There was a time when a “prequel” was such an unusual concept that nobody even knew what to call the danged things. We actually had to twist a real word around and add some fuzzy latin – adding “pre” to “sequel” – just to be able to have a conversation about them. But times have changed, and now a film like Snow White and the Huntsman can churn out a prequel like The Huntsman: Winter’s War in the middle of April and nobody even bats an eye.
Truth be told, prequels are a tricky business. They take place before an established storyline, which means that most of the time audiences already know how prequels are going to end, or at least what the status quo is going to be like afterwards. And trying to beef up the prequels with lots of exciting action or overcomplicated plotting often backfires. (When we came up with our list of the best movie prequels, there was a Star Wars or a The Hobbit among them. Let’s just say that now.)
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But there are a lot of excellent prequels out there, which found new ways to tell familiar stories, and told us unexpected and fascinating things about characters we already loved. Some of these prequels aren’t necessarily for the greatest franchises, and some might only be “great” when taken as a whole, or when compared to the originals. Even so, they are the films that – to us – define the made up word “prequel” and set the standard by which all the other prequels are judged. Enjoy.
The 10 (or 12) Best Movie Prequels Ever
Top Photo: Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 10 (or 12) Best Movie Prequels Ever
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10. The Powerpuff Girls Movie
Set before the hit TV series, Craig McCracken's excellent animated movie added elements of tragedy to the heroes and their arch-enemy, Mojo Jojo, while piling on more action than ever before.
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
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9. Amityville II: The Possession
The prequel to the popular but stodgy Amityville Horror told a more shocking tale, filled with cruelty and perversion. It holds up even better than the original.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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8. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
In the years before Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones was more of a hired gun than a respectable archaeologist, he learned a valuable lesson about responsibility. He also bounded from one great action sequence to the next, with only a couple of subpar sidekicks holding his prequel back from total greatness.
Photo: LucasFilm
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7. X-Men: First Class
The origin of the X-Men was a brighter, more lively motion picture than the rest of the franchise. Set in the glamorous 1960s, and against a backdrop of idealism faltering against Cold War paranoia, X-Men: First Class was the genuinely classy.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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6. Monsters University
Pixar took a rather silly idea - a Revenge of the Nerds-like comedy, starring a younger Monsters Inc. cast - and elevated it to impressive heights. Few films, especially kids films, explore the idea of personal failure as potently as Monsters U.
Photo: Pixar
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5. Paranormal Activity 3
How do you keep a horror franchise about home video equipment fresh? Change the home video equipment. The Paranormal Activity prequel had to do the same tricks with different technology, forcing the filmmakers to get creative. The result were some of the scariest scares of the decade.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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4. Captain America: The First Avenger
The prequel to the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The First Avenger harkened back to an old-fashioned sense of adventure, imbuing the whole franchise with a sense of heroic history, and forging a path to the future by introducing important ideas that would pay off in future installments.
Photo: Marvel Studios
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3. Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6
The fourth, fifth and sixth Fast & Furious movies all took place in between 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift, making them one of the strangest prequels ever made. But also some of the best. Fast Five and Furious 6, in particular, solidified the franchise's winning formula, with a lovable ensemble cast, over the top action and soap opera melodramatics.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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2. The Godfather Part II
Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Godfather was half a sequel, and half a prequel, with the story of a father and son's rise to power playing out simultaneously. Some consider this to be the superior Godfather, but whether or not you agree it's some of the most stunning, ambitious filmmaking of the 1970s.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It doesn't entirely matter that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly precedes A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars more. All that matters is that Clint Eastwood is back in the morally unbalanced Old West, the pistols are flaring and the characters are unforgettable. Sergio Leone's masterpiece is one of the most vibrant motion pictures in history, a testament to the medium, and just as exciting today as it was fifty years ago.
Photo: United Artists
