Movie Prequels? Worthy or Useless?

[SkyWarp91]

Do you think Movie Prequels to famous Movie Series, like 'X-Men First Class', 'Wolverine : Origins', or even the 'Alien Vs Predator' (prequels to the Alien movies) should even be made in the first place?

I've seen plenty of trailers for X-Men First Class on TV and I'm not impressed at all, I know Charles will end up in a wheelchair and Magneto will become his enemy and their lives are forever changed in X3...

[griffin]

People knew that the Titanic would sink too, but it was the highest grossing movie of all time...
But yeah, writers of prequels can find it challenging to surprise the audience if it leads directly into an existing movie. The recent Star Trek worked well, but had to incorporate a time-displacement plot device for it to head into unknown new territory.

[Sky Shadow]

The War Within comics were prequels and they were the best Transformers comics Dreamwave released. In some ways, Beast Wars is a prequel to G1 and it was arguably the best Transformers cartoon. Caprica... The Magician's Nephew... that Star Trek film - there are heaps of great prequels - it's not a text's prequel-ness that makes it good or bad, it's just whether or not it's a good text.

Even Shakespeare released prequels after their sequels, and I think people would be hard-pressed to argue that they were useless.

[Gutsman Heavy]

While they can be entertaining, I think they are kinda pointless, if that story really needed to be told it would be the first movie made.

[kup]

Even Shakespeare released prequels after their sequels, and I think people would be hard-pressed to argue that they were useless.

I can see the early 17th century trailer:

"Before he was McBeth...He was Mac Bethad mac Findlaích.."

"Before he was McDuff...He was William..."

[Sky Shadow]

I can see the early 17th century trailer:

"Before he was McBeth...He was Mac Bethad mac Findlaích.."

"Before he was McDuff...He was William..."

[GoktimusPrime]

Without humans, I don't think the TF prequels would appeal to a general audience really. Besides, a lot of the prequel stories have already been told in comic books. Suits me fine.

I'd personally love to see IDW attempt a prequel for Beast Wars though... answer questions like:
+ Just how did Rodimus and the Wreckers win the Autobot-Decepticon War?
+ How events led the signing of the Pax Cybertronia? Was it really a benevolent peace treaty or was it the Autobots enacting Gunboat Diplomacy to exert unchallenged power and in the process screw over the Decepticons (just like the Pax Britannica did on Earth during the British Empire). It would certainly explain the extreme political imbalance between Maximals and Predacons, and why the Beast Wars broke out at all.
+ The origins of Protoform X and Depth Charge's fall from grace.
etc.

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P.S.: Also, I don't think Hasbro would be keen on supporting such a project as a movie or cartoon unless they were intended to design a toy line for it. Remember Movie Protoform Optimus Prime and Starscream (and how they peg warmed)? Imagine an entire line of Transformers that looked like that! Well okay, you wouldn't need to change Megatron... but every Transformer would have these very alien looking forms that transformed into strange alien-looking vehicles; not sure if they'd sell.