Trilogies where the middle one is the best one

Cafe Society
1

There’s The Empire Strikes Back (although I must admit on any given day I waffle between calling the original or this the Best).

I believe The Two Towers is the best of the Lord of the Rings Movies. It is the most watchable and has the tightest story.

Dragons of Winter Night is the best of the Dragonlance Chronicles Novels. The two parallel adventures are exciting and it avoids the clunkiness of bringing D&D Mechanics to life in the first Novel and the kind of Anti Climatic ending of the third.

The Subtle Knife was my favorite of the His Dark Materials books. It seemed to be the fastest read of the three.

Any other examples in books, movies, games etc.?

2

I swear we’ve done this.

I agree about Two Towers, but only the Extended Edition. It’s the best overall movie.

I’d put Jedi over Empire, but I know I’m in the minority. I guess the Ewoks did not bother me that much.

3

X-Men (the original X-men movies)

Spiderman (the Tobey McGwire ones)

4

And every variation of it…

I’ll throw out an obvious one: The Road Warrior. It was certainly the most universally acclaimed of the original trilogy.

ETA: And certainly many people would say that The Godfather, part II was the best, but I still enjoyed the original more.

5

Gormenghast, the second novel in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy. It introduces Professor Bellgrove and has the wonderful Wodehousian party scene at Irma Prunesquallor’s house. Plus the grotesque deaths of Cora and Clarice, Steerpike’s murder spree, and Titus’ triumph.

Except it wasn’t supposed to BE a trilogy – the third book has little to do with the first two – and Peake had planned to continue the series indefinitely, but then got Parkinson’s and died young.

Now I’m all depressed. I have to go and lie down.

6

Aliens

7

Shrek 2 was much funnier, more clever, and just overall better than the other two

8

I really enjoyed David Brin’s Startide Rising. Then was pleased to discover it the middle book in a series of 3. (Set in the same universe–not quite a trilogy.) Then I found the other two; the first one I’d read was far superior to either.

I think he did a “trilogy” set in that universe a bit later. Didn’t bother…

9

The early Uplift books weren’t really a trilogy. They just got marketed that way when the series reached three books. But there was really no connection between the first three books other than they were set in the same background. They’re stand-alone novels that can be read in any order.

But Brin started to write a fourth book in the series which was going to be titled Sooner. However it grew in length and Brin decided to split it up into a genuine trilogy: Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach.

10

I think The Bourne Supremacy is the best of the Bourne movies. The third was also really good but suffered from the lack of a truly worthy villain for Bourne.

11

I think the second movie in a franchise series is OFTEN the best one, simply because the first movie often has to spend a lot of time on the protagonist’s origins, which can be a bit of a drag.

Once that’s out of the way, a good writer and a good director can get down to telling a good, new story.

12

Mein Kampf

(better than Your Kampf and Our Kampf)

13

I hear that a lot, so it must be me; when I first saw TESB, I walked out of the theater feeling that it was a waste of time, nothing more than a space filler between the first and third movies. Maybe it’s because I feel that every movie (or novel) needs to have an ending, even if it’s just one part of a trilogy. Subsequent viewings haven’t changed my mind.

14

One of the main reasons, for me, is I think Star Wars deserves extra credit because it was first. When they created Star Wars they started with a blank page; when they created ESB they at least had Star Wars to work form.

15

The second book of the Hunger Games trilogy.

16

If you count the Boris Karloff Frankenstein movies as a “trilogy,” then “Bride of” is much better than the original and “Son of.”

17

Nolan’s Batman movies.

18

Ditto this

[QUOTE=muldoonthief]
Nolan’s Batman movies.
[/QUOTE]

And this

I’ll add The Road Warrior from the Mad Max trilogy. Not counting the new one, since that’s a whole new reimagining of it.

19

There are four, but you are right Shrek 2 is the best one.

20

Howard Whitehouse’s Misadventures of Emmaline and Rubberbones:

The first and third, The Strictest School in the World and The Island of Mad Scientists are amusing. The second, The Faceless Fiend, is hilarious. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.