19 Sequels That Really Were As Good As The Original Movie

A reminder that not all sequels suck!

Recently, Reddit user u/MerseySideAlt9 asked the AskReddit community: "What sequel held up to the original film?"

Warner Bros. Television

The thread blew up as thousands of people began posting about the sequels they love. Here are some of the top-voted responses for films that are as good or better than the original:

1. "Spider-Man 2 was even better than the first one — and I'm referring to Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man. Not only that, it's the best superhero film ever made, IMO."

Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

"The plot is compellingly human. Peter Parker is in full-blown crisis mode. He's losing his job. He's struggling to pay rent. He's losing his girl. He's failing his classes. Aunt May is losing her home. His hero has a devastating fall from grace after a freak accident and becomes his next nemesis...And he's losing his powers."

—The_Tomb_is_Empty

2. "Addams Family Values! Holy shit, some of those jokes whooshed over my head as a kid! And the topics were so progressive, without being preachy!"

Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection

—QueenShnoogleberry

3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Tristar Pictures / Everett Collection

—PlaneswalkerUmbral

"My only regret is the sequels never held up to T2. Imagine if they did — that's the timeline I wish we were in."

—u/Gay_Demons

4. "The Empire Strikes Back. It’s probably the only film in Star Wars, alongside A New Hope, that everyone can agree is a great film."

20th Century Fox/ Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/Holy_Knight_Zell

5. "The Dark Knight. What I love most about this movie is that it works so well as its own film. You don't have to watch Batman Begins in order to understand what's going on or who everyone is."

Warner Bros / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Begins and The Dark Knight Rises are just two movies that are there if you wanna know more information regarding Bale's interpretation of Batman. Begins focuses on his origin and how he became the masked vigilante while, Rises is the real sequel film, where his past comes back to haunt him and also concludes his story."

—phantom_avenger

6. "I am going to go with Aliens. Alien and Aliens are very different movies, but both work. No complaints."

20thcentfox / Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/Three_Day_Rider

7. "It's The Godfather Part II for me because of Young Vito's story told alongside the continuation of Michael's."

Paramount/ Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/chronicwisdom

8. "How To Train Your Dragon 2 is just as incredible as the first."

20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection

—Ace_Aviator99

9. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The middle of a trilogy has the potential to be slow and boring. TTT avoided that easily. That violin playing as they ride to Edoras is still some of my all-time favorite music."

New Line Cinema / Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/kjaght89

10. "Tron: Legacy. Thought it was an excellent addition and the soundtrack was stellar."

Walt Disney Co. / ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

—Siberkil

11. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Went into it not expecting much at all and came out of it as one of my favorite Marvel movies. So much plot, it honestly almost might as well have been another Avengers movie."

Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/Might-be-crazy

12. "22 Jump Street, what fucking great movie. I didn't think it'd get funnier than 21 Jump Street, but 22 really held its own."

Sony Pictures / ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/Bubblekinss

13. "I didn't give two shits about Thor until Ragnarok. He was such a dull character. He worked fine in the Avengers movies, but his own films were meh. Thor: Ragnarok is pure entertainment from start to finish."

Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection

—JesseCuster40

14. "Doctor Sleep stands as a very faithful and strong sequel for such an iconic film [The Shining], it's worse, but it's still very good."

Warner Bros./ Courtesy Everett Collection

—Moo_Moo Man

15. "Catching Fire (sequel to The Hunger Games). Both the book and movie."

Lions Gate /Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/SelfDiagnosedUnicorn

16. "Paddington 2. This movie was crazy good. I knew it had good reviews, but I didn't really expect greatness out of a Paddington movie."

Warner Bros./ Courtesy of Warner Bros.

—LazyCassiusCat

17. "Back to the Future Part II. One of the few sequels I think is better than the original."

Universal /Courtesy Everett Collection

—dmmcclair2020

18. "Toy Story 2. One of the most organic examples of 'expanding upon the world of the original' of any film sequel. Excellent movie."

Walt Disney Co. / ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/kavono

19. "In my opinion, Shrek is a nice movie, but I don't like to watch it very often. However, Shrek 2 is a masterpiece and my all-time favorite Shrek movie, Shrek the Third is an alright movie, and definitely doesn't deserve the hate people give it. The fourth Shrek movie is like a horrible Shrek fan-fiction come to life; I only watched it once and never again."

Dreamworks /Courtesy Everett Collection

—u/LilyPotter123

You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.