Terrible film invalidates the preceding one

Rating: Null/10 (22 May 2004)

There should be a rule of sequels that one does not invalidate the entire purpose of the one preceding it.
Aliens 3 cynically opens with, "Hey everything you saw in Aliens 2, everything Ripley endured and did meant NOTHING."
Once you strip away that gleam of hope, instill a complete sense of futility, you create in the viewer a, "What's the purpose, they are all gonna die anyway" mindset.
Sequels these days while complained about do carry with them advantage over say the trilogies of even a decade ago. Today most films with even a promise of a sequel or a series of sequels carry along with them a story arc. There is a lot less of the making it up as we go along to the writing of each installment than in the past.
Even this is a double edge sword. Where as you don't have to explain how a person who in the first movement was seen having their head chopped off didn't really die, you loose the creativity of having to write yourself out of what was once a story's deadend.