A common thing that most people seem to think when it comes to movie franchises is that the first installment is always the best , but that's far from the truth a lot of the time. In fact, many movie franchises improved with their second, third, or even later entries. That has been the case with sci-fi film series as well.
There are certainly plenty of sci-fi movie franchises where the first film is the best, like The Matrix, Predator , and Jurassic Park . There are also cases where the best film is arguable, like Back to the Future or Blade Runner . However, we're talking about the times when it's clear that a sequel is better.
Sci-fi sequels that improved upon the original include some all-time blockbusters, some of the most critically acclaimed films ever made, trippy st