Prequelitis

I'm stealing a title idea from a youtube video I saw not long ago. I'll post it for you to see, even though it's more about game mechanics than plot.



Today, I watched a minute long reveal trailer for an upcoming God of War game, and (to me) it hinted at the possibility of ANOTHER prequel. Prequels get my blood boiling, and I'll tell you why: they accomplish very little while vacuuming money out of our pockets.

I am hard pressed to think of a single series of prequels that was a good idea. The first major one I could see was Star Wars. Do you remember how exciting that was? They were supposed to explain how Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side and became the much more badass James Earl Jones in a breathing apparatus. I'd rather see a sequel, you know, like the books in the extended universe cover: one entailing Boba Fett's escape from the Sarlaac Pit, or the one about Jedi upstart Kyp Durron and the Sun Crusher. I was only a little disappointed when I heard those movies were going to be set before "A New Hope," but I thought, "Ok, this can be cool. Fans really DON'T know why Darth Vader is a huge dick, or the circumstances that led to him abandoning his children." I don't even have to go into it further: we all know how that turned out.

I think this is true, with few exceptions: prequels just aren't a good idea. A few examples include: the star wars prequels, dumb and dumberer: when harry met lloyd, x-men origins: wolverine, final fantasy 7: crisis core, Halo Wars, Perfect Dark Zero, and finally, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Not all of these titles are necessarily BAD, but many of them didn't warrant a look into the past. For example, many of the people who were going to see the X-men movies had a bit of background; I don't think the X-men are this entity that is crammed down the average American's throat. Either you read a bit of the comics, watched the cartoon growing up, or a friend exposed you to it. So to go and desecrate a fantastic story about Wolverine's origin, well, that was a little underhanded. To ruin a character like Deadpool is near blasphemy. Now, there is little/no hope of Deadpool appearing in any other movies set in the X-men universe, because they squandered his appearance to make Hugh Jackman (who is wearing a leather jacket already) look cool.

But did the poor performance of this movie at the box office deter Marvel from releasing the sub par X-Men: First Class? Not even a little. Similarly, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis core was preceded by the lackluster "Advent Children" and Dirge of Cerebus; both titles tanked, but square-enix thought, "Fuck it; let's release some more trash," and proceeded to ruin my fond memories of a good series.

As with all things, a major motivator for this behavior is money. And I get it: everyone is driven by the almighty dollar. My answer to that, though, is another question: still, why prequels? A sequel to any of these things stands to generate more excitement, which leads to more sales. In so few series is there less room for a sequel then a prequel, and if there is, than, to me, that series has concluded. Rarely is there anything worth exploring at that point, when all is resolved. What is the point of exploring the PAST? Everyone understands the conclusion. Again, that brings me to the money issue: a sequel can generate more hype, create more sales (and therefore, more $$$) and further a story, with less chance of being redundant and pissing off fans of the series. I just think it's a better idea.