Sequels With Really Long Titles

[Mr Light]

Are you sick of how recent movies have ridiculously long titles?

Instead of "Night at the Museum 2" it's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian".

Instead of "Transformers 2" it's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

Instead of "Wolverine" it's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Instead of "Ice Age 3" it's "Ice Age: Age of the Dinosaurs".

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"? Couldn't you at least call it "Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull"?

My personal least favorite title is calling "X-Men 2" "X2: X-Men United". Good lord.

Not to mention that it's going to confuse the 'average joe' folks. How are they going to know what order to watch Pirates Dead Man's Chest and Pirates At World's End in? And believe I worked in a video store it's a serious problem

 

[AdmiralGarak]

It's no different than it has ever been.

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, instead of Star Trek 2
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, instead of Indiana Jones 2

or the granddaddy of long sequel titles:
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back


I doesn't matter, anyway. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" will simply be called Transformers 2 by the general public and on theater tickets.

 

[Kirby]

As long as the title makes sense. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan gives you a pretty good idea as to what to expect. Breakin 2: Electric Bugaloo not so much.

 

[Skywalker]

Just slapping a number at the end of the original title is boring.

"X2: X-Men United" isn't that movie's official title, anyway. It's just "X2" (which is still pretty stupid).

 

[iguana_tonante]

I like them: they are more like subtitles to me. I admit I like them more when the have also the number: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".

 

[JonathonWally]

Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money

 

[Christopher]

Are you sick of how recent movies have ridiculously long titles?

Instead of "Night at the Museum 2" it's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian".

Instead of "Transformers 2" it's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

Instead of "Wolverine" it's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Instead of "Ice Age 3" it's "Ice Age: Age of the Dinosaurs".

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"? Couldn't you at least call it "Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull"?

My personal least favorite title is calling "X-Men 2" "X2: X-Men United". Good lord.

All but two of those are 6 words or less. One is 5 words, one is 4 words, one is 3 words. You really consider that "ridiculously long?"

To me, what's ridiculous is the trend toward inanely short titles like "X2" and "xXx" and so on. Those aren't even words. It's like movie executives are pandering to illiterates.

What's almost as ridiculous is giving a sequel a title that's just the original film's title with a number after it. That's just lazy. A distinct story should have its own distinct title, so yes, sequels should have actual words following the series title rather than numbers.

I agree with your suggestion for Indy 4, but of the other titles you list, the only one I have a problem with is X2: X-Men United. It should've just been called X-Men United. That way it would've had a title that sounded like an actual title rather than a graph coordinate. As for the rest, they're all fine.

 

[Aragorn]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is just pathetic. I'm waiting for "X-Men Continuations: Wolverine: The Sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

 

[Arrqh]

Dark Forces 4: Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Outcast 2: Jedi Academy?

 

[JonathonWally]

Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood

 

[Christopher]

I've never gotten what's so bad about X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a title. If you're going to do movies that tie into the X-Men and depict the origins of individual characters, X-Men Origins is a perfectly sensible blanket title. It sounds like the kind of title a comic book series might have (in fact, DC has made frequent use of the title Secret Origins over the decades).

Of course, it won't make as much sense if there aren't other movies using that supertitle.

 

[Mr Light]

The problem for me with a long title is it's not catchy or easy to spurt out in conversation. "Dood! Did you just see X-Men Origins Wolverine?????" I think movie titles should be as short as possible, 1-3 words basically. So they can stick in your head like an extremely annoying but catchy song. Of course there is a limit; I hate the title "Up". Two letters is way too short! They should have called it "The Spirit of Adventure"... which was the name of the airship... and the song that played at the end of the movie... and the theme of the movie...

 

[Michael Chris]

So call it "Wolverine" I think people will know what you're talking about

 

[Aragorn]

Batman Begins Origins: Catwoman?

 

[Teelie]

I find overly long titles annoying too but most can and are shortened to one or two words anyways when people mention them.

 

[Aragorn]

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of the Warrior

Of course, what's funny is that Scorpion King 2 is a PREQUEL to Scorpion King which is a PREQUEL to The Mummy Returns which is a SEQUEL to The Mummy.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

I've never gotten what's so bad about X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a title. If you're going to do movies that tie into the X-Men and depict the origins of individual characters, X-Men Origins is a perfectly sensible blanket title. It sounds like the kind of title a comic book series might have (in fact, DC has made frequent use of the title Secret Origins over the decades).

Of course, it won't make as much sense if there aren't other movies using that supertitle.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine just seems like an overly and needlessly clunky title. I never heard anyone refer to the movie saying: "hey let's go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine". Most just stuck with brevity and said "Wolverine".

I doubt knowing it was an origin movie would have made a difference to most people. I think people were still going to see or not see the movie regardless if the title was long or short.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I guess its a good thing they didnt do a sequel to the Effect of Gamma Rays on the Man in the Moon Marigolds.

 

[Daneel]

Actually, I rather like subtitles in film sequels, as long as they are provocative or at least somewhat creative; they're certainly more interesting than simply adding a number to the end of the previous film's title.

Out of some of the examples you give, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is an alright title by me. And I actually rather like the sounds of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I mean, sure, from what I've heard, the movie itself is terrible, but at least the title is cool.

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"? Couldn't you at least call it "Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull"?

No, you really couldn't... because then people would think it's about an Indian named Jones. But seriously, yeah, I agree with you that that one was unnecessarily wordy. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull would have been fine. Heck, even Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Skull would have been satisfactory. But I still prefer it to Indiana Jones 4.

 

[Skywalker]

You want a sequel with a really long title? Here you go...

Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D