FromDune: Part TwotoInside Out 2to the long-awaitedBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, 2024 has delivered some truly great sequels that managed to live up to their classic predecessors. As Hollywood increasingly relies on familiar franchises to ensure audiences will come out to movie theaters, sequels are becoming even more common. And those audiences are turning up to prove the studios right — eight of the top 10highest-grossing movies of 2024were sequels — so sequels will probably continue to dominate multiplexes for years to come.
There have been some great prequels in 2024, too.Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagais an explosive new chapter in George Miller’s post-apocalyptic epic,The First Omenis a terrifying portrayal of the birth of Damien Thorn, andA Quiet Place: Day Onewent back to the day the sound-sensitive aliens landed. This year brought some sequels thatdivided fans and critics, likeJoker: Folie à DeuxandGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, but there were just as many satisfying sequels that expanded on their franchises in really thrilling ways.
10Twisters
Lee Isaac Chung’sTwistersis only tangentially connected to the original movie. It doesn’t share any of the same characters; it’s just another story about storm chasers in tornado season. But it is every bit the dazzling cinematic spectacle that the first film was. The real star of a disaster movie is the disaster itself, andTwisters, much likeTwister, succeeds in giving its audience the thrill of experiencing a deadly tornado from the safety of a movie theater.
The romantic subplots usually detract from the blockbuster entertainment of a disaster movie, but Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones share such electric on-screen chemistry that their love story is just as thrilling as any of the tornadoes.Twistersdemanded to be seen on the big screen. It’s an eye-popping moviegoing experience, just like the first one.
9Paddington In Peru
FromHoptoSonic the Hedgehog, movies about CG animals wreaking havoc on a live-action everyman’s life tend to be mediocre, lukewarm family entertainment. ButPaddingtonandPaddington 2turned out to be two of the greatest movies of all time. Ben Whishaw’s amiable turn as the titular bear turned him into one of cinema’s most beloved icons, and Paul King’s earnest direction ensured that the films are witty, fast-paced, and wear their heart on their sleeve.
The 2024 threequel,Paddington in Peru, fell short of those two previous masterpieces. It suffered from not having King in the director’s chair; King passed the torch to first-time filmmaker Dougal Wilson while he moved on toWonka. But just because it didn’t live up to two of the finest films ever made, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie.Paddington in Peruis still a fun, heartfelt adventure.
8Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Eddie Murphy reprised one of the most iconic roles of his career in 2024. Netflix brought back sharp-witted undercover cop Axel Foley for another action-packed adventure inBeverly Hills Cop: Axel F— and, thankfully, it turned out much better thanComing 2 America. Whereas theComing to Americasequel paled in comparison to the original film,Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Fis easilythe bestBeverly Hills Copmovie since the first one.
The fourth film sends Axel back to Beverly Hills when his estranged daughter, now a powerful defense attorney, is targeted by a dangerous gang. Murphy recaptures the motormouth energy of his original performance as Axel, much more so than he did in his reprisal of Prince Akeem. Director Mark Molloy recaptures the original film’s perfect balance of action spectacle and laugh-out-loud hilarity.
7Sonic The Hedgehog 3
From the “Ugly Sonic” controversy to the COVID-19 pandemic,Sonic the Hedgehoghas faced every possible hurdle in its quest to become a blockbuster movie franchise. And against all odds, it’s managed to overcome those hurdles and become a smash hit. Each of theSonicfilms has been better than the last. The first movie was an affable action comedy, the second one pushed the boat out with a bit more imagination, visual flair, and videogame lore, and the third one is the best of the bunch.
Shadow’s story is surprisingly emotional, and Keanu Reeves brings real depth to the character. Jeff Fowler’s direction is more bombastic and assured than ever. And the franchise’s M.V.P., Jim Carrey, gets twice as much time to shine in a dual role as Dr. Robotnik and his grandfather, Gerald.
6Gladiator II
The case could easily be made that Ridley Scott’sGladiatordidn’t need a sequel. It’s a perfect swords-and-sandals epic whose mythic simplicity makes it a timeless masterpiece. But there’s no denying that Scott’s standalone sequel,Gladiator II, is one of the most impressive blockbuster spectacles of the year. Scott didn’t just pit men against men; he threw them in the arena with wild animals like monkeys, rhinos, and even bloodthirsty sharks.
Thanks toDenzel Washington’s scene-stealing turn as Macrinus,Gladiator IIis a lot funnier than the first film. It’s also a more complex, more compelling political narrative about an iron-fisted tyrant usurping the throne of Ancient Rome.Gladiator IImight not be the untouchable magnum opus that its predecessor is, but it is one of the most passionately entertaining big-budget movies of the year.
5Deadpool & Wolverine
Marvel Studios’Deadpool & Wolverineisn’t a direct sequel toDeadpool 2. It does use Deadpool’s time crimes from that movie’s post-credits scene to instigate his conflict with the TVA, but it serves as more of a standalone movie integrating Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, it deftly recaptures the meta mutant mayhem that made those first twoDeadpoolmovies so much fun; the threequel might be even Deadpool-ier than its predecessors.
It was a joy to see Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth back on the big screen, and his team-up with Hugh Jackman’s Logan — the perfect straight man to his wacky comic persona — made him even funnier.Deadpool & Wolverineis a delight from start to finish. It has some of the biggest laughs, biggest action sequences, craziest cameos, andbest soundtrack needle-dropsof the entireDeadpooltrilogy.
4Alien: Romulus
Wedged betweenAlienandAliens, Fede Álvarez’sAlien: Romulustook the franchise back to its roots. Since delivering two of the greatest movies ever made with its first couple of entries, this series has had a very bumpy road. The sequels that followed got worse and worse, and the interim has been filled with crummy crossovers and polarizing prequels. But in 2024, Álvarez deliveredthe bestAlienmovie sinceAliens— and it was long overdue.
Alien: Romuluscombines the best elements ofAlienandAliens. The first half of the movie is a chilling haunted-house-in-space thriller likeAlien, with shocking gore and tense jump scares. The second half is a high-octane action blockbuster likeAliens, with swarming xenomorphs and acid-stained shootouts. Cailee Spaeny is the most badassAlienheroine since Ripley and David Jonsson is the most sympathetic synth since Bishop.
3Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
After 36 years of anticipation,Tim Burton finally directed a sequel toBeetlejuicein 2024. Legacy sequels don’t always live up to their predecessor — in fact, they rarely do — butBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceis every bit the macabre delight that its 1988 predecessor was. It might not be quite as spooky or quite as hilarious as the first one, but it perfectly recaptures the spirit of the original classic.
Michael Keaton slips effortlessly back into the role of Betelgeuse, once again stealing every scene he’s in and seizing the audience’s attention. Rather than give in to the temptations of CGI and greenscreens, Burton reused the old-school methods of practical sets and special effects that made the first movie so immersive and spectacular.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewas a welcome return to the afterlife that recaptured what made the original great without just rehashing it.
2Inside Out 2
It was incredibly risky for Pixar to make a sequel toInside Out. It wasn’t a commercial risk — from Disney’s perspective, it made perfect financial sense — but it was certainly a creative risk.Inside Outis one of Pixar’s most touching movies, with a powerful message about the positive role of sadness. It set a very high bar for a potential sequel.Inside Out 2could’ve turned out likeFinding DoryandIncredibles 2, unnecessary additions to their perfect predecessors, or evenCars 2, an outright disaster.
Thankfully,Inside Out 2turned out more likeToy Story 2. It’s a worthy successor to the first movie that builds on what came before. It rounds out Riley as more of a three-dimensional, individual character, and introduces a wider variety of more complex, more mature emotions — particularly Anxiety, one ofthe greatest movie villains of 2024.
1Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’sDune: Part Twoisn’t a sequel in the traditional sense. It’s not a follow-up to a standalone movie that was produced purely because the first one made enough of a profit for the studio to want more; it’s the second half of the story Villeneuve started in the last one. It was always the plan to make a second movie to complete Villeneuve’s ambitious, visually stunning adaptation of Frank Herbert’s literary sci-fi opus.
From Greig Fraser’s breathtaking cinematography to Hans Zimmer’s otherworldly music,Dune: Part Twohas all the things that madeDune: Part Onesuch a masterpiece. But it’s also a much bigger and bolder movie thanPart One.Part Onewas all build-up andPart Twois all payoff as Paul Atreides reluctantly leads the Fremen into an apocalyptic holy war.
