Sometimes we don't need a belated introduction! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the prequels that are all kinds of awful.
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00:00 - Maybe these boys aren't gonna like
00:01 what you've done to this place.
00:02 We really need to go.
00:03 - I'll find my own way.
00:06 - Welcome to WatchMojo,
00:08 and today we're counting down our picks
00:11 for the prequels that are all kinds of awful.
00:15 These are films that can't hope to match the originals
00:18 and were unnecessary to begin with.
00:20 - It would be a poor choice to force my hand into action.
00:25 - Number 10, Fantastic Beasts franchise.
00:29 Expanding on the wizardly world of Harry Potter,
00:32 far beyond Hogwarts,
00:33 sounded like an idea filled with possibilities.
00:37 Unfortunately, the Fantastic Beasts series
00:40 majorly lost its direction.
00:42 - Do you think you can hold me?
00:45 - We'll do our best, Mr. Grindelwald.
00:50 - Starting off on a lighter touch
00:51 with a story about Newt Scamander and his magical pets,
00:54 it veers into a dark, soulless rendition
00:57 of the Wizarding War.
00:58 By the trilogy's end,
01:00 Newt is more of a bystander than the protagonist.
01:03 Instead, we watch a family drama about the Dumbledores
01:07 that isn't fantastic or has anything to do with beasts.
01:11 - Aurelius.
01:12 Aurelius Dumbledore.
01:15 We will go down in history together as we remake this world.
01:23 - The weird combination of magical creatures
01:25 and a major global conflict just doesn't resonate.
01:29 It didn't help that behind the scenes controversies
01:31 dampened things,
01:32 as the series petered out
01:34 with a less than favorable conclusion.
01:36 Unless they actually make two more of these.
01:40 - Oh, and I'd do it again, by the way.
01:41 Should you ask?
01:45 - Number nine, Oz the Great and Powerful.
01:47 1939's The Wizard of Oz
01:50 leaves enough interest in the titular character
01:52 for viewers to contemplate his backstory.
01:54 - Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
01:57 The Great and Oz has spoken.
02:00 - Who are you?
02:03 - After watching Oz the Great and Powerful,
02:05 you prefer not knowing much about him.
02:08 Along with the main character's smug, insufferable attitude,
02:11 the prequel simply delivers rehashed versions
02:14 of materials seen in the original film.
02:16 We're not given enough justification
02:18 to see how these characters ended up as they are
02:20 when Dorothy comes to Oz.
02:22 - She'll get over me.
02:23 - They always do.
02:24 She's a pretty young witch.
02:26 There'll be plenty of wizards knocking at her door.
02:28 - Oh, every lie you tell gets us one step closer
02:31 to the Emerald City dungeon.
02:32 - The movie inadvertently gets us to side
02:34 with the designated villains instead,
02:36 as the protagonist never wins the audience's sympathy.
02:39 It turns out that the mystery behind the Wizard of Oz
02:42 was always the most appealing thing about him.
02:45 A peek behind the curtain takes all the mystique away.
02:49 - And I wanna thank you
02:50 for opening my eyes.
02:54 - And what do you see?
02:55 - That I have everything I ever wanted.
03:01 - Number eight, "The Thing."
03:03 1982's "The Thing" starts off
03:06 with the eponymous antagonist arriving
03:08 from a Norwegian research center.
03:10 The 2011 prequel take us back to these events.
03:14 - It looks like the alien cells
03:15 are somehow attacking Henrik's cells,
03:18 and then the...
03:19 What is that?
03:22 - It's transforming into...
03:23 - They're imitating his cells.
03:24 - A malicious force is discovered
03:26 that gradually starts to eliminate
03:27 the people who discovered it.
03:29 However, apart from the ending,
03:31 this film doesn't have much to tie the story together.
03:34 "The Thing" does confirm that the entity is of alien origin,
03:38 but that's not something it dwells on too long.
03:41 For the most part,
03:42 it follows the same template as the original.
03:45 - We have to trust in this plan.
03:51 - It's our only chance of making it through this.
03:53 - Watching people get killed by the mysterious being
03:56 is a lot more chilling in the 1982 movie
03:58 because we don't know what it is.
04:00 The prequel doesn't carry the same fear factor,
04:03 settling for recycled scares that just don't land.
04:07 - Stop.
04:09 Kate?
04:09 Kate!
04:11 Kate!
04:13 No!
04:17 (screaming)
04:19 - Number seven, "The Scorpion King."
04:23 Fans were intrigued by Matthias the Akkadian
04:26 after watching a snippet of his origins
04:28 in "The Mummy Returns."
04:29 - The Scorpion King made a pact with the dark Gornubus.
04:33 The Diffonubus would spare his life
04:36 and let him conquer his enemies.
04:39 He would give him his soul.
04:41 - Those looking for a gritty,
04:42 ruthless expansion of his story
04:44 were disappointed when the prequel
04:46 basically ran in the opposite direction.
04:48 "The Scorpion King" is an overall wacky film
04:51 filled with goofy one-liners
04:53 among a plethora of comedic sequences.
04:56 It plays into the fast-talking persona
04:58 that the Rock was known for at the time.
05:00 - Horse thief.
05:01 - Ah, I know this dog.
05:03 They'll behead him for sure this time.
05:05 - He'll be all the prettier without it.
05:07 - However, the character of Matthias
05:10 doesn't resemble how he is in "The Mummy Returns,"
05:12 causing a huge disconnect
05:14 between the entry and the prequel.
05:16 While it's serviceable for a breezy, silly fun,
05:20 it doesn't care enough to answer the main question
05:22 of how Matthias becomes the dreaded Scorpion King.
05:26 - Remember, Lubion Eyes will be watching you, Scorpion King.
05:31 - Number six, "Underworld, Rise of the Lycans."
05:38 (lion roars)
05:39 - I should have polished you under my heel
05:41 the day you were born.
05:42 - Yes, you should have.
05:44 - The original entry tells us most of what we need to know
05:47 about the vampire-lycan conflict,
05:49 making "Rise of the Lycans" pretty unnecessary.
05:52 Seeing how the conflict between Vampire Victor
05:55 and Lycan Lucien started would have been interesting
05:57 if the first film hadn't centered around it.
06:00 - This is his war.
06:01 Victor's.
06:04 And he spent the last 600 years exterminating my species.
06:12 - Even on its own, the movie's drab, lifeless visuals
06:15 are difficult to follow.
06:17 The camera filter and cinematography can be a real hurdle
06:21 for the viewing experience,
06:22 worsened by the sullen tone of the story.
06:24 Most of the brutality fails to contribute to the plot
06:27 and seems tacked on for the sake of the R-rating.
06:30 And without the series' protagonist, Selene,
06:31 in a major role, a solid hook to the movie
06:34 is missing throughout its runtime.
06:36 - You reminded him so much of his precious Sonia.
06:40 - The daughter he condemned to death.
06:43 - Lies.
06:46 - Number five, "300, Rise of an Empire."
06:49 Elements like slow motion, distinct visual filters,
06:52 and action set pieces made Zack Snyder's "300"
06:55 a commercial success.
06:57 - Madness.
06:58 This is Sparta!
07:01 - It's as if the developers behind "Rise of an Empire"
07:07 decided to do the exact same thing
07:09 and hoped no one would notice.
07:11 The movie is both a prequel and sequel
07:14 depicting antagonist Xerxes' rise in power
07:17 and the aftermath of his battle with Leonidas.
07:19 - 10 years ago, this war began as all wars begin,
07:24 with a grievance.
07:27 - The story is difficult to get into
07:29 since people just seem to kill each other
07:31 after every couple of scenes.
07:33 The brutality is even more jarring
07:35 thanks to frequent slow-mo sequences
07:37 that seem to go on forever.
07:40 By the end, viewers will be more inclined
07:42 to count the number of on-screen deaths
07:44 than to keep up with the plot that lacks depth anyways.
07:48 - You're being surrounded.
07:51 All of Greece has united against you.
07:53 Delphi, Thebes, Olympia, Arcadia, and Sparta.
07:59 - Number four, "Pan."
08:02 - I am my mother's son,
08:04 and if Blackbeard is going to destroy
08:05 everything my parents died for,
08:08 I'll stand against him to the last.
08:10 - The bizarre title of this prequel is telling enough
08:14 that this is a bland film.
08:16 Where the original Peter Pan uses things like pixie dust,
08:19 mermaids, and evil pirates to make Neverland feel exciting,
08:22 "Pan" throws much out with no fun or charm to back it up.
08:26 You can also be forgiven for not caring about Peter himself
08:29 as the protagonist feels like an afterthought
08:31 in his own story.
08:33 (dramatic music)
08:34 - If we're gonna beat him, we're gonna do it together.
08:37 Do you hear me?
08:39 - Although the actors do their best,
08:41 the abundance of special effects and action scenes
08:44 sucks the life out of their characters.
08:46 The movie plays too close to contemporary
08:49 young adult blockbusters like "The Hunger Games"
08:51 and "Divergent," trading away Peter Pan's sense of wonder
08:54 for a whole lot of CGI.
08:56 - Hey, who's in charge here?
08:58 - Well, I'm the captain.
08:59 - And I'm the chosen one.
09:00 - We'll have plenty of time to argue about that.
09:02 - We'll have plenty of time to argue about that later, flyboy.
09:04 - Suit yourself, Captain Hook.
09:07 - Number three, "X-Men Origins Wolverine."
09:10 It's a shame that a movie with so much potential
09:12 ultimately fails.
09:14 "X-Men Origins Wolverine" has a talented cast,
09:17 only for the characters to drop out one by one
09:20 before it becomes a cliche revenge story.
09:22 - I'm coming for blood.
09:23 No law, no code of conduct.
09:28 You point me in the right direction,
09:30 you get the hell out of my way.
09:32 - From the doom romances, callbacks, and many betrayals,
09:35 it's predictable from the get-go.
09:37 Strangely enough, the intro sequence
09:39 does a much better job of being a prequel
09:42 than the rest of the film.
09:43 As Wolverine becomes interchangeable
09:45 with every other action hero, the longer the runtime goes.
09:48 - You're not an animal.
09:50 - Oh, yes, you are.
09:52 Do it.
09:57 - And with horrible CGI
09:58 and a complete butchering of Deadpool's character,
10:01 the movie is a mess all around.
10:04 With days of future past later erased in the film's events,
10:07 it looks like even the "X-Men" series' real-life origins
10:10 is better left forgotten.
10:12 - Where the hell am I?
10:14 - Listen, I'm a friend.
10:16 - A friend, yeah?
10:18 - What's my name?
10:19 - Number two, "Exorcist, The Beginning."
10:21 As great as "The Exorcist" is,
10:23 not many people were clamoring to see an origin story.
10:26 "Exorcist, The Beginning" looks into Father Merrin's past
10:29 encountering the demon Pazuzu in Africa.
10:32 - This is a letter impression
10:33 of the artifact we're looking for,
10:35 a representation of a mythical demon.
10:38 - However, the links between the original and prequel
10:41 are loosely defined.
10:43 Much of the central arc centers around
10:45 Merrin's crisis of faith,
10:47 which doesn't balance well with the film's direction.
10:50 "The Beginning" lacks the subtlety
10:51 that the 1973 entry offers,
10:54 delivering a very obvious and gory horror experience.
10:58 - Searching for the origin of a powerful evil.
11:00 But when they got here, that evil consumed them,
11:04 turning the soldiers against each other in a bloodbath.
11:07 - After all, there's only so many times a jump scare works
11:10 before it starts to get mundane.
11:12 Its critical failure was best summed up
11:15 by "The Exorcist" author, William Peter Blatty.
11:18 He called watching the prequel
11:19 a humiliating professional experience.
11:22 Honestly, we can't disagree.
11:25 - I couldn't find what you were looking for.
11:28 - But you found something, didn't you?
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11:35 and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
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11:46 - Number one, "Dumb and Dumberer" when Harry met Lloyd.
11:52 "Dumb and Dumber" is praised for its slapstick quality,
11:55 mainly due to the winning combination
11:56 of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
11:58 - Mock!
11:59 - Yeah!
12:00 - Ing!
12:01 - Yeah!
12:02 - Bird!
12:03 - Yeah!
12:04 - Yeah!
12:05 - Yeah!
12:06 - Mockingbird, don't everybody have you heard?
12:11 - Without them, Harry and Lloyd's antics can be mind-numbing,
12:15 and this prequel proves why.
12:16 Set during their high school years,
12:18 the main characters befriend similarly wacky characters
12:21 while dealing with an evil principal.
12:24 Of course, the story was never supposed to be important,
12:27 as the film mainly banks on juvenile humor.
12:29 - Harry, Harry, Harry!
12:30 - You're it!
12:31 (laughing)
12:32 - Harry, you seriously stop for a second.
12:33 Come here, Harry, seriously for a second.
12:34 You're it!
12:35 - Oh, no!
12:36 - You're it! - Harry, fudge!
12:38 - Lacking any creativity or wit,
12:40 the jokes are flat and ridiculous
12:42 no matter which scene you are watching.
12:44 Its most impressive achievement
12:46 is somehow stretching out the cringe comedy
12:48 for 85 whole minutes.
12:50 - Oh, our hard work pays off.
12:51 - Yeah.
12:52 - He's going to jail for a long time.
12:54 - Principal of jail?
12:55 Wow, that's a promotion.
12:56 - Yeah, those inmates are lucky.
12:58 - Yeah.
12:59 - While 2014's "Dumb and Dumber Too"
13:01 was also poorly received,
13:03 that sequel seems Oscar-worthy
13:05 next to how bad the prequel is.
13:08 Which prequel do you think
13:09 should have never seen the light of day?
13:11 Let us know in the comments down below.
13:13 - I swear I'm gonna pay for it.
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