Inspired by the Star Wars prequel badness thread, I was thinking about the film industry’s fondness for trilogies. While some film series are planned to be trilogies from the start (Lord of the Rings, etc.), a great deal are not, and in many cases, the part 3 winds up being perhaps the least well-made or beloved of the set. Why, given this not-so-good track record, do so many parts 3 end up being made? Which ones were the biggest departures from their companion films in terms of crapiness? And, is there a part 3 that actually managed to buck the trend and equal or exceed its predecessors in quality? (I can think of at least one) Let’s consider the following wide-release film trilogies:
**- Indiana Jones
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Star Wars (prequel trilogy)
The Godfather
Jurassic Park
The Matrix
Blade
Spider-Man
X-Men
Lord of the Rings
Pirates of the Caribbean
Shrek
Superman (Christopher Reeve trilogy)**
Which one had the least necessary, most trilogy-besmirching part 3?
Note: I tried to think of all the film series that were comprised of only 3 films as of 2008, so that discounts the Harry Potters, the Aliens, the Saws, and so forth. Also, I am aware that some of the above listed trilogies are due for additions in the near future (Shrek and Indiana Jones, for example), but for now they remain sets of 3 films each. Of course, if you can think of a glaring omission to the list, feel free to chime in.
Okay, thanks. I wasn’t alive when the first two came out, and didn’t see the next two, but I keep hearing about how horrendously bad Superman III was, so I just assumed that they quit with that one. I guess not.
OTOH, Superman III was partly the inspiration for the embezzlement scheme in Office Space, so I suppose it does have some merit
If “least necessary” is a criterion, I don’t see how the third installment of Star Wars (either batch) or Lord of the Rings since the second installment of each wasn’t really a complete story. I haven’t seen the other third film in the other trilogies listed except The Godfather, but I suspect that while it is probably far from the worst film on the list, it could take the prize for a drop-off in quality and actually diminishing the films that preceded it. If the director had gotten his ideal cast together it would have been much a much different film, but sadly we’ll never get to see that one.
My initial response was The Matrix series, because the third one, Revolutions was so excruciatingly bad that i can’t believe it got made.
But then i decided that it didn’t really ruin the series because number 2, Reloaded, was almost as bad, and number 1 wasn’t that great either.
I think i’m going to have to go with a trilogy that’s not on your list, and vote for Jaws 3-D. While Jaws 2 wasn’t great, it was OK, and Jaws was a classic. The third one, though, was a stinker of mammoth proportions.
Well I for one really like Superman III. The bit where Richard Pryor pulls up in the sports car shortly after his genius embezzlement is fantastic.
But the Terminator trilogy has easily the most disappointing third part to my mind. I actually felt physically sick as I left the cinema, and that wasn’t the hotdogs.
Best “Part 3”? Back to the Future.
Worst? Well, I would say Shrek 3, except Shrek 4 is in production so that doesn’t fit your criteria… Ditto Highlander…
Me too, although I really should have known better than to go and see it as Pirates 2 made me want to walk out of the cinema. I was hoping in 3 it would all come together and that there would be some kind of point to it all. I was wrong. :smack:
If you go by that standard I think Godfather III wins hands-down. The movie isn’t quite as awful as some people say it is, but compared to the first two - well, it had a lot farther to fall. The third Matrix and Pirates movies were pure crap, and much worse than the fun originals, but in a relative sense it’s not as bad.
Omen III- The Final Conflict- Damien Thorn is supposed to become a major world ruler at the very least and face Jesus at Armageddon. He gets as far up as the UN Youth Force which he uses on a S&D mission for ReincarnatedBabyJesus & is stabbed with the daggers of Megiddo as a glowing Jesus figure overwhelms the screen.
I thought Spider-Man 3 was better than Spider-Man 2. I realize that isn’t saying a whole lot because S-M 2 stank on ice.
To the list I would add the third part of the Rocky Horror trilogy, which was apparently so bad that despite several scripts was never even made.
If one really wanted to stretch the point, one could include Halloween 3: Season of the Witch since there are two separate continuity tracks in the Halloween film series that diverge so widely that from one perspective they could be considered different series.
The worst relative to the others, that I’ve seen, is LOTR. FotR is the best movie ever made, and TTT is one of my favorite movies ever, too, but RotK is just a pretty good movie. The differences:
– No Scouring
– Too much cheesy incorporeal creatures (the ringwraiths aren’t cheesy, and the Dead Swamps was briefer than the stupid green glowing things of the Paths of the Dead.)
– Too much focus on non-canonical issues (before, the worst offender was “falling”.)
– No Scouring
– Too little beautiful scenery, too much Scorched Earth (which also got tedious in the books.)
– No Scouring
