Sequel Baiting

Okay, so I just finished watching The Seventh Son with Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes and Jullianne Moore and I did a little *singsong* Sequel baiting, after it was over. What is sequel baiting you ask? Sequel baiting is when a movie has the potential for a franchise due to it being based on a popular tv show, book series, movies that already exist, or the ending just sets up for another movie. They baited for another film, probably hoping for a franchise, trilogy or something and it just didn’t work out because the movie FAILED!

So, because I was just thinking of movies I have watched, some I like, others I really didn’t, that were really going for an ending that would fit wonderfully into a sequel but it never got one because people did not care enough to see the movie in theaters… or it just did not make enough money, which pretty much is the result of people not seeing it, or the people who did see it hated it so much they made it their business to go online and say it constantly. I don’t think I’m going to spoil any of these movies but… some of them are not recent but just in case, spoilers may occur.

• Push– Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle

  • Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoyed this movie very much. I saw it in theaters. Something about people with powers just makes me interested.

  • Nick is a “mover” (telekinetic), Cassie (Fanning) is a “watcher” (seer) and Agent Carver and Kira are “pushers” (they can control thoughts etc), there are some other cool powers too but they don’t matter here. Basically, Kira is caught in the middle of some government mess and in order to escape Nick devises this plan. It was so convoluted and overblown that there seems like there could have been a simpler way.

    • I think that’s one of the movie’s undoings, not to mention, it’s not a very nice looking film, it’s kind of dirty looking and some of the acting is pretty bad.

  • In the end, they defeated all the bad guys except for Agent Carver (Hounsou) who has “pushed” Kira. But thanks to a secret message from Nick, she remembers and turns against him.

This movie sequel baits because the government organization “Division” has not been brought down itself, Cassie’s mother who is described as the strongest “watcher” is still in their custody and Nick and Kira have to be reunited. There’s a whole other story line in the wings. But again, it didn’t work out, it tried to be too clever for it’s own good and it failed. Still like the movie though, well haven’t seen it in so long so that may change. Might have done better on tv.

• Eragon– Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Ed Speelers, Rachel Weisz, Garrett Hedlund.

  • I hated this movie when it came out, I saw it in theaters because I absolutely loved the book, I think I had already read Eldest (sequel) at that point too so I was excited. One of the worst book adaptations ever.

  • Eragon (Speleers), a farmboy, finds a strange stone, which turns out to be a dragon egg. This dragon, Saphira (Weisz), bonds with the boy, but Ra’zac, an egg hunter (Robert Carlyle) threatens them and they have to leave home, along with an older mentor (Irons). The two are soon embroiled in a war.

  • The book has a lot of detail, I was in 8th grade at the time, so my thoughts may change on it, but these characters are set up in a way that definitely makes you want to care for them. My favorite character Murtaugh (Hedlund) was so awesome in the book that I was upset which his writing, just ugh. There was so much left out that it would have helped set up this movie, it was also just too short. Don’t even get me started on Eragon’s sword, or Arya (an elf), it would just make me upset again and I haven’t even seen the movie in a long time.

The sequel baiting comes from the fact that this book is a four book series, which automatically makes the production company and all involved to want more movies. The way it ended with the ultimate bad guy revealing his own dragon was a “cliffhanger” ending. The books worked out well because there was another book after and a third one coming out. The movie did not do well in theaters and many readers, like myself, were upset, not to mention, it’s not a good standalone movie that casual moviegoers didn’t care for it either. So this movie FAILED! I’m also glad it did. However, I heard the following books are boring, which is a shame because I loved Eldest but again… I was like 14/15 lol.

• The Last Airbender– Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone

  • Based on one of the most amazing animated shows, everyone was in great anticipation for this one. When this came out, I hadn’t seen the show in it’s entirety, only a few episodes but trust me, after I watched it, I thought it was pretty bad on it’s own but when I watched all three seasons, oh my lord, it was amazing.

  • The everyone was miscast, the dialogue was horrible, the CGI was laughable and the story was uninspired and slapped together. Which is a shame because they had it laid out for them right there with the show. I’m sure it got the numbers as people went to see it but it was so terrible that I do not know a single person who can honestly say it was a good movie. It had potential though. Let’s just start from the ground and build up, first, new director, new cast and new writing team.

The sequel baiting comes from the fact of the three seasons of the show. The main character Aang finally accepts his position as the new Avatar at the end of the film which attempts to set up a sequel “Book Two: Earth, which would talk about Aang learning how to master Earth bending, even though he mastered Water in like a day but it took a good few episodes to do so in the show buuut the movie was so horrible that fans would probably boycott if the attempt was actually made. I can’t even begin to talk about the butchering of my favorite characters. FAIL!!!!

• The Seventh Son- Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander.

  • I was bored out of my mind watching this movie and I cared about no one. You don’t get to know any of the characters enough to want anyone to succeed. The coolest person was the lady who could turn into a cheetah, leopard… some type of cat. Exposition, training montages, exposition, fight scene, exposition… blah blah I don’t don’t care.

  • Outside of it being boring, it’s based on a book series with like fifteen books so there is plenty of material for there to be a long standing franchise. Honestly this should have been a television series because it might have worked better and it would have given the audience a chance to care about the characters.

The sequel baiting comes because after the villain is defeated, the two heroes and a girl walk away from the battle and “into the sunset” and then there’s some dialogue, tattoo branding or whatever, talks about romance and love and indications of there being future missions of fighting witches and evil creatures. I saw this movie trailer in one movie and didn’t hear about it again, so I doubt it did well in theaters or anything. So boring and also FAIL. Should have been a tv show.

• Fantastic Four (2o15)– Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell

  • I’ve done a review on this one so I’m not going to go into detail or anything but basically, four young adults were given superpowers and had to fight who used to be a friend of theirs by the end of the movie. Yeah.

  • We know this movie has problems, I’m one of the few people who still liked it and actually believe it could have been great but ya know that’s neither here nor there.

Fant4stic sequel baited because by the end of the movie, after the anticlimactic climax, the four are given a building for them to have their headquarters and Reed figures out their new name. I don’t think he actually says it aloud so obviously there was to be a second film. It’s based off the Marvel characters and comic book which allows for plenty of material and chance of plot and movies but Fox and Trank couldn’t work together to make a good first film. It was even scheduled to have a sequel but due to the negativity it was cancelled.

• Hancock– Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron

  • Hancock is the not so typical hero, he is rude, a drunk and doesn’t care what he does when he’s “saving the day” but after saving Bateman from what would have been horrible death, Jason Bateman makes it his business to try and help Hancock have a positive image.

  • Personally this movie should have been a sequel and the first movie be something different, which at some point I’m going to write out myself just because it bothers me lol but the movie took a weird left turn in the third act and got really convoluted really quickly. The whole storyline with Theron’s character was a completely different story then the one we started off with so while the movie is fun, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s that good.

I won’t say fail here because the movie isn’t bad, it just got silly. But after all of the drama happens with Hancock and Mary and it’s all “resolved”, Hancock is a superhero which automatically gives room for a sequel. This movie did have a sequel in the works but I guess it didn’t work out so it’s almost not technically sequel baiting but it still counts in my book.

For right now, these are all of the movies I can think of that blatantly sequel baited. I’m sure there are more. If you have any movies that you’ve seen that are not in the list (especially as it’s not a long list) that you think sequel baited, please feel free to post it in the comments and say why you think it sequel baited.