Thursday 6 June 2013

A Shortage of Perfect Trilogies


Hollywood has become infatuated with trilogies. Once a movie or a movie character shows a cult following, the studios almost always turn it into a franchise. The reason behind this is not far-fetched. They get to give fans more of the first movie and their characters and of course, they get to make more money from the budding franchise. There are those times when the decision to make a trilogy is not motivated by the above reasons but by the source material. That is, if a novel is adapted for the big screen, it follows that subsequent sequel novels will also be adapted except if the first movie failed to perform at the box office. That being said, it seems delivering the perfect trilogy has for the most part, eluded Hollywood.

There have been many trilogies over the decades but most of them fail to be perfect in the sense that at least one movie in the set fails to measure up to the other two. The offending movie is usually the third one but as with all things, there have been exceptions. What follows is a list of popular trilogies with a brief discussion on what I believe to be the offending movie and why.


Pirates of the Caribbean
The first two movies, Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest were very good movies. It is the last movie, At World's End that sullied the enterprise. First, there was the improbable and surreal aspect of bringing Jack Sparrow back from the dead. Then there was the giant Calypso thing; it was utterly ridiculous and ill-conceived. She (it if you prefer) ended up uttering some intelligible words and then proceeded to cause a storm that was unfavourable to both her captors and her liberators. The whole Davy Jones locker thing at the beginning was unconvincing but forgivable. It was the Calypso aspect that really prevented Pirates from being perfect. Maybe the writers should have written it out because the love story of her & Davy Jones was not properly exploited.


Back to the Future
This will always rank as one of the best pieces of cinema. The general plot and its flawless execution are exceptional. So exceptional that I have never been able to conclusively decide if the first or last movie are the best. So you guessed it; the second movie is the offender here. The plot was good. The problem was the execution as well as the depiction of the future. It felt rushed and lacked the attention to detail of the first and third movie. Director, Robert Zemeckis has explained that this happened because the second and third movies were shot back to back. Ultimately, Back to the Future was better at going back to the past than the future.


The Matrix
This was a very enjoyable series that culminated in a lackluster and disappointing conclusion both in terms of plot and execution. The first movie was very good and contrary to popular opinion, the second movie, The Matrix Reloaded was even better and successfully raised the ante. It was the final movie, The Matrix Revolutions that became the proverbial fly in the ointment. Though Reloaded and Revolutions were shot back to back, Revolutions felt like it was made with what was left over after shooting Reloaded. The conclusion of this trilogy is one of the greatest disappointments. 


X-men
The first X-men movie was seminal in the sense that it showed that comic book adaptations for the big screen could be serious minded and not goofy like the comics. To be fair, the first two Superman movies were serious minded movies but the art seemed to have been lost with the goofy Batman movies of Tim Burton. The first two movies were excellent. Again as with most trilogies, it is the third movie that failed mostly because it lacked the polish and finesse of the first two. Sorry but Brett Ratner didn't do a good job here.


Lord of the Rings
This is one trilogy where all three movies were flawed. All three were too long; made long with unnecessary scenes of excessive crying. What really did this trilogy in for me was the failure of Sauron to make an appearance. After all that talk about Sauron being a competent badass and stuff, he never made an appearance. Even Voldemort had to show himself at some point.


Star Wars
Honestly, it's quite hard to sum up the Star Wars franchise. This is because it has two sets of trilogies. The original old Star Wars and the new Star Wars and they both had their brilliant and duh moments. The original had beloved characters like Hans Solo, R2D2, Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Yoda. Likewise, it had silly characters like Chewbacca. Chewbacca had his silly counterpart in the new trilogy in the form of Jaja Binks. Brilliant characters here include the adult Anakin, Obi-Wan, Chancellor Palpitine, Yoda, Count Dooku and Jango Fett. Mace Windu had no real purpose in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. The last film of the first trilogy, Return of the Jedi, was lame. Conversely, it was the last movie in the new trilogy that was great. Attack of the Clones was the bad movie in the new trilogy. Either way, it seems the force is still with us as we are not done yet.


Beverly Hills Cop
The first was good. This was Axel Foley at his finest. The second was a not as good. The third: that's the one we all wish we could forget about. I wonder what John Landis was thinking. It's hard to believe it's the same man that brought us Trading Places and Coming to America.


Jason Bourne
The Jason Bourne movies were alright. Identity remains the best. Supremacy was almost as good but Chris Cooper's absence was greatly felt. Ultimatum is the offender here. It felt like a greatest hits compilation of the first two movies.


Batman
This list would be incomplete without mentioning Christopher Nolan's Batman. The first two movies, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were excellent and superlative respectively. The third and final movie as you know, was an utter and monumental disappointment. It is in fact the greatest disappointment in cinema. The only other movie that is just as disappointing is The Matrix Revolutions. So sad. The Dark Knight didn't rise; he fell......badly.


The Perfect Trilogies

The Godfather
The Godfather series is one of the perfect trilogies. All three movies are on par with each other. If you haven't watched these movies, you really should. They should be required viewing. Nuff said.

Friday
The Friday movies are also one of the few perfect trilogies in Hollywood. They were all extremely good. They are all equals.


Terminated Trilogies
Some movie that were meant to be trilogies were cut short either due to poor sales or controversy. The Golden Compass is one example of the latter. It's a shame because it had so much potential.


Future trilogies
It seems movies like the Kick Ass would be made into a trilogy. The Hunger Games will definitely follow suit considering the novels are the source material. The Expendables is also up for a third outing. Let's hope they don't mess it up because the first two have been very good.

All in all, it is apparent that the perfect three is very hard to come by. Movies like Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum and even the last three Harry Potter movies show that using the same director is not always advisable. But hey, Francis Ford Coppola did an exceptional job with all three Godfather movies. Trilogies like Back to the Future and The Matrix prove that shooting movies back to back is not the best idea.  I know I didn't mention the Narnia movies. I've only watched the first one and I wasn't too impressed. Do you thing I've misjudged some of the movies above or do you know of any other hat tricks in cinema?

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