With The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies wrapping up the prequel series to Lord of the Rings, we thought we'd take a quick look at some of the best prequels in film history.
Take a look!
5. THE GODFATHER, PT. II
Yes, this is technically a prequel. We use the word technically because parts of it are a prequel. And that technicality is also why it's in at No. 5 and not No. 1. Robert DeNiro's sequence as a young Vito Corleone is a perfect example of how to blend different narratives into a single film. The two stories - young Vito in the turn of the century and Michael in the 1950's - start off at different points, but eventually blend somewhere in the middle.
4. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
We don't talk about X-Men: Origins - Wolverine. We do not. Talk about it. Instead, we talk about X-Men: First Class, in which you take 1960's spy thrillers and slap it into the superhero genre. You've got James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto, two young mutants who are just discovering their powers in a world that's rife with intrigue and danger. You've also got a pre-everything Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Kevin Bacon as a sleazy Bond villain-esque bad guy. Amazing.
3. RED DRAGON
A prequel to Silence of the Lambs, you had a stellar performance from both Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes as an FBI profiler and the psychopath he's hunting. You also had, of course, Sir Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter. Although the film was initially made by Michael Mann in the 1986 film Manhunter, this is more of a direct line to Silence of the Lambs than Manhunter. Sure, there are some of Mann's visual cues in there, but Red Dragon's more directly in line. Of course, it's all sort of irrelevant now with the fantastic TV series Hannibal rewriting much of what happens in this film.
2. THE HOBBIT
We were huge fans of Lord of the Rings and to see us re-enter the world of Middle-Earth was a treat. Gandalf, Legolas, Galadriel and more returning as well as new members such as Thorin Oakenshield, Thranduil and many more was very exciting. Also, Benedict Cumberbatch was born to play a talking dragon.
1. STAR TREK
It's easy to forget that the last Star Trek film before JJ Abrams' prequel / reboot was Star Trek: Nemesis. A full seven years passed without a Star Trek film and when it landed, it restarted the entire series. Setting the action before Kirk became Kirk and Spock became Spock, Star Trek used a very clever, if cliched, storytelling device to rewrite its history - time-travel. A blistering pace and a clever eschewing of the techno-babble that marked the previous films, Star Trek was a prequel done right.
