Sequels do not measure up

Whenever a summer blockbuster comes out such as “Transformers” or “Spider-Man,” there is always one thing on the studio that distributed it’s mind: sequels. If a movie comes out and it makes a lot of money at the box office, then that automatically means sequels.  However, sequels do not always live up to the first movie. 

Often times, the sequels start to get confusing and go downhill.  For example, there is “The Matrix” trilogy.  The first one was fantastic, the second one was just good, and the third one was overall disappointing.  There are a few logical reasons as to why sequels “suck.”
The first reason is money.  Studios such as Universal Studios or Warner Bros. distribute some of the biggest and highest grossing movies in history.  When movies make a lot of money at the box office, that means that the studios knows that many people loved it, and then they feel as if they can totally do it again with a sequel.  However, they do not stop to think about what ideas the writers have.  It is likely that they give the writers deadlines to finish a script for a sequel and do not give them enough time to think it out. 
A good example would be “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”  When it came out in theaters, it dominated the box office, but was panned by critics and fans alike.  It was terrible compared to the first one according to many people.  It was slovenly, loud, and far too long.  It is almost as if the writers came up with a good story but then just let the director Michael Bay improvise the rest of the story. That might have meant that they were on a deadline.  Or who knows? Maybe they were just lazy.
The writers themselves are another reason.  They want to come up with their own story that they think is a best way to end the story or keep the story going, but maybe fans and critics will dislike.  There is also the fact that new writers and directors come in and make a completely different script or have a completely different directing style or vision.  For example, there are the Halloween movies.  The first one started the slasher franchise in the Horror genre and it was a cult classic.  However, the sequels were not very pleasing.  They got worse and worse and worse.  Some of them were decent and some were just downright idiotic.  New scripts were written and new directors came in and just made the franchise go downhill.  Because they did not do the interesting directing that the last director did or the new writers just added more ridiculous and random stuff to the story.
Another reason would be that the directors concentrate too hard on pleasing the audience.  Michael Bay literally tried to give the audience more and more in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”  He kept piling on the action scenes, fight scenes, transformers, and, of course, the explosions.  He was so focused on outdoing all the action in the first movie that he kind of forgot about the story.  It just did not make the movie as special as the first one.  The same goes for “Iron Man 2”, “Quantum of Solace”, and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.”  The directors were so focused on pleasing the audience by just giving them more action, they either forgot completely or just a little bit about giving the audience the story itself.
Whether its money, deadlines, laziness, or new writers and directors, a lot of sequels aren’t better than the first movie.  There were a few good ones such as “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, “Spider-Man 2”, “The Dark Knight” , “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” , and “Toy Story 2” , and “Toy Story 3.”  It is not fair to say that all sequels are worse than the first movie because there are a few that are better than the first movie.  Some are just decent.  But most of them are not worth watching.