The "Prequel Effect"

[Limity (BLM)]

I came upon this phrase on a YouTube comment, and it got me thinking. For those that haven't heard of it, it describes movies that are better regarded after subsequent movies of the same series have been released. The phrase comes from the much maligned Star Wars prequels looking better by comparison to the latter Star Wars movies.

I encountered this phrase as people were saying they came to appreciate Terminator 3 more after each subsequent Terminator movie was released.

Who else has heard of this phenomenon? Who agrees/disagrees, what are some other examples besides Star Wars and Terminator?

[BorneAgain]

I've actually really seen it happen a lot with video game series. Super Paper Mario is more warmly regarded now despite its gameplay shifts given that later PM games were seen as losing a lot of the spirit the first titles had. Star Fox Assault is routinely praised these days given how hit and miss later SF games ended up being. Even Arkham Origins I've seen get a rehabilitation and reappraisal for its merits after Knight turned out to be more of a mixed bag than most expected.

[WoodStoner1]

This is more a later movie being really good than sucking, but...the interest in Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man after No Way Home.

How about...people going easy on the Schumacher Batmen after the Snyderverse?

I think Superman Returns gets the same...though that is a combination of Snyder sucking, then Brandon Routh doing a really good job during the CW Crisis episodes.

They weren't BAD (Dark Knight Rises is up for discussion, though), but people tiring of Nolan's "grounded in realism" Batmen making people appreciate the Burton films, and more (again, they weren't bad either, but back in the day, there was a LOT of Burton vs. Nolan fighting)

[darbus alan]

I don't think the prequel movies are perceived as better because of the sequels. It's more that the generation that grew up with the prequels as their Star Wars movies are now adults and have a much louder say in the Star Wars Fandom. Sequels or not, they love the prequel trilogy. Meanwhile, most of the people who hated the prequels then still hate them now.

[Hit Girl]

The SW prequels are still terrible. T3 was never a bad movie, but just an unnecessary one.

[Zone Was Wrong]

I'll still defend Revenge of the Sith as my 2nd favorite SW film, and this as someone who was a kid when Return of the Jedi was in theaters.

Think a lot of times we can look at films we grew up on in a better light than anyone else. Prime example for me was showing a friend of mine who is a lot younger than me a bunch of films I grew up on. We got to Monster Squad and man that movie was a lot more troublesome than I remembered.

This effect isn't always correct mind you. Superman Returns was meh because it was a meh movie and the first two Reeves films were not.

[WoodStoner1]

Sept 17, 2022 10:28:34 GMT -5 darbus alan said:

I don't think the prequel movies are perceived as better because of the sequels. It's more that the generation that grew up with the prequels as their Star Wars movies are now adults and have a much louder say in the Star Wars Fandom. Sequels or not, they love the prequel trilogy. Meanwhile, most of the people who hated the prequels then still hate them now.

Seems critics and adults disliked them the most. Do any of you remember having younger relatives/etc. who saw them, and what their reactions were at the time?

[WoodStoner1]

Sept 17, 2022 10:56:16 GMT -5 Zone Was Wrong said:

I'll still defend Revenge of the Sith as my 2nd favorite SW film, and this as someone who was a kid when Return of the Jedi was in theaters.

Think a lot of times we can look at films we grew up on in a better light than anyone else. Prime example for me was showing a friend of mine who is a lot younger than me a bunch of films I grew up on. We got to Monster Squad and man that movie was a lot more troublesome than I remembered.

This effect isn't always correct mind you. Superman Returns was meh because it was a meh movie and the first two Reeves films were not.

True. I do think there's some who are like, "LOL at least it's not Man of Steel!" though. And like I said, ironically, Routh + better script = another better Superman, as we saw on Crisis.

Similarly, Batman and Robin is still a hot mess. But I know people who prefer that to the Snyder DCEU, even.

I know there is a movement for wanting DC to re-embrace the campier Batman universes a little.

As for Sith...I consider it the less of three evils. Still got the clunky scripts, awkward "romance," and oh yeah, the Big No.

[wildojinx]

More of a music thing, but a lot of people started re-evaluating Load and Reload after Metallica's St. Anger dropped and disappointed many fans.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Sept 17, 2022 10:28:34 GMT -5 darbus alan said:

I don't think the prequel movies are perceived as better because of the sequels. It's more that the generation that grew up with the prequels as their Star Wars movies are now adults and have a much louder say in the Star Wars Fandom. Sequels or not, they love the prequel trilogy. Meanwhile, most of the people who hated the prequels then still hate them now.

I was disappointed by the first two prequels but thought there was good stuff there (and plenty of good that got cut from AotC).

Actually, the good materials getting cut from AotC annoyed me. Yes, it’s mainly dialog-driven scenes but they were necessary scenes. The love between Padme and Anakin was supposed to be worth completely upending the entire galaxy over. The scenes shown in the movies doesn’t sell that narrative.

[BlackoutCreature]

I've seen opinions on older Star Trek series like Voyager and Enterprise soften due to dissatisfaction with the directions newer Trek series like Discovery and Picard have taken. A lot of that I think is due to supplemental material like the Star Trek Online video game smoothing out the plot holes and bad storytelling of those older series and turning their story arcs into something that makes more sense (I'm looking at you Temporal Cold War). I also think those older shows have developed a feeling of nostalgia to them that you can feel in things like Lower Decks and even The Orville.

[Mozenrath]

Sept 17, 2022 10:28:34 GMT -5 darbus alan said:

I don't think the prequel movies are perceived as better because of the sequels. It's more that the generation that grew up with the prequels as their Star Wars movies are now adults and have a much louder say in the Star Wars Fandom. Sequels or not, they love the prequel trilogy. Meanwhile, most of the people who hated the prequels then still hate them now.

That's part of it, plus you also have the passage of time, and you don't have hype cycles or the same sorts of expectations that you would have had going in. It's part of why something like Batman Forever is going to be received very differently now by someone than if you had grown up on '89 Batman and then Batman Returns, and then went right into such a different movie following those, versus just doing a marathon now.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Terminator 3 was probably as good as a Terminator movie was going to get at that point.

Definitely wasn't terrible, it's just that the second one had wrapped up the story perfectly. Anything else was gilding the Lilly.

[BorneAgain]

Part of the issue with Terminator is that most of the series is just aping the first movie's story. Even as great as T2, its guilty of that to a degree.

Its while I'll give credit to Salvation; its deeply flawed but it try for something else.