Too Many Sequels Spoil the Theme

It was just one of those boring afternoons in my life. So, out of boredom, I decided to go to a nearby video shop to rent a movie. Once there, I was met by a humble display of CDs. Misled by their title, the video shop attendant labeled the movies according to how he perceived them to be: Scary Movie I and Scary Movie II was grouped with The Ring, House of the Dead, and all of those gruesome/scary movies. And it was just one of the many mismatched movies in the store.
Too preoccupied with my boredom problem, I forgot about the candid arrangement of the CDs. I even let go of the artistic sensibility that had been forcibly imposed on me by my college education. All I did was just grab the first CD that I thought would lightly ease the mind-numbing day that I was having. And the winner was (drum roll) the movie Torque. It was a sequel of the movie The Fast and the Furious.  

And true to the sequel’s infamous reputation, the movie was (sorry to those who had fallen head over heels over the movie’s sloppy dialogues) a poor investment of my last ten-peso bill.

Which reminds me:

Twenty years ago, when I was still busy learning to take my first step in life, a stupendous movie hit the Philippines. It was so big, a president was forced to step down from his throne.

Okay, it was not a movie.

It was EDSA I: The great EDSA I.

It was so momentous that the mere mentioning of the event sends a bittersweet and shuddering nostalgia to those who were old enough to understand and to be part (physically or emotionally) in the said experience.

But though it was a not a movie, it was powerful enough to have its own sequels. Note: Sequels, as in 3 sequels (and maybe more!).

Fast forward (seventeen years later after February 1986), some Filipinos, who were so caught-up by the whole EDSA I phenomena, attempted to resurrect it. Different characters played the key roles and there was a different complication in the story.
Instead of human rights violation, it was betrayal of public trust. And this time, the protagonists and antagonists were not clearly defined considering that the one in power was famous for his underdog-turned-winner character in his movies (yes, he was once an actor in case you haven’t noticed).

But the location was still the same: in front of the big La Guernica shrine somewhere in EDSA (thus the name of the movie, so ingenius!). And the motive was identical: the call for the president’s resignation.

The second attempt succeeded. But unlike the first one that brought upon optimistic hopes, the second EDSA produced more complications. The second big hit had given birth to the third and fourth EDSAs.

Though it has the same motive as with the two previous ones, the third one proved futile for it was not able to elicit the same response that the first two EDSAs were able to get.

The fourth one? It is still showing.

What is funny about this sequel is that it incorporated a lot of the spices that the three EDSAs had. The characters, the plot, the means, and the cause of the three EDSAs were joined together in the fourth EDSA. And this is not just a one-day event: it’s more of a telenovela. And like all the characters in a telenovela where both the protagonists and antagonists utilize the Machiavellian scheme, everyone involved in this political fiasco has readied something dirty in their sleeves to throw at the right moment and at the right person. This dirt-throwing motif was inspired the Watergate Scandal involving Nixon. So much for Filipino ingenuity!

Though there are a lot of Filipinos who are still very interested as to how the fourth EDSA would conclude, majority of the populace are sick and tired of everything. They do not mean any disrespect to all of the sacrifices that were done in order for the three EDSAs to push through, but after the three EDSAs, they learned that however the three were concluded, only one thing was sure: more and more Filipinos are involuntarily being crammed below the poverty line.

As I was writing this paper, two wiretapped telephone / cell phone conversations had been produced: the anti-administration and anti-opposition taped conversations. Frankly, with the dirt that they threw at each other, I could not help but be amused with their cunningness to come up with such strategies to mess-up each other’s reputations - if only their cunningness could be used to alleviate the current Philippine economic situation.

Well, so much for the discussion about bad sequels. However I rant all of my disappointments about the current political catastrophe that the country is in right now, all of these will just fall into the ears of individuals who are so numbed with their everyday application of Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the Fittest”.
If Shakespeare had once said in one of is plays that this world is a stage and everyone of us could play different parts in a lifetime, he did not mean that everyone should get stuck in a plot and never move on until the plot works. There are defective plots, even though how dramatic and romantic they may seem. They are the kind of plots that ruin the entire play. But if ever one stumbles upon a good one, he/she should not also get stuck with it because overdoing the plot would also ruin the entire play. In fact, it’s worse than a bad plot! It tires the audience and withers the actors’ talent.

Well, maybe next time, if by any stroke of luck the Filipinos could again have another one big hit such as the EDSA and that some would plan to make some sequels out of it, do not make them like the movie Torque. There is always room for good sequels such as The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. And Harry Potter is not bad either. And maybe, just maybe, this time, more Filipinos would actually love to wait and participate for the conclusion of the sequels.