Top 11 Best Movie Sequels

There’s so many bad ones, but Nostalgia Critic takes a look at which sequels deserve the most credit as being the best!

Donate to this week’s charity here Check out our store here

About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

145 comments

  1. MidnightScreeningsman2014

    Sequel month Everybody,yaaaa!!!!

  2. I can’t be the only one who loves the 60’s Batman!

    And Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Award Posthumously, not Best Actor

    • I think he was using the term more generally, a best actor award meaning any of the 4 acting categories.

    • The Real Silverstar

      “I can’t be the only one who loves the 60’s Batman!”

      When did Doug say that he *didn’t* enjoy 60’s Batman? All he said was that the franchise has gone through some interesting terms, which it has. At different times in the comics, Batman has teamed up with the likes of Detective Chimp and Uncle Sam; I’d call that interesting, wouldn’t you?

      • It’s probably because he showed it along with Batman and Robin. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he think it’s as bad as B&R, but it’s easy to see how someone could think that.

      • Let’s not forget the time when 60’s Batman & Robin, actually played by Adam West and Burt Ward, teamed up with Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang. Yes, that really did happen in two episodes of the Scooby-Doo animated series.

    • A lot of people today don’t get there was a time when the 60’s Batman show, along with the 50’s Superman were the ONLY live action superhero shows available. Those of us who grew up watching them, will always love them, even if they are a bit silly.

    • He also wasn’t the first nominated actor in a comic adaptation (Paul Newman, Road to Perdition) or posthumous win (Peter Finch, Network).

    • Snorgatch Pandalume

      You aren’t.

  3. 11 – Oh, so you’re going past 2.
    10 – Creed was the best.
    9 – Still find the reboot to be the best.
    8 – I thought “Toy Story 4” was just a rumor.
    7 – Best in the series!
    6 – Had no idea it was advertised like that.
    5 – Wait, why aren’t the other four on your list of favorite movies?
    4 – For a lot of people, it’s the longest movie they saw in a theater.
    3 – Aww, a black and white movie!
    2 – I still find the original better.
    1 – I think everyone knows that reveal.

    • prime-10@hotmail.co.uk

      11 – Bloody brilliant.
      10 – Meh.
      9 – My favourite from the series.
      8 – Love it but 3 is my favourite.
      7 – Like this and the original but can’t decide which is my favourite.
      6 – The series ended here. Those others don’t exist.
      5 – Best movie of it’s genre.
      4 – Really long but really epic.
      3 – Never seen it.
      2 – Please don’t kill me but I found this movie to be boring. Sorry.
      1 – Maybe my favourite movie?

    • ” 9 – Still find the reboot to be the best.”

      It’s a technically reboot, not exactly a sequel.

  4. My girlfriend watched the original star wars films for the first time just recently. Somehow the “reveal” in Empire Strikes Back hadn’t been spoiled for her. Her reaction? She kept asking me if it was true. Priceless.

  5. I’ve seen most of these. Though some seemed obvious like of course Aliens was going to be there, of course The Dark Knight too or Terminator 2. Which is why I was fond of seeing Mad Max: Fury Road, Wrath of Khan and Bride of Frankenstein on the list. It’s not a bad list but it’s not a good one either. Like where’s the love for A Shot in the Dark, 22 Jump Street, Captain America: Civil War, The Winter Soldier, Fast Five or New Nightmare?

    • The Real Silverstar

      Those are “his” picks; Doug’s just one guy with opinions. Disagree? Make your own list. Maybe you could even get a camera and make your own video about it. Could be entertaining.

      • I know, genius. Just my opinion on his list.

        • No, you’re judging the quality of his list, and asking why some that are your favorite weren’t on there. I’ll help. All of the movies you listed are good movies, but far from being great, let alone classics.

        • The Real Silverstar

          I was in fact diagnosed as a genius, thus your pitiful attempt to be sarcastic and cutting has failed miserably.

          And ‘giving your opinion on his list’ isn’t what you’re doing, what you’re doing is bitching from the back and acting under the assumption that everyone shares (or should share) your personal tastes. You know who does that? Narcissistic fanboys and fangirls with a false sense of entitlement.

          • I’m not complaining, dude. Just saying my take and I make lists all the time. So I can write my own stuff. 😉 But whoa. You’re acting like I called him a rapist or something. Geez, don’t get so worked up. It’s not like he has honor on the line or something, he’s not Zuko. XD

          • The Real Silverstar

            Funny how it’s always the ones pitching a fit themselves who are the first to say “calm down” and “don’t get worked up”. Pot, kettle.

            Consistency can be a comforting thing for some. It’s good to see that you haven’t changed from the days of The Big Cartoon Database. Thanks for always being a smug, petulant, snot-nosed little twerp without an ounce of tact, decorum or humility.

            Somewhere there’s a tree that’s working tirelessly to produce oxygen so you can breathe. I think you owe it an apology.

      • Snorgatch Pandalume

        The whole point of best/worst lists is to start arguments (“How could you pick/not pick THAT????”).

    • TheSuicidalTeddybear

      I’m posting this comment on 9gag, this is comedy gold

  6. thatgirlinthewheelchair

    I loved the video; I hated the new video player. When it wasn’t crashing my computer/browser, it was constantly showing the hyperactive buffer symbol.

  7. Peter Finch was the first actor to win the Best Actor (or Supporting Actor) Oscar after his death.

    • TheSuicidalTeddybear

      he meant in superhero movies, several people have won the price posthumously

      • 1. He already said that he was the first person to win for a superhero movie, so obviously he would have been the first to win posthumously for a superhero film, and thus it would have made no sense to say it.
        2. No, only Peter Finch and Heath Ledger have won acting Oscar posthumously.

        I believe he meant to say he was the first to win the Best Supporting Actor award posthumously, or it could have simply been that he forgot or was unaware of Finch’s.

  8. 17:31. The Greater good.

  9. Critic’s face in the toilet looks like AVGN’s nerdy turd x)

  10. prime-10@hotmail.co.uk

    I’m sorry but I could never really get into the Godfather movies. If anything I got bored with Part II. Too be fair with the exception of Bride of Frankenstein and Rocky II all those other movies are the types I like. The types you might see people at Comic Con dress like or referenced many times on the Big Bang Theory. Also I was assuming Dark Knight was his NO 1 because he listed it as one of his top 20 favourite movies and non of those others that out ranked it were on that other list.

  11. Is there anyway you can review the Japanese versions of Ironman, Wolverine, X-men and Blade?

    Can you also talk about the MTV series Good Vibes and Daria?

    And on a side note, I mention this all before, why don’t you review a classic horror like this one I’ve finally found after all these years after just seeing a few scenes of it and never knowing how it ended. It’s called Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. You might like it. Maybe.

    Also what do think of these TV series shows called:
    John Doe
    Forever Knight
    The Misfits (British Show)
    Misfits of Science (Movie and series)
    and The Zeta Project
    (I think some of these shows are like Sonic the Hedgehog a.k.a. Sonic Sat a.m. They all have incomplete ending.)

    P.S. Is there anyway you can review the Japanese versions of Ironman, Wolverine, X-men and Blade? I’d also really like to hear what you think about the FX series Archer and Chozen.

    P.S.S. And I never found out if you were going talk more about the Disney Afternoon shows Gummi Bears, Chip N Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Talespin(even the hour uncut movie special I found about it) and Darkwing Duck. Also you never answer my question, If you hate the Goof Troop song: “Gotta Be Gettin’ Goofy” then does that mean you hate The Darkwing Duck Rap?

    • Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.

      For the love of the gods, stop putting the exact same comment on every single NC video. What the hell is wrong with you? “Oh I know he ignored me the past 100 times, but surely the 101st time he will reply. Notice me, Senpai!”

    • I’m pretty sure he has talked about Daria in some videos.

      • I don’t know if Doug has ever mentioned Daria, but Lindsay Ellis did a review of the series years ago.

        As for Omega X2000, just ignore him. He’s in his own little world, living it up in La-La Land. To quote Mr. Spock:”To expect sense from beings with such extreme points of view is not logical.”

    • No. There is no way.

  12. Without spoilers
    Are there seriously people on this site who don’t know the ending
    who have never heard that line or someone telling you your saying it wrong

  13. “Even the big reveal, that I won’t give away.”
    Dude. Seriously? This movie came out more than 30 years ago. If it were a classic that modern audiences couldn’t have seen, I understand if you say nothing. But this is Star Wars. They put these movies in TV every year, without exception. EVERYONE knows about Chewbacca and Leia secret relantionship.
    If you say you didn’t knew, you are lying.

  14. These sequels are also worthy of your time ^_^
    – Batman Returns (Dude, Danny DeVito nailed it as Penguin)
    – Shrek 2 (Puss-in-Boots FTW)
    – Avengers: Age of Ultron
    – Spider-Man 2 (Sam Reimi’s version)
    – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    – Creed (It is a sequel to Rocky Balboa afterall)
    – The Rescuers Down Under
    – How to Train Your Dragon 2
    – Kung Fu Panda 2, and 3

  15. I’m actually surprised the Critic didn’t mention how going darker or more adult like in TDK isn’t what make something good, since we have flicks like MoS and it’s sequel, BvS to prove that.

    There has to be something else to back up what makes TDK other than just being dark, or how you can still be as successful with a more light hearted movie like The Avengers.

    I mean, I like Nolan’s Batman films too, but I feel like people are giving them a little too much credit than they deserve; and I also feel Nolan’s over utilization, again has done a slight disservice to the comic book community.

    • Why would he need to say that? He also didn’t say that setting your story in the past but in space isn’t going to make your movie automatically good either. He made a video about good sequels, not about what’s wrong with the DCEEU.

    • People liked TDK because it was dark, interesting, well directed, well paced, well acted, entertaining and contained a lot of interesting themes. In short, because it was good. Batman vs Superman wasn’t liked because it wasn’t any of those things after ‘dark’.

  16. Blaze The Movie Fan

    These are some great sequels indeed.

  17. 11. Dammit, I need to find some time to see all 4 of the Mad Max movies.
    10. I was fortunate however to see the first 6 Rocky movies less than a year before Creed was released, and I also really enjoyed the 2nd film as much as the 1st.
    9. I haven’t watched much of the Original Series before I started watching the movies, but after watching the slow paced 1st film, Star Trek II was the perfect Star Trek film for a sci-fi nut like me to enjoy watching and include in their movie collection.
    8. Yeah, I also never thought that a sequel to Toy Story would be such a great film, but it did, and I am happy for it.
    7. I saw the Predator films before getting on the Alien films just as the first AVP was months away from release. The first film was a great horror film, and Aliens did a fantastic job on mixing the horror with the action.
    6. The first 2 Terminator films were the very first R-rated films I watched from star to finish and uncut. The first film left an impact on me (and I have the poster for it hanging on my wall), but the 2nd film blew me away with the advance special effects, the tone, the humor, the characters, and the story. It what helped me become the Terminator fan I am today.
    5. I’ve been a Batman fan since as long as I could remember, and I never thought Warner Brothers and DC would top the awesomeness that was Batman Begins, the godsend after Batman & Robin, but Christopher Nolan and company knew how to up the stakes and make the most talked about film of 2008.
    4. I never got to see the first Lord of the Rings in theaters, but after watching it after my mom got it on DVD, I was blown away be the effects, the cinematography, the world, and the story. I also didn’t see the 2nd film until the DVD released, but it got me willing to see the 3rd film on the big screen, and man, was I proud of doing so.
    3. I didn’t start to watch the Universal Horror films until I was in high school, but I agree that Bride of Frankenstein is the best of the franchise’s sequels
    2. The Godfather Part II did a nice job on topping what the first film had done, like showing the backstory on Marlon Brando’s character.
    1. Episode IV was one of the very first movies I ever watched, and as you may expect, the whole time blew my mind. I didn’t see Episodes V & VI until after my parents got the trilogy box set on VHS. The Empire Strikes Back is an amazing sequel will updated visual effects, high tension, memorable new characters, the famous twist ending, and of course, “The Imperial March.” It made me become the big Star Wars fan that I am today.

    R.I.P. Carrie Fisher (1956-2016)

  18. Back to the Future 2!!

  19. Interesting thing that I learned recently about the first Toy Story is that John Lasseter wasn’t completely happy with the pacing. He regretted cutting some of the slower scenes because he was trusting what the studio heads were saying about increasing the tempo and keeping the action going. While I still watch the first Toy Story to this day and I was certainly blown away by it as a kid, I’m glad that the time was taken with the second one to allow the emotions to sink in and that it showed you don’t always need fast paced scenes to keep the kids’ attention. For me, sometimes the quieter moments in a movie stay with me far longer than the exciting ones.

  20. My 11?

    1. Bride of Frankenstein (A+)
    2. Evil Dead 2 (A+) (Just freaking fantastic hyper kinetic horror-comedy.)
    3. The Godfather Part II (A)
    4. Terminator 2 (A)
    5. Aliens (A)
    6. Mad Max: Fury Road (A)
    7. The Dark Knight (A)
    8. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (A)
    9. Toy Story 2 (A)
    10. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (A-)
    11. Batman Returns (A-) (Takes everything that worked about the first movie (the cut with a knife atmosphere and the attempt to reject black and white morality) and removes everything that didn’t (Prince, the attempt to feel even somewhat close to the comics, the focus on a dull civilian love story). The result was joyously grim, which is exactly what anyone should want out of Tim Burton.)

  21. I thought 2010 was a mighty fine sequel to 2001: A Space odyssey. It tied up a lot of loose ends and was a good story in its own right.

  22. A bit of correction:

    Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released in 2003 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year, which was awarded in 2004. The same with Rocky, which won for 1976 and awarded in 1977.

    Can’t wait to see what sequels Sequel Month: The Squeakwel (which I’m sure is gonna be one of them).

  23. The Rescuers Down Under. The best Disney sequel in my opinion. Hell, it’s so much better than the original that in my mind it overshadows it.

    • I agree, yet I don’t fully agree. I agree that it probably is the best sequel that Disney has done (animated and live action wise), but I can’t agree on the overshadowing part, at least not 100%. In a way, I get what you mean for how bigger the stakes are in it, since going to the ever trying Outback of Australia, but I see it as what should make a great sequel, a continuation to build up more development of characters like Bernard and Bianca.

      All in all, I get what you mean, but can’t give the full agreement, so it’s no problem on that with me. 🙂

  24. TheSuicidalTeddybear

    My favorites are:
    5. American psycho 2
    4. Cars 2
    3. Ice Age 5
    2. The Land Before Time 11
    1. Belle’s Magical World

    … And yes, I’m joking

  25. He’s not bashing The Dark Knight Rises again, is he?

  26. My favorites are T2 for action, The Good The Bad, and The Ugly for adventure, and European and Christmas Vacation for comedy.

  27. Honorable Mention: 22 Jump Street.

    A sequel to a comedy movie? That’s an instant death sentence. There’s been absolutely no sequels to comedy movies that have worked at all, or at least as good as their predecessors. This movie knows it’s a disposable sequel so they point everything out.
    Jenko and Schmidt try doing more regular police work, but ultimately fail hard at it, so the police thing they should go back to the Jump Street program and, “do the same thing”. Given the first Jump Street romp was a success, the police gives the program an even bigger budget. Because they’re asked they do the same thing, they do, but flipped. Jenko is the big man on campus and Schmidt is the outcast all over again (albeit, the only one of the two to get laid at all in the films leading to two of the FUNNIEST scenes I’ve ever seen in a comedy) and the two waffle between having to do the same thing or break through their ceiling. The meta humor in this is some of the best I’ve seen on cinema and the credits scene was an absolute stroke of comedy genius

  28. Interesting. Two movies with Talia Shire and two movies directed by James Cameron.

  29. I actually ended up seeing Mad Max: Fury Road. It wasn’t as gory as I thought it would be. Usually R-rated movies make me sick but I was okay. Yeah, I love the Dark Knight, ALL of Lord of the Rings, most of Star Wars, and Toy Story 2. Toy Story 3 is the one I hate for some odd reason. I’ve never seen Rocky II, the Wrath of Khan, Bride of Frankenstein, Terminator 2, any of the Godfather movies, or Aliens. Thanks to this video, I now know where “Game over man” comes from. Also, I can’t wait for Sequel Month! 😀

  30. Here are the ones I’m calling:

    Aliens.

    Toy Story 2.

    Wrath of Khan.

    Dark Knight.

    Empire Strikes Back.

    Maybe list:

    Captain America: Winter Soldier/Civil War.

    • Actually, Fellowship is my favorite of the LOTR. I felt they threw in some things in the sequels that altered the characters and tone a bit much. I didn’t like how they made Gimli the comic relief, and some of Legolas’ deeds were a bit over-the-top. But I still love the films.

      And by the way, the Eagles are NOT A PLOTHOLE! Secrecy was vital to the mission; a flock of giant Eagles carrying the very thing that attracts Sauron’s attention would have been jumped by a flight of Nazgul fell beasts. It would NOT have gone well. So quit saying that they should have just hopped on the Eagles.

      • I also prefer Fellowship of the three films. It feels expansive, cinematic and has a beginning, middle and end. The other two are focused on the battles, to the point where they dominate the films. Fellowship just feels that bit better in terms of pace and development of the characters.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.