Mo Weekly #7
ARE PREQUELS MORE ENGAGING THAN SEQUELS?
The movie industry makes billions annually retelling the same old stories through remakes and sequels, they are basically recycling shit from the past. But we don’t mind this because remakes gives you a chance to revisit your childhood (I will never watch black Annie though, in my opinion that was unnecessary) and sequels lead to franchises that are dear to our hearts.
But are sequels becoming a bit of a bore?
A recently concluded survey (allegedly)revealed that with the exception of movies that are full blown theatrical blockbusters, not a lot of people are interested in watching more of the same thing. The major reason being the semi-predictable plot sequence of many sequels. I agree with them, I would rather you give me a bit of the middle then toss me around like a tiny olive or grape in a salad, eventually I will find my way back to the fork, which is the point of which I’m in the bowl in the first place than to be spoon fed or in this case, fork fed ( I lost my bearings in this analogy, apologies).
A franchise that does this perfectly is the Star Wars Franchise. If watched in chronological order, it is easy and in a way defeats the purpose the release order sought to achieve: which is a full blown, actively engaging representation of the inner workings of a white-bearded genius’ mind. It is a perfect representation of the writing tip: ‘show, don’t tell’. Show the audience and they become emotionally and mentally engaged, Tell and the audience become passive and experience the story only through the author’s point of view. This is not to say that sequels don’t hold their own in the ‘show don’t tell’ argument, a good example is the MCU; The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bombardment of varying timelines and in some instances, perceived sequels are merely prequels. But in the individual character trilogies (Iron Man I&II&III, Captain America: First Avenger &Winter Soldier& Civil War etc.) there have been some great sequels.
The MCU however, is under the exception stated above- it is a full blown theatrical blockbuster of epic magnitude, so no sequel would be un-engaging for any sort of viewer. In the same vein, one might argue the same against prequel since the Star Wars Movies are theatrical blockbusters. And in so doing my argument is flawed.
Maybe
All I have done is show it to you, you tell me…..
