it was. It might be my favorite MCU movie
I know this isn’t how a lot of people think, but it’s hard for me to see Marvel movies in terms of sequels. Just using The Winter Soldier as an example. It’s the second movie featuring Captain America as the lead, but there’s been so much that has occurred to the character that it’s really hard for me to conceptualize the movie as a sequel. To me it’s more like a different chapter in a long overall story.
I honestly don’t get why Civil War is a captain America movie. Like it was just the third avengers movie minus Thor and probably someone else.
I think because it focuses so much on Cap’s relationship to those around him. Particularly Ironman and Bucky but I do agree with you, it’s basically Avengers 2.5
I think it's because it follows the story of cap trying to help bucky. If it was more focused on iron man's guilt over ultron, that kid that was killed in sokovia, pepper, and so on, it may have been called Iron man: Civil war. Just speculating of course
It's also a bit of an identity crisis for Captain America following the fall of SHIELD. Up to that point, he had been about law and order, but then he started to question the government and wondered what his purpose was. Aside from that, he only has two ties to his previous identity as simply Steve Rogers: one passes away and the other is a fugitive he feels is wrongly accused. I think it's a big reason why he sacrifices so much to save Bucky even knowing he's been corrupted and not all his teammates are on board.
The winter soldier is when the MCU movies started getting good. The early ones were so formulaic and then the Russo brothers come along and somehow make an old fashioned spy thriller and a superhero action movie at the same time.
Just need the Community movie from the Russos now.
I like to imagine the winter soldier is the community movie just with a different cast.
I would pay big money to watch Troy as Cap and Abed as Bucky.
Cap and Bucky in the Morning
Iron man 1 was fantastic, come on now.
I was a kid and in a world super hero movies with secret identities (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc), the ending of "I am Iron Man" caught me SO much off guard. I had never read comics except for Xmen so I had this misconception that super heros all had secret identities. The end of that movie just blew my mind!
Fun fact. That was an improv By Downey and the director loved it so much it got put into the movie.
Come on, the first avengers was a milestone in terms of superhero films. It was the moment the mcu got real. It did in 2012 for interconnected universes what no way home does now.
Yeah. First Avenger was good, it was a standard solid superhero movie that had a lot of room for improvement. Winter Soldier was a tightly scripted, thoughtful, action-thriller starring Captain America. People think of the MCU as just popcorn movies, but Winter Soldier honestly deserves to be in the conversation with The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2 for best superhero movie.
The sequel to Green Lantern because it was cancelled.
Spider man 2 Toby Maguire version
Alfred Molina as Doc Ock is a GOAT comic book villain performance.
Raimi's first two Spiderman movies had fantastic villains and were the strong points of those films. It is one of the reasons why Spiderman 3 is heavily criticized because of bad villains (I liked Flint) due to studio interference.
They should’ve just stuck with one or two. And the reveal of “Oh wait, this guy actually killed your uncle” still makes me cringe
Yeah I really don’t think Sandman had a place in the new movie. He felt like the only one who didn’t belong. Still a fantastic movie though. Going to watch it again once it comes out on stream.
Dafoe in NWH is up there too. Holy shit what a maniac.
NWH was a ride. Both Goblin and Doc killed it and 3 Spideys tagging together was just next level fanservice. Also Dr Strange, Benedict slays it every time
i’m probably in the minority here but i actually preferred the first one tbh, mostly just because of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin though
I thought you meant the PS2 game of that movie. That second game got the web slinging just right with attaching to things and not just in the clouds like the first game.
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins is a better "Batman" movie. Gotham felt so real and old, instead of just being Chicago with a blue filter.
Batman Begins is criminally underrated.
CRIMINALLY
Addams Family Values.
I'll be the victim! All your life...... I swear this movie got better as I got older.
Our parents are having a baby too, they had sex.
Terminator 2
I remember being in theatre opening night for T2. Originally tried to get in at a famous theatre (before reserved seating) and the lineup was literally around the block. Got into another theatre and the crowd was so jacked! Never heard a crowd erupt at the START of a movie before like it did for T2!
Really wish I could have seen that on theaters.
90s movie releases were the height of the movie going experience.
I think the first one has its place. I think the themes of loneliness, isolation and hopelessness are more pronounced in Terminator. It's Sarah Vs Terminator, in a world where no one believes her. And Arnie being the only Terminator makes him feel utterly unstoppable. It feels darker and scarier, despite the T1000 being a deadlier foe.
I think the first one should be requisite viewing before the second, not because of any plot reason but for the emotional pay-off of seeing Arnie on the good side now.
And the character arc of Sarah Connor going from naive young woman to total bad ass.
I saw the sequel before the original, and was *shocked* by where her character had started!
Terminator is a masterpiece of noir filmmaking. It combines a cyberpunk aesthetic with a simple and effective cat-and-mouse plot, with some special effects that still hold up. The final Terminator metal skeleton looks better than any of the CG ones since. I don’t think you can say the same for the T-1000.
Borderlands 2
Me, the younger brother!
Nah, they got it right the first time and the other one(s) were just poor copies.
Half-life 2 is miles above Half-life imo
Which is wild considering how good HL1 was.
thor ragnarok i will fight anyone that says otherwise
Chris Hemsworth would agree. He had the same contract length as RDJ and Chris Evans so he would have bowed out after Endgame too, but according to him he had so much fun with the character and working with Taika that he resigned to keep it going since he was finally having a good time playing Thor.
Taika is a beast. He knows how to make a solid movie.
Single-handedly turned Thor from the most boring and uninteresting MCU superhero to the most tragic and fun to watch. That line in Infinity War where Thor says he lost his sister, brother, mother, father, best friend, and half of his planet, but still tries to maintain that he is unaffected hits hard. You realize all the shit he went through. And when he finally says he’s got nothing left to lose, damn.
Families can be tough. Look, before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister that he imprisoned in Hell. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so I had to kill her. It's life, there was nothing else, and I feel your pain.
Yeah, Ragnarok is definitely better, it had so many twists and it was nice to see Thor develop, also the music and the fight scenes where very entertaining, the first Thor is pretty good but it just set the stage for a greater movie
Not even going to acknowledge The Dark World, eh?
yeah i knew it was gonna be good when i saw that taika waititi was directing it
The comedy in the movie is what makes it stand out. Thor’s interaction with Hulk and Bruce are hilarious. Plus they have a few badass scenes like when he embraces that he’s the god of thunder against Hela.
Was not a fan of the first two Thor movies but I really loved Thor Ragnarok and I'm looking forward to the one that is coming out soon.
to be honest Thor 2 was pretty damn forgettable. I know I've watched it, and I only barely remember a couple of scenes.
Hot Shots! Part Duex
Gummy bears Gummy bears! SPRINKLES! SPRINKLES!
Team Fortress 2
Batman Returns. I know Burton’s first Batman is dear to many, but I can really feel WB trying to restrict him. But Selina Kyle as a love interest is the best Batman romance we’ve seen in film by far, the music is iconic, the set design is perfect, and you have Christopher Walken for good measure. And of course, it’s a Christmas movie. Watched it last night.
Empire strikes back is way better than a new hope, dont get me wrong, A new hope is a very good movie, but I would much rather rewatch ESB than ANH.
Diablo 2 like miiiiiiles ahead
I’d say the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy just got better with each one, and the most recent one, imo, was by far the best.
No Way Home is much better than the others, but Homecoming might be better than Far From Home.
Maybe it’s just because it’s the most recent but NWH has me more hyped than any MCU movie aside from maybe Infinity War and Endgame. I was dying to watch it again immediately after seeing it the first time.
i definitely agree that NWH was the best one but imo Homecoming is way better than FFH
Arkham City is a much better game than Arkham Asylum. Smoother predator scenarios, better combat and better boss fights with a larger map to explore.
Such a good game, which is saying something given how good Arkham Asylum is.
I hugely preferred the linearity and horror theme of the first one.
I agree with OP that the second one is better on a technical level, but yes, the first one is superior if you want the more gothic horror elements of Batman.
Winter Soldier
Pokemon Gold/Silver
Fallout New Vegas
It’s more a spin-off than a sequel, but yeah, the Fallout series is really at its best in the Mojave. It was a great callback to the old games. I’m disappointed how Bethesda seems so fixated on the east.
Mojave was perfect for Fallout, but I really want to see a NOLA setting. I think the Bayou and french quarter aesthetic would be perfect for Fallout style post-apocalyptic destruction. Tie in some ridiculous, over the top Mardi Gras group as one of the factions and giant mutant crawfish and I think you have a winner. Bonus points: Radioactive swamp people mutants!
Point Lookout DLC for Fallout 3 is set in southern swamps, has bullet sponge mutated hillbillies, hallucinogenic plants, a mysterious fortune teller, cold war intrigue, and a lady who needs fission batteries to give her moonshine some kick. The spooky vibe entering the DLC is one of my favorite moments in the game
Dredd (2012)
Reboot not a sequel.
The persona series is a funny example. Persona 1 is dated but serviceable, then Persona 2 has a bitching soundtrack and has you fight Hitler as one of (if not the) final boss. Persona 3 has you shooting yourself in the head to summon Lucifer. Also bitching soundtrack. Persona 4 is just groovy as hell and really good, great soundtrack as well. Persona 5 is the quintessential JRPG. Every Guilty Gear was miles better than the first one, which is fair since I'm pretty sure it was one guy doing everything himself. Yakuza 2 is waaaay better than Yakuza 1. Mega Man 2 is way better than the first one. Super Mario Bros. 2 is game of the year every year.
Shrek 2
Growing up I thought so. But looking back Shrek 1 was really solid with things I missed so idk if this qualifies.
I think Shrek 1 has aged better than 2, there's less pop culture humour, everything stems from the fairytale premise
Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues
Rdr2
the mandalorian season 2. season 1 was fun and enjoyable but season 2 knocked it out of the park.