Top 10 Most Disappointing Theatrical Sequels or Prequels to Good Movies

There are a lot of movies that become big hits and end up receiving sequels. Unfortunately, sequels don’t usually tend to have the same amount of effort put into them as their predecessors. So let’s take a look at some of the most disappointing theatrical sequels/prequels to good movies. As disappointing as these sequels are, they’re nowhere near as disappointing as the Super Bowl LIII halftime show.
The Top Ten
1 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Everyone has pretty much already said how much this movie sucks. Except for the 3% percent of people who like it. While it isn't a good movie, I will point out some good things about it. The lightsaber battles are very entertaining. Darth Maul is an excellent bad guy. The pod racing scene is fun to watch. There are some very creative moments. Especially in the designs of the alien creatures. After doing a bit of thinking, I think midichloreans are an interesting concept. There are things to like about it, but unfortunately, it's a poorly written and poorly directed mess. Considering this was a follow up to one of the greatest trilogies of all time, that's not a good thing. This one was clearly just made for kids. However, as disappointing as it was, it's nowhere near as bad as Attack of the Clones.

I wouldn't call this movie disappointing, more of a why would they devote an entire movie on a young anakin instead of a teenage anakin. Episode 2 was much more disappointing, because that was where there were huge opportunities to make a wonderful movie exploring new planets and new big conflicts, this movie you knew was going to be a let down from the gecko which actually makes it enjoyable, because it is a good kind of kids space adventure story

The Star Wars prequels are over hated. Most of the flaws present in the prequels, and in the sequels for that matter, are also present in the original trilogy. I think people look at the original trilogy with rose colored glasses while complaining about how any Star Wars movies released later don't live up to their idealized view of the original trilogy.

None of the prequels have aged especially well, but I think this is the best of them. It isn't plagued by as many of the acting/dialogue issues of the next two.

2 Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet broke my heart. How could they follow up such an amazing movie with something this pathetic? They actually managed to make Ralph unlikeable. The guy they went out of their way in the first movie to tell us is not a bad guy. He does the most unforgivable thing at one point and it just ruined his entire character. There's also a bunch of plot holes. Like Ralph being inside Sugar Rush while the arcade is open even though he SHOULD HAVE been inside his own game! They're also in the Internet for over 24 hours. So how is Fix-it Felix Jr. operating without its main bad guy? The movie also ends with Vanellope going turbo even though the first movie told us that going turbo is bad! This movie is dumb! Objectively not as good as the first movie!

Can we get those "amazing" and "fantastic" comments if of here? Ralph and Vanellope weren't who they were in the original, the Disney Princesses were reduced to Tumblr stereotypes and given stupid new cheap outfits, the only game that really featured was this colorless violent uninspired thing with a stupid name that I don't see how anyone could "dream" of living in, and of course references to dead memes.

The Emoji Movie: Ripoff, The Emoji Movie 2.0, Wreck it Ralph 2: Revenge of the Emoji Movie, The Fortnite Movie. Either way, this movie was bad. It had little to no connection to the original and its ending was so bad that it's enough to end the series. At least The Emoji Movie had a good storyline and it's the best alternative over this.

Unless you saw a version without vapid parodies of the Disney Princesses, Ralph and Vanellope not being so out-of-character from the first movie, the Sugar Rush kids not just being generic preschool terrors, Felix and the space marine being stuck having to wrangle the aforementioned kids, a place called Slaughter Race and song about it, dead memes, ads out the wazoo, or a boring female character everyone loves because she was voiced by a very overrated "star", don't say this was "FANTASTIC".

3 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I personally don't think it's as bad as people say it is, but this is definitely the weakest Indiana Jones film. It doesn't even feel like an Indiana Jones film. Why are there aliens involved? Also, this movie uses a lot of CGI. It doesn't even look remotely good. I didn't like Mutt Williams at first, but he's kinda grown on me. I think Shia does a great job of playing the character. Overall, this movie is kinda a mess and doesn't feel like it belongs in the franchise. Hopefully Indiana Jones 5 will be better. Since Disney managed to save Star Wars, they might be able to save Indy.

The movie was fine to be honest, I had no issues with the movie as a whole, it's just that the ending KILLED IT.

I like this film... I don't see anything wrong with this sequel.

Most of the movie was fine. Then Shia LeBarf comes along. Then we get to the ending...

4 The Incredibles 2

Loved it and enjoyed it just as much as the first film, this film however was forever ruined by allowing John Lasseter to get his way and make Toy Story 4 happen (while I do love the idea of Bo Peep returning after her absence from TS3, Toy Story 4 is going to end up as the most hated Pixar sequel ever made no matter whether or not it tops I2's worldwide gross at the box office).

This film should have never been pushed ahead a year to 2018 (by far the biggest mistake in Pixar's history), had that swap never happened at all, this film wouldn't be on the list at all and would have been regarded as one of the better if not one of the best sequel since Toy Story 3, now we have to pray and hope that Incredibles 3 fixes the mess that I2 started, and this can be done.

This was such a disappointing movie, the first one was amazing, not to say this movie sucks it has its moments, like racoon vs baby and the resentment of Mr. Incredible toward his wive, because she was getting all the attention, but the third act completely ruined it for me

I guess people were disappointed because of the villain. And yes, that was the only thing I was disappointed with. But other than that, I thought this was a sequel that was just as good as the original.

It was a pretty good movie but The Incredibles was better by a landslide and for me, is probably my favourite animated movie. Definifely was not worth the long, 14-year wait.

5 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I love this movie. K-2SO was just so funny. It's not the best Star Wars movie, but it was still amazing.

This movie's so boring

6 Spider-Man 3

As bad as the Venom movie was, it's not quite as bad this massive train wreck. But it's pretty close. I loved the first two Spider-Man movies. What happened here? One problem is it tried to stuff too much into it. There's a total of 3 villains. It makes it hard to keep up with what is happening. With the exception of Sandman, the other villains are not very great. Especially Venom. The performance alone was painful to watch. Most of the performances are terrible. But that's mostly due to bad writing and bad directing. Peter Parker being emo just didn't feel right. Such an awful film. It's nice to know that we still can get good Spider-Man movies once in a while. Into the Spider-Verse is amazing.

Movie is so over hated to the point where it's ridiculous, yeah it has it's flaws but there plenty of good things about this movie too. The action senses are incredible, some of the sequences are nicely shot and the interactions between characters are great! By the way there is also another Spider-Man sequel worst than this but I don't have to tell you what that one is.

Who thought this was a good idea?
Yeah, sure. Lets get three villains at the same time, while balancing MJ and introducing Gwen Stacy. There's maybe one good scene in this, and that's the sandman transformation scene. Otherwise, a mess.
On the plus side, a good comedy of errors.

This is literally the worst marvel movie of all time. I don't want to say it's Rami's or Maguire's fault, because it's Sony's. If Sony let Rami do what he wanted then it would have been a decent film (mostly because I don't like the other Rami movies).

7 Shrek the Third

Shrek the Turd is an absolutely awful continuation to the two movies that came before it. It's nothing but unfunny jokes and a plot that doesn't make sense. It doesn't capture the emotion of the other films. With the exception of one scene. There also wasn't really anything exciting that happens. No epic moments. While the other movies were made for everyone, this one was specifically made for children. At least we have a very amazing movie to look forward to in the future! Get ready for Shrek 5! That will be phenomenal!

Actually the best in the series in my opinion. More dark and depressing than the first two and more enjoyable in my opinion. The fourth one's the weakest in my opinion

The Hunchback 2 of Shrek movies.

Jacksfilms said it best.

8 Cars 2

You wer probably expecting another NASCAR movie with mcqueen just running around in circles, but no. We saw it all. We saw mcqueen at the prime of his career, competing AROUND THE WORLD, you saw secret agents with unexpected blows that nearly end the world grand prix. It was amazing

This movie was mediocre. The only reason I don't nearly hate it is because I used to love this movie when it came out but I was much younger back then. This movie brings back some good memories I had when I was younger. But yeah it's disappointing. The first one was good and the 3rd one was good as well in my opinion. - B1ueNew

Were people really expecting the sequel to CARS (an average film at best) to be a masterpiece?

Eh, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. But the first is definitely better.

9 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

It's an inferior film, but I think the style they were going for with the food creatures was way cooler than anything that the first movie did. Infact, the art style in this film as a whole is superior.

All of the previous character development from the first movie is gone. They managed to make Flint an unlikable character.
Oh. And there's toilet humor. Gotta love that.

How is this not higher? The only thing I liked about this movie is the designs of the food animals. Everything else sucked

Disagree a lot here. This movie is among the best animations of all time in my opinion, and even better than the original

10 The Dark Knight

The Best Batman film ever.

The Contenders
11 Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Guys, just stop. Seriously, 2017 is long gone. Stop bullying this movie into submission already. Episodes I & II are still worse. (ROTS is the only prequel that's better.) And even with that said, Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones aren't god awful, they're fine for what they are.

Again, seriously. Just stop it. In reality, I'm not even friends with my hardcore Star Wars fans anymore. They just bully me for liking the movie and don't respect my opinion.

The first time I watched it, I was conflicted, but I just brushed it off as me being scared (not of the movie, though. Something else unimportant). When it came out on Netflix, I was much more calm and I decided to watch it. What a mistake. This movie is an absolute abomination.

Should be in the Top 5! It makes Ralph Breaks The Internet look good! Actually, on second thought, disappointing would be an understatement! This movie is flaming hot garbage both as a Star Wars film and as a stand-alone film!

This one is definitely the worst of the Star Wars movies. Although The Force Awakens was really bad as well.

12 Finding Dory

Honestly, it was okay but the plot was a little bit repetitive. The only thing Dory remembers are her parents.. Okay..?

While it's pretty much a rehash of the first film, it was a very good film.

Who expected this to be as good as it was?

13 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

I saw Lego Movie 2 a couple of weeks ago. While it isn't bad, it's nothing great. The jokes aren't very funny, Emmet's development from the first movie is gone, and the songs aren't very good. There's a new song that's trying way too hard to be the next Everything is Awesome, but it's just annoying. The thing that kept me from hating this movie was the third act. That's when things started getting good. Funny jokes, a great message, and emotional moments. Unfortunately, the rest of the film wasn't like that. It falls flat for the most part. Other people are saying they really like it. They're clearly being paid but whatever.

I'm in Australia. This movie hasn't been released here yet. I'm not sure about America, though

Can you guys stop spoiling the movies when it just came out?

But it was good

14 Iron Man 2

This is a very forgettable movie. I only watched it once and didn't bother watching it again. I actually almost fell asleep. They introduce the villain Whiplash, but he's not even the main villain. Which is sad because he was actually the best part of the movie. Instead, the villain we did get was so bland. I don't even remember who it was. I don't even remember the final battle. They also made Tony Stark an irredeemable jerk. Even more so than usual. He also somehow manages to get one of his suits taken away. What kind of genius is he? They don't do anything with Black Widow in this movie. She's just there. This was an absolute disappointment and the worst thing the MCU has come out with. People might argue that Iron Man 3 is worse, but I personally enjoyed seeing Tony Stark going through challenges without his suit. Iron Man 2 is just bad.

15 Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This is an amazing film, that is beautiful to watch. It feels a little too familiar for its own good though.

16 Mission: Impossible II

I really didn't like this movie. As cool as some of the stunts are, they were the only memorable aspects. Yeah, the franchise is known for its stunts and action, but you can have that with good writing as well. Not only that, but the acting was a little too over the top for my liking. There are good stunts in it, but it's not enough to save the movie.

Are you kidding me?

MI had a bad movie

17 Jurassic World

I loved this movie

18 Monsters University

The disappointing thing about this is that a sequel to Monsters Inc. could've worked, but they instead decided to make a prequel. As bad as we all know Toy Story 4 is going to be, that has more of a reason for existing than this. And trust me. Toy Story 4 is gonna suck. A lot. With Monsters University, however, no one was wondering how Mike and Sully met. Or at least no one wanted to see an entire movie about it. The execution wasn't even very good. It's just every college movie ever made but with monsters. Not very creative. Maybe one day we will get a proper sequel to Monsters Inc. That's unlikely, though.

This is actually a very underrated movie, this movie is surprisingly good, had a lot of the charm of the original, not close to as good but better than you would expect it to be

19 The Lost World: Jurassic Park
20 Hotel Transylvania 2

Well said, this is possibly the only animated film I've seen I thought was straight out bad. Every joke seemed to only appeal to anybody whose age was in single digits, the plot was all over the place (there were MANY times I couldn't tell what was going on) and there was no humour. It's a shame, I remember back when this was advertised as the next great thing, and I decided to check it out to see why it was being advertised so much, only to be intensely dissappointed.

This movie sucks. The first movie was bad, and the third one is terrible! I hate this movie franchise and all of the movies rely on gross, low brow humor to appeal to kids and are all lazily slopped together.

This one is good in my opinion. The one I didn't like was the third one

I loved this film

21 Hannibal
22 Men in Black II
23 Thor: The Dark World

You: What's Thor the dark world
Me: believe me, you don't want to meet my brother and say that!

24 Spider-Man 2

Isn't this the best Spider Man film though?

I really liked this film

Already up there

I loved this one.

25 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

So much worse than Phantom Menace and it wasn't exactly a masterpiece of film. It's like they made Umbridge the main character of the Harry Potter franchise, that's how bad Anakin is.

The bad acting is strong in this one, and the dialogue definitely the worst in any Star Wars movie.
Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed the movie, but it was definitely a disappointment

Probably worse than The Phantom Menace. It hasn't aged well at all.

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