Everyone knows that the Star Wars prequels > Original trilogy, you ignorant fool!

Don't worry, I don't actually believe that. The Star Wars prequels are horrible and should be disintegrated, or smashed with a large mallet. :smash:

It's a generally accepted fact that things were much better in the old days, and that sequels, as a rule, are always pale imitations of the original classics. Likewise, a band's first album is always their best work (or even better, the deleted B-Side from their first EP) and cover versions of songs never match up to the genius of the original.

However, there must be some exceptions to this rule somewhere. Can you think of any examples of new releases/remakes that surpassed the original?

I really cant think of any. Remakes are horrid, The Italian Job for example was a nasty remake!
King Kong looks quite cool, but I still think the original rocks. It was the business back in them days.
Metallica's cover of Thin Lizzys "Whiskey In the Jar" is better.

I never cared for the original Kong and the new one was quite good, so there's something.

X2, to me, was better than the first X-Men. Spider-man 2 was better than its predecessor as well. Terminator 2 was better that the first.

As for remakes, I haven't seen one that I haven't thought sucked. Perhaps someone could point one out to me that actually is better than the original (besides Kong apparently. haven't seen it).

I can think of a few.

The Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope.
Aliens is better than Alien.
Terminator 2 is better than Terminator.
Burnout 2 is better than Burnout
Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike is better than the other 2 SF3 games.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 is better than the other 2 Alpha games.
GTA Vice City is better than GTA 3.
Mario Kart DS is better than the previous 4 MK games.

Metal Gear Solid for the GameCube was pretty good. Though that game didn't really NEED to be remade. Super Mario 64 DS is superior to Super Mario 64. Though again, that probably didn't need to be remade. I think video games do a better job of making sequals better, they tend to at least attempt to keep what was good, and just work from there. Sequals in movies? Well, unless we're talking about Disney making a B-Rated sequal to everything they can, that is vastly inferior to their origin, movie people are... trying... I mean Shrek 2 was awesome. Toy Story 2? TMNT 2 and 3? Star Trek had a good following of qualit sequals. I won't count things where a sequal was planned, or inevitable due to editting, like LotR and Kill Bill. But I think I've made the point that they're not always bad. The big problem is with the bad ones, its usually a completely different team working on them that have no idea what little spark made the original so good, so they fail to capture that. And they have no idea how to play off of nostalgia

Lord of the rings. 1<2<3

Quiet honestly, I liked the new King Kong better than the 1933 version. The original was first class but I still like the new one better.

Well, as for Albums I feel my favourite band is like that. If you listen to their records you can hear them evolve from being a strange punk/ska style band, slowly changing every record and becoming more experimental and adding more to their music, until they become what they are today, which is pretty hard to describe but eh. It's been a steady progression but I believe they're a much better band now.

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Originally Posted by Black Mage 121

Don't worry, I don't actually believe that. The Star Wars prequels are horrible and should be disintegrated, or smashed with a large mallet. :smash:

It's a generally accepted fact that things were much better in the old days, and that sequels, as a rule, are always pale imitations of the original classics. Likewise, a band's first album is always their best work (or even better, the deleted B-Side from their first EP) and cover versions of songs never match up to the genius of the original.

However, there must be some exceptions to this rule somewhere. Can you think of any examples of new releases/remakes that surpassed the original?

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I think there all really good, although yeah the originals are the best.

No Doubt's rendition of It's My Life was actually pretty good, IMO.

X-2 was far superior to the first X-Men. They made the mistake of using the first movie to "introduce" newcomers to all the X-Men, and used a lousy sinister plot to draw it all together. I had no hope for the second movie, but holy crap was it ever amazing.

It's debateable in a place like this, but I enjoyed Chrono Cross leaps and bounds more than Chrono Trigger. Both were great games, yes, but CC had a certain maturity and depth that CT lacked.

I know I'm committing a sin to admit that I favor A Perfect Circle's "Imagine" over the original John Lennon version. They work as polar opposites, so I don't really know if it counts. Lennon's is filled with heart and hope for the future, whereas APC went the other direction and made everything seem utterly hopeless.

Also, Evanescence's cover of Tourniquet is much, much more bearable than the Soul Embraced. >.>;; Dear god.

I think World War 2 was better than World War 1. There was more plot development, more twists, more characters, more killing & drama. While it was still mostly in black & white it was much better quality. The bad guys owned too. Pure evil. And what about the good guy who turned out to be bad??? Stalin?? AMAZING stuff. I was at the edge of my seat.

I can't wait until World War 3 comes out.

My friend is a Star Wars fanatic and thinks that Star Wars 3 is the best movie ever made...

Sounds like your friend has never seen Star Wars V. While 3 was much better than the 1 and 2(much much much better). It's not as good as V. However in its own right, 3 was better than IV. ;P

He's seen all...

Must be the movie equivalent of a graphics whore then. 'Cause that's all that movie had going for it. Pretty much all any of the prequels had going for them. Eye candy. Whoopy..

I just watched Phantom Menace for the first time since its opening night in theaters, what seven years ago? I thought it was pretty bad then, but god it is horrible. Worse than I thought. Granted that was probably to be expected as I was 14 then.

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Originally Posted by Vyk

Metal Gear Solid for the GameCube was pretty good.

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I'm going to have to disagree with you there.


I think it's mostly because sequals are generaly cynical cash-ins.

Batman Begins was certainally better that the 3 before it. I'd have to watch Batman again to decide for sure.
System of a Down's second (<_<) album was their best.

And Nonpoint's In the Air Tonight is a lot better than Phil Collins'!

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Originally Posted by MecaKane

And Nonpoint's In the Air Tonight is a lot better than Phil Collins'!

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No way.

I would, however, argue that Tool's cover of the Zeppelin classic "No Quarter" is superior to the original.

Mr Bungle's second album "Disco Volante" was way better than their first, even though it took them 4 years to release it.

There's also a couple that havent been mentioned:
- Ratchet & Clank UYA
- FF in general
- Jak 2
- Ninja Gaiden
- Half Life 2
- GTA 3
- Earthbound
- Super Metroid
- LoZ Link to the Past

Batman Begins is the best batman, but it might be touted as it's own original since it follows closer to the dark comics and what he was originally meant to be, while the latters were more campy, although 1 and 2 were more a mix of Burtons dark/campy style.

SW3 I think not as a whole better than IV,V,and VI but definitely when its on game its on game, and some emotional powerful scenes rival the best of the series.

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Originally Posted by Cuchulainn

I think World War 2 was better than World War 1. There was more plot development, more twists, more characters, more killing & drama. While it was still mostly in black & white it was much better quality. The bad guys owned too. Pure evil. And what about the good guy who turned out to be bad??? Stalin?? AMAZING stuff. I was at the edge of my seat.

I can't wait until World War 3 comes out.

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*wins the thread*

I preferred Poison The Well's version of "Today" over the original Smashing Pumpkins version, though the original is still a fantastic song.

Thrice have gotten better with each album. "Vheissu" is their finest work to date.

I find the Jak games got better with each subsequent release, as had the Ratchet And Clank games.

The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film, and one of my favourite films. Like, of all time. Seriously.

I'm done.

I can't stand the original of Uptown Girl.

Family Guy Season 2 & 3 were better than the 1st

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Originally Posted by Braska's Final Aeon

Family Guy Season 2 & 3 were better than the 1st

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And Season 4 was better than 2 and 3!

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Originally Posted by Cuchulainn

I think World War 2 was better than World War 1. There was more plot development, more twists, more characters, more killing & drama. While it was still mostly in black & white it was much better quality. The bad guys owned too. Pure evil. And what about the good guy who turned out to be bad??? Stalin?? AMAZING stuff. I was at the edge of my seat.

I can't wait until World War 3 comes out.

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Yes, this post definatly wins the thread

Final Fantasy X is better than Final Fantasy IV!

...oh wait.

It's generally accepted that the original Star Wars trilogy is better than the prequels, though the original trilogy is one hell of an act to follow, or in this case precede. The prequels were derided as relying solely on style and not substance. Don't get me wrong, I want to brutally kill Jar Jar Binks, too, but the actual storyline they followed was epic in every sense of the word, overwhelmingly drawing from real history and myth. I actually don't think a better Anakin could have been found than Hayden Christensen, given Anakin's actual character. If you were raised in a monastic order whose philosophical bent tried to stifle crucial aspects of your emotional growth, you'd behave like a douche, too.