24 Best and Worst Action Sequels
Let’s forget about that whole Egyptian gods thing — Gerry Butler’s got another action movie for you this week. He reprises his role as a head Secret Service agent in London Has Fallen, sequel to Olympus Has Fallen which got a 48% rating from critics back in 2013. The Fallen movies inspire this week’s 24 Frames: best and worst action sequels by Tomatometer!
Year: 2015
Tomatometer: 97%
BEST! Every movie in the 35-year old franchise is Certified Fresh, seeing the highest bump in Tomatometer between the last two entries: going from 81% (1985’s Beyond Thunderdome) to 97% (2015’s Fury Road).
Year: 1993
Tomatometer: 3%
WORST! The original RoboCop trilogy saw a steep drop in quality by the second entry (32%) before cratering in the single digit percentile with the third.
Year: 2008
Tomatometer: 94%
BEST! Gotham’s finest was given a new hope when Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise with Batman Begins (85%), before going full tilt with modern action masterpiece The Dark Knight.
Year: 1997
Tomatometer: 11%
WORST! And the reason the series needed a reboot? Joel Schumacher’s nipply laugh riot, which got an ice cold 11% from the critics (compared to Batman Forever‘s 41%).
Year: 2014
Tomatometer: 89%
BEST! The First Avenger (79%) was a compelling nod to old-fashioned war serials. Refitting Steve Rogers into a modern political thriller drew even higher praise.
Year: 1997
Tomatometer: 3%
WORST! The original with Keanu Reeves is sitting pretty at 93%. The sequel, which drops 90 points on the Tomatometer, is all wet.
Year: 2007
Tomatometer: 93%
BEST! The Matt Damon Bourne movies essentially got better as they went along (Identity at 83%, Supremacy at 81%), with franchise highs awaiting at the end.
Year: 2003
Tomatometer: 36%
WORST! Reloaded already gave audiences a sinking feeling the series was headed in a weird direction (though that’s still just Certified Fresh at 73%), and confirmed by the trilogy’s baffling capper.
Year: 1991
Tomatometer: 93%
BEST! Though Judgment Day‘s Tomatometer is lower than the 1984 original (can’t beat 100%), this is still a legendary action movie in its own right.
Year: 2015
Tomatometer: 26%
WORST! 25 years later, though, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to the franchise and helped deliver the worst one yet, failing to improve on Salvation‘s 33% rating.
Year: 1986
Tomatometer: 98%
BEST! The Terminator‘s James Cameron took over the series (original Alien got 97%) and steered it from horror to action film territory.
Year: 2007
Tomatometer: 12%
WORST! After Cameron and Ridley Scott exited, the Aliens franchise entered a slow burn into ignomious Rotten territory, getting progressively worse scores (the AVP mash-up previous to this one got a 21%).
Year: 2011
Tomatometer: 78%
BEST! The F&F movies have had a golden turnaround, going from chintzy street race movies to top-flight summer blockbusters. It all began with Fast Five, which followed Fast & Furious series low rating of 28%.
Year: 2009
Tomatometer: 19%
WORST! Not the lowest score in Michael Bay’s robot lineup (that belongs to Age of Extinction‘s 18%), but Revenge does represent the steepest drop in the series: 38 points from the original’s almost-Fresh 57%.
Year: 2009
Tomatometer: 63%
BEST! High Voltage only climbed two points over the original Crank‘s 61% but the fact these insane manic movies managed to resonate with critics is a story in of itself.
Year: 2013
Tomatometer: 14%
WORST! Live Free or Die Hard (82%) was an unlikely comeback flick for John McClane, which was completely squandered in this Russia-set cashgrab.
Year: 2014
Tomatometer: 91%
BEST! Days of Future Past netted Fox’s Marvel franchise its highest ratings, improving on The Wolverine‘s decent 70% Fresh rating.
Year: 1991
Tomatometer: 0%
WORST! A detested second entry that was completely ignored in further sequels, and a far cry from the 1986 original‘s 67% stake on the Tomatometer.
Year: 2004
Tomatometer: 93%
BEST! Sam Raimi’s zesty Doc Ock romp fielded an improvement over the original‘s 89%, which helped kickstart the superhero craze we live in today.
Year: 1996
Tomatometer: 53%
WORST! Escape From L.A.‘s score isn’t a far cry from Escape From New York‘s 85%, but the movie’s light critical drubbing and box office failure spelled the beginning of the end of John Carpenter’s directing journey.
Year: 2011
Tomatometer: 93%
BEST! The first Elite Squad got a middling 53% from critics so nobody expected Brazil to come back guns blazing for the sequel.
Year: 1997
Tomatometer: 27%
WORST! A Fugitive (which got 96%) sequel sans Harrison Ford, Marshals isn’t necessarily awful but critics couldn’t find enough compelling reasons to justify its existence.
Year: 2012
Tomatometer: 53%
BEST! The original Universal Soldier (19%) was a mere stepping stone for director Roland Emmerich on his path to Stargate and Independence Day, but the franchise has found new critical life with Day of Reckoning. The series still isn’t Fresh but, hey, let’s give it another 20 years.
Year: 2005
Tomatometer: 16%
WORST! Vin Diesel must’ve pissed a producer off because his Xander Cage character gets violently asploded in a special feature on the State of the Union DVD. The original xXx didn’t exactly set critics alight with its 48% Tomatometer, but that’s miles ahead of this Ice Cube sequel.
