8 Spin-off Movies That Are Better Than the Original!

The spin-off chapter Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Antonio Banderas) was released 11 years after the last movie starring the character, and it was nominated for an Academy Award, just when you thought you’d heard the last of Antonio Banderas’ seductive cat voice.

While I wouldn’t recommend betting against Marcel the Shell in the race for Best Animated Feature, Puss has a good chance of taking home the Oscar thanks to its impressive critical reception and successful box office.

That it’s a sequel to Shrek, which in 2001 won the first Academy Award for animation and still holds up well today, is a testament to how well it’s held up over time. On the other side, the new Puss in Boots seems to be breaking ground, at least in terms of its striking Spider-Verse-inspired animation style

It’s not the only offshoot that’s challenging the parent franchise. Unlike sequels, spin-offs often feature a secondary character in the lead role or introduce new characters and plotlines set in the same universe as the original. Here are a dozen prequels/sequels that hold up well on their own (and in some cases are even preferable to the original series).

Logan

The X-Men franchise from 20th Century Fox was the most bizarrely individualistic superhero series in the United States, spanning two decades of films and television episodes with radically contrasting tones that ultimately exemplified the best and worst of the genre.

While being set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic world and following individuals who are essentially eternal, this, the tenth overall X-movie and the third to give Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine major billing, feels the most like a film about real people.

Spin-Off Movies That Are Better Than the Original

Jackman provides an excellent portrayal of a superhero way past his prime, while Patrick Stewart is sad as the formerly proud and pompous Charles Xavier, who is now in the late stages of dementia and barely able to use the restroom on his own. It’s dark and brutal without being mindless, though. It’s also got an optimistic message for the future generation, and its script was nominated for an Oscar because of how well it handled those themes.

Where to Watch: Disney+

A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark is a short course correction from the popular original The Pink Panther from 1963, which starred Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau as a minor character who rather stumbles into a crime caper involving the jewel of the title and David Niven as a gentleman jewel thief.

The unexpected success of the film prompted its writer/director Blake Edwards to immediately produce A Shot in the Dark, this time with Clouseau as the film’s primary character and without any of the original cast.

Spin-Off Movies That Are Better Than the Original

Giving the comedic relief top billing may sound like a poor idea, but the seamless silliness of A Shot in the Dark proves that it was the film they should have made all along. The humor in the subsequent films wouldn’t land as effectively, therefore this is the greatest of the series.

Where to Watch: Tubi, Hoopla, Kanopy, Pluto

Bumblebee

The five Transformers films directed by Michael Bay have large explosions, an incomprehensible backstory, and human drama as exaggerated as a whole season of One Tree Hill, yet ultimately they amount to very little. The latest film in the series, which centers on the eponymous Volkswagen Beetle and was directed by someone other than Michael Bay, is the finest in the franchise since the 2007 original (if you’re being kind to Bay) or the best (if you’re me).

In the lead role, Hailee Steinfeld (an Oscar nominee!) has a captivating performance, and the film is generally more subdued and character-focused. On the flip side, it’s a better action movie than the ones that came before it because the combat scenes are more clearly directed. Perhaps Travis Knight, the director, and CEO of stop-motion animation powerhouse Laika Studios deserve some of the credit (Coraline, Kubo, and the Two Strings).

 Where to Watch: Paramount+, Fubo

Creed

That Ryan Coogler’s Creed, a spin-off of Rocky, is even close to being as good as the original is an impressive effort; nonetheless, the original film is a vast stone stairway that Creed almost manages to climb. Even though it builds on the model that all Rocky sequels adhere to, it is unquestionably superior to every one of them.

Spin-Off Movies That Are Better Than the Original

Coogler’s direction is swift, there are humorous moments, and Michael B. Jordan proves he can carry a franchise (one that is already being set up for a threequel). Perhaps what makes it so remarkable is not so much its originality but rather the fact that it breathes new life into a franchise that is now over four decades old.

 Where to Watch: TNT, TBS, Tru TV

Deadpool

To return briefly to the X-Men. When compared to the Logan series, Deadpool takes a very different approach. The Hugh Jackman movie succeeds because it takes itself and its universe more seriously, whereas Deadpool shines out because it takes almost nothing seriously.

Ryan Reynolds‘ disfigured super anti-hero winks at/flip off the camera while still managing to be reasonably charming, and there is just enough of an emotional connection (in Wade Wilson’s relationship with Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa) to keep things from flying too far off the rails. The picture goes to considerable efforts to poke fun at a cinema genre that has had more than enough of that for the past seven years.

Where to Watch: Disney+

Birds of Prey

Suicide Squad, starring Margot Robbie as the vibrant Harley Quinn, was a forgettable jumble of a movie that not even Viola Davis could redeem in 2016. What else could we do but create a spinoff series for her? In addition to a stellar supporting ensemble that includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, and Ali Wong, the film’s director, Cathy Yan, and writer, Christina Hobson, give Robbie a lot more amusing, profanity-laced things to do.

Spin-Off Movies That Are Better Than the Original

It’s a crying tragedy, puddin’, that fewer people saw it than any other recent DC movie because it’s quick, amusing, and elegant.

Where to Watch: HBO Max

The LEGO Batman Movie

Despite retaining the unexpected heart that made The LEGO Movie so enjoyable, this Batman-themed spin-off is much harder and goofier.

It takes in Batman’s whole pop cultural canon and seamlessly bricks it together to convey a story about how no amount of amazing gadgets or brooding can replace the love and support of family and friends.

Where to Watch: HBO Max

READ MORE:

5 of the World’s Most Banned Movies!

8 Best Reboots of Shows You Loved as a Kid!

Rogue One

From the year 2023, it’s practically hard to sort out the Star Wars franchise and determine which films are sequels and which are prequels, but Rogue One can be safely classified as a spin-off on its own merits.

In terms of continuity, it’s closest to the original 1977 film, but as a product of the modern, Disney-period franchise, I’m considering it a spin-off of The Force Awakens, the film that ushered in this era of many movies and limitless TV shows, some of which are pretty good.

Spin-Off Movies That Are Better Than the Original

Rogue One stands towards the top of the pile. It doesn’t feel as calculated as those movies more obviously planting sequels, in part because it introduces new characters that we’d have little expectation of ever seeing again (though fortunately, we got to know Diego Luna’s Andor a lot better).

Separating him from all of the family drama to make him legitimately dangerous again, Rogue One also makes the best use of Darth Vader in decades.

Where to Watch: Disney+

For more details visit our website Jerseyshorevibe.com

Comments are closed.