Avengers: Age of Ultron,
Mad Max: Fury Road,
Minions,
Furious 7,
Ant-Man,
Fantastic Four,
Jurassic World,
Terminator Genisys,
Mission: Impossible--Rogue Nation,
Ted 2,
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That's a partial list of sequels and franchise films that came out in 2015. The density with which Hollywood releases these films is certainly not a surprise to anyone. It's
de rigueur by this point. Some of them are fine. Most are a bad.
The problem that often occurs in these sequels is that they've exhausted the possibilities inherent in their original stories. But two of my favorite sequels of 2015--
Magic Mike XXL and
Pitch Perfect 2--manage to sidestep this issue by regarding their originators as a stepping stone and not as a template.
