It has been a full 100 weeks since I first started my
journey through the world of bad movies for these blog posts. I began with Starcrash, one of the most
well-known rip-offs of Star Wars, and a movie that lives on as an example of
what not to do when making a movie. It
seems only fitting that for the 100th week of the Sunday “Bad”
Movies, I dip into similar territory by watching another movie (two in this
case) that rips off something classic and shows many of the mistakes that can
be made while making movies.
Birdemic came out of nowhere in 2010 and rose to fame as one
of the worst movies ever made. After
being rejected by the Sundance Film Festival, director James Nguyen
self-promoted his movie into a distribution deal. The release did a lot of things for the
movie. It became popular in bad movie
circles, and the shoddy effects and poor acting crossed into the
mainstream. People were sharing clips of
the birds doing Kamikaze attacks and exploding on impact. I know that prior to seeing the movie, I had
seen a clip of the two minute applause scene.
The movie was quickly invading the popular culture of North
America. Possibly other places too.
Soon after the popularity of Birdemic came to fruition,
James Nguyen announced that he would be making a sequel to the bad movie
classic. Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
came out in 2013. It brought back many
of the actors from the first movie, and presented the same terrible bird
effects that audiences had seen and loved before. It was the right sequel for the series. Yet, it didn’t catch on in the same way as
the previous effort. Nobody talked about
the follow-up the way they had spoken about the original.
I’ve seen many debates over the past year or two or three or
however long it has been about the right time for a sequel to come to
fruition. I’ve seen people say that a
sequel made ten years after the prior movie is too long to wait between
sequels. I’ve seen people say that a
sequel was made too close to the movie before and that the writers needed more
time to think out a good script. What
decides how people feel about a movie’s sequel and how does any of this relate
to the Birdemic movies? That’s what I’m
about to write.
In order for me to fully realize my thoughts about this
topic, I must first take a look at two different sequels from 2014 that came
out years after their predecessor. The
first is the critically praised Before Midnight. Before Midnight stars Ethan Hawke and Julie
Delpy. It is the second sequel in the
franchise following 1995’s Before Sunrise and 2004’s Before Sunset. As you can see, it had been ten years between
Sunset and Midnight. The things that
people appreciated about the third installment was that the story built upon
the characters and their lives. The
movies have always been a look at the characters and that moment in their
lives. The third movie was no different
and the viewers ate it up. They
appreciated seeing the characters nearly twenty years after they first met and
witnessing how their lives had changed.
Another 2014 sequel didn’t fare quite as well as Before
Midnight. One of the biggest commercial
and critical flops of 2014 was Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. It was a sequel to the successful Sin City, a
movie released in 2005. It was a sequel
nine years in the making. It also had a
lot of changes that were made in the nine years. Most of this was on a casting level. Many of the roles were recast, which caused
confusion in the continuity of the franchise for casual viewers. But these changes weren’t the only thing that
caused the movie to be considered a failure.
In 2005, when the first movie in the franchise was released, it brought
a new style into cinema. It looked and felt
more like a comic book than any of the other comics that had been adapted to
film. No, it didn’t have speech bubbles
and panels, but the aesthetic felt much more comic-bookish than what people
were used to with the X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman movies. It was new.
It was refreshing. Nine years
later, the style failed to have that same bang that it had when it was first
shown to audiences. It had been used in
many movies since, and lost its luster.
And that’s why it was a bad idea to wait as long as they did for a
sequel. All of the fun in the style of
the Sin City movies had been drained through other movies aping it.
Now to take a look at the sequels made very quickly after
the movie that came before it. On the
successful side you have Sharknado, which was released in 2013 on SyFy, and
Sharknado 2: The Second One, which was released on SyFy in 2014. There’s only one year in between the
movies. The second movie was made
between when the first one came out and when the second one came out. It was made due to the cultural saturation of
Sharknado. When the first Sharknado came
out, the internet went wild. It was a
movie about a tornado (actually three tornadoes) filled with sharks. It had Tara Reid and one of the guys from
Beverly Hills 90210. The internet ate it
up. It got a lot of traction on
Twitter. The sequel capitalized on this
fame and did even better. It got high
ratings for SyFy, and was all over Twitter.
It was a case of making the sequel quick enough to still be a part of
the cultural zeitgeist. And it worked.
Compare this to the Saw movies. Particularly to Saw V. Every movie in the Saw franchise come out a
year after the one previous to it. Aside
from the first movie, of course, since there was no Saw movie before that
one. For the first two or three movies
in the franchise, there were interesting ideas.
The plot moved forward. Things
were not at a standstill. Things began
to change after that as the movies all tried to tie into one another. This meant that eventually, they wouldn’t be
able to move the story forward. It culminated
in Saw V, where the entire story of the movie was negated in the final
moments. Everything that happened was
meaningless because of the conclusion.
It was the series’ version of the “everything was just a dream” cop
out. And it was a result of the need to
tie everything together. The events had
to happen within the time frame of the other movies with very little outside of
it. And it showed that sometimes you
need a little bit more time to write when the plot is so complicated and
intricate.
How does all of this relate to Birdemic? You’re probably asking that right now. You’ve probably been asking that almost this
entire time. Why did I go through all of
these long and short times between sequels?
Birdemic falls in between. It
wasn’t as quick as a year between films, but it wasn’t as long as a decade
either. It was three years between
movies. Let me explain.
I said nearer the beginning of this post that the second
Birdemic didn’t have the same success as the first one. There aren’t as many people talking about
Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. I think
the reason is pretty clear and it comes down to what I wrote about the
Sharknado movies. Timing was everything. Birdemic needed to capitalize on the
popularity that it had garnered around 2011.
There should have been a sequel in the works already. But there wasn’t. The sequel got produced after the wave of
popularity for the movie was already fading away. This isn’t the only factor. The distance between the movies isn’t the
only factor for the less popular sequel.
People believed that the filmmaker might set out to make a bad movie
instead of trying to make something good and failing. They thought that the mindset of the people
involved in the movie would have changed, thus taking away from how enjoyable
the original was. Whereas Sharknado was
intentionally insane and bad, Birdemic was not.
To have it be intentional in the sequel would take away from the magic
of the experience.
Sequels are a tricky thing.
Having them too far apart can cause the audience to forget about the
predecessor, or it can allow competition to come into the business and eat away
at an audience. Having a long time
between sequels can also allow for better writing or more growth in characters
as they age and become wiser. Having
sequels too close together can cause fatigue and put a strain on the people
making the movies. But they can also
give the audiences more of what they want when they want it. The timing is crucial to how well it is seen
in the public mind. Is it too long of a
distance? Is it too short of a
distance? Is the distance between
sequels just right? It all depends on
the movie. That, and the people who
watch it.
It’s the 100th week, so you know there are going
to be a bunch of notes:
- There are two more posts this week. One post is a retrospective on 100 weeks doing the Sunday “Bad” Movies. There is also a post that was created with the help of readers like you. It’s about bad movies that you like. I want to do some more reader participant posts in the future. Maybe once a month. We’ll see.
- A poll is now up on the blog. It contains every movie from week 51 until now, excluding The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure. Basically, you must choose one of those movies. I will rewatch whatever movie gets the most votes for the two year anniversary. Vote away. Any of the movies are eligible.
- Birdemic was suggested for the Sunday “Bad” Movies by @ER_NotR.
- Ten actors are featured in both Birdemic films. These actors are Alan Bagh, Rick Camp, Damien Carter, Patsy van Ettinger, Stephen Gustavson, Steve McMoy, Whitney Moore, Colton Osborne, Eric Swartz, and Danny Webber.
- James Nguyen directed both Birdemic and Birdemic 2: The Resurrection.
- At the beginning of the post, I mentioned Starcrash.
- In the post, I mentioned Sharknado. I haven’t featured Sharknado yet, but I wrote about it a little bit in the post for Big Ass Spider!
- I wrote about animal attack movies when I watched Two-Headed Shark Attack.
- Do you have anything to say about the length of time between sequels? Does it matter to you? Is there a right amount of time and a wrong amount of time? Have you seen Birdemic or the sequel? What do you think about the timing between the two? What do you think about the movies? You can answer these questions or share any other thoughts regarding this post in the comments.
- If you have any suggestions for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can leave them in the comments, or message me on Twitter.
- I have recently made an email account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. You can email me at sundaybadmovies@gmail.com.
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