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The ten best movie sequels of all time are revealed in this second and final part to the series.

10. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

James Whale’s follow-up to his unsettling 1931 masterpiece, Frankenstein, manages to surpass the fright of its predecessor with an eccentricity and maturity that gracefully builds throughout the film, erupting into one of the horror genre’s most classic conclusions—the unveiling of the monster’s undead bride. Bride of Frankenstein is also included in 51 Most Definitive Sci-Fi Films of All Time, Part V - The Top Ten.

9. Toy Story 2 (1999)

In 1995, a completely unknown animation studio called Pixar swept the movie world with a story—equally entertaining, intelligent and endearing—that was bolstered to unanimous and globe-spanning acclaim by the revolutionary computer-generated technology (which earned the company a Special Achievement Oscar in 1996) that visualized it. Four years later (and after the studio’s second success, 1998’s A Bug’s Life), a sequel, candidly titled Toy Story 2, rocketed Pixar, its third-time director Jon Lasseter, and motion picture animation to unparalleled popularity (the film grossed nearly $246M domestically, becoming the second-most financially successful animated movie of all time, behind only The Lion King), making its place on this list (and most any other “Best” lists) not only completely justified, but damn-near obligatory.

8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Plain and simply, Judgment Day, directed by its predecessor’s James Cameron, is a great, exciting entertainment of the science-fiction category—one which is unquestionably an improvement on the intended quadrilogy’s (Terminator: Salvation, the fourth and final Terminator experience is due out next summer) commencing part. But, deeper than that, T2 is a monumental film of the computer-generation movement—it won four Oscars, including one for Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for two more—and Cameron was its pioneering captain (his earlier film The Abyss, released in ’89, was the first feature-length picture to incorporate 3-D computer-generated imagery and was also recognized by the Academy, winning a Visual Effects award of its own). Terminator 2: Judgment Day is also included in 51 Most Definitive Sci-Fi Films of All Time, Part IV.

7. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

A winner of three Academy Awards at this year’s Oscars Ceremony, The Bourne Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass’ sequel to ’04’s Supremacy (#22, which he also directed), was the first, and possibly not last (Universal has announced that a fourth Bourne project, currently untitled, will aim for a late-2010 release, with Damon and Greengrass returning as star and director), movie of the franchise to exceed greatness—it was among the few best films of 2007, a year shared by the Coens’ Best Picture-winning classic No Country for Old Men and P.T. Anderson’s There Will be Blood, one of the ten most prominent pictures ever helmed (in my opinion)—and is regarded as a powerhouse (and rarely reached) vessel of thrilling entertainment and uncommon intellect (for films of the action genre or otherwise). And, for those still wondering, it’s a film-and-a-half better than 2006’s outstanding Bond-sporting spy-actioner Casino Royale (#23), which it was and will likely continue to be compared to.

6. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Most Star Wars fans (who I’d estimate make up the better half of a billion in numbers) will tell you that The Empire Strikes Back, the second addition in George Lucas’ original sci-fi trilogy (which is the most profitable franchise in entertainment history), is the best of the six episodes (an animated seventh installment called The Clone Wars, which is set between episodes II and III, is now a season old and should be disregarded completely). In fact, the film has served as a judicious template for making sequels—in a 2003 issue of Empire magazine, Bryan Singer, director of X2 (#11), noted that he based his film’s structure (particularly the separation of characters and the revelatory events that befall each of them in time) on that which he saw in ESB. But you wouldn’t leave it to a successful filmmaker to judge a movie for you, right? And, even if you would, this sequel is certainly not one you’d want to miss, either way. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is also included in 51 Most Definitive Sci-Fi Films of All Time, Part V - The Top Ten.

5. Aliens (1986)

Transitioning from one director to the next, this 20th Century Fox release had monstrous shoes to fill—in both a literal and figurative sense—to match its predecessor’s monumental critical and commercial success. Thanks to Sigourney Weaver, who reprised her role as America’s heroine, Ellen Ripley, and then-32-year-old director James Cameron, this sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien filled those shoes like no other movie could have. Aliens is also included in 51 Most Definitive Sci-Fi Films of All Time, Part IV.

4. The Dark Knight (2008)

The franchise follow-up to his own marvelous retelling of Batman’s becoming (Batman Begins), Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight is one of only a handful of sequels to eclipse their precursors in terms of overall quality (nos. 23, 21, 17, 16, 14, 12 through 6, 3 and 2 on this list being the only others in history worth mentioning) and is perhaps the first (some would argue its predecessor was the first) comic-founded motion picture to make a full transition from the universe of graphic novels to the stark reality of our world in its current state.

Filmed in Chicago, and done so blatantly and proudly, TDK successfully brings the grit and grime of the heroic figure’s crime-infested metropolis to the big screen and also unveils the torment of Batman and his billionaire alter-ego’s struggle for peace-of-mind and hope. Surpassing any other film in cinematic history in terms of hype, and with a multitude of box-office records to prove it (including the highest weekend box office total ever, $158.4 million), Knight also introduces two of the Crusader’s most storied villains, Two-Face and the Joker, the latter of whom is played by Heath Ledger, whose all-time contending performance as the masochistic murderer and self-proclaimed “agent of chaos” nearly makes viewers forget about his untimely death, which occurred just six months prior to the movie’s unprecedented release.

3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

This film, the third and final installment in Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More), is the best of the trio, the best of the mid-’60s’ Spaghetti Westerns—it’s the best film to ever come from the genre, as far as I’m concerned—and one of the best sequels of all time. Also of note, it’s American director Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movie—one he claims to having been heavily influenced by.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

A sequel to The Two Towers (#20), and the final installment in the Lord of the Rings motion picture trilogy, this Peter Jackson-directed fantasy epic swept all 11 categories it was nominated in at the 2004 Academy Awards, and for good reason. The Return of the King is so finely crafted that, as an individual film, it obliterates close to every other movie of recent and all times. But it’s not its own film; it’s the culminating one-third of one of history’s greatest cinematic works, which, considering its three additions, accumulated 17 Academy Awards, including three consecutive wins in the Visual Effects category and an equal number of consecutive Best Picture nominations.

1. The Godfather Part II (1974)

Even if we were to pretend for a second that its credentials—it earned 11 Academy Award nominations and 6 wins at the 1975 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director—meant nothing, this sequel, to what is arguably the greatest film ever made, continues, in a bruising manner, the grand legacy of one of cinema’s most iconic anti-heroes, Michael Corleone, and becomes, itself, one of the best (it’s only not considered “better” than its predecessor because such a thing would qualify as sacrilege), most tragic cinematic exercises to ever grace (or bleed on) a projected theater or home television screen.

Any sequels you’d put on the list that didn’t make it? Share them. And if you didn’t catch #25-11, you should do so. Next week’s feature: 25 Best Movie Remakes of All Time.