Sequels: Alien and Aliens

Somehow, Alien and Aliens escaped the curse of the sequel (outlined in the last article). This is a surprise, considering that the sequel was written by different people than the original. That’s an obvious count against a movie because (again, as we discussed last time) money is a much more likely common inspiration uniting people than artistic vision. But, like I said, it worked. Alien and Aliens are both good (but different) movies for different (but related)

Ripley must face the enemies of mankind...

reasons.

And one of the central things that distinguishes these two movies from other pairs is that nothing of the original is negated so that the sequel can proceed.

Sequels

What makes a sequel a sequel? Well, the smart-ass response is that it’s a story that comes after another one; you know, in sequence. But, that obviously isn’t a sufficient definition. Every story involves a sequence of events, so some of the events come after other ones. Chapters come after chapters, “books” (as in the Lord of the Rings) come after “books”, but they aren’t sequels in the sense that “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” or Karate Kid 2 are sequels.

Lucky the kind, helpful girl I met in California, after braving the wrath of her brutal, psychotic boy-friend to choose me, unceremoniously dumped me for some football player like a shallow airhead. Otherwise I never would have met you. 'Hope they don't make a third movie...