Amph Can you name 5 trilogies that didn't let you down?

Star Wars
LotR
Batman
MIB
Indiana Jones
Pirates of the Caribbean

And a lot more, I just can't come with anything more right now.

 

Which Batman trilogy? The Nolan one?

How did Rises not let you down? It wasn't as bad as the entire prequel run, but it was still pretty flaccid.

 

Oh wow, I completely forgot about Legend of Chun-Li and I've seen it too!

 

I will forever regret watching that movie...

 

No. But they never stopped to entertain me and they certainly didn't let me down.

Of course, in each trilogy everyone has their favourite and as such the other two movies never holded up when compared to that one. The trilogies I listed maintain a good level of quality and entertainment, although one or two movies of each end up above the others.

Otherwise there are many other trilogies that I enjoy although I know their appeal and overall quality has, in my opinion, drastically changed (i.e: Jurassic Park trilogy).

 

Meh LoCL was a reboot I think. A really misguided reboot.

 

Okay, I want to just make a quick defense here to your great post. I was really looking forward to Identity when it came out. I was mostly disappointed in it. I didn't find Bourne particularly compelling and that's really all I can say about it. By far the best scene was the sequence surrounding Clive Owen's attempt on Bourne's life. The cat and mouse the two of them play in the field is the best real suspense the film has to offer and when the dying Professor sighs, "Look what they make you give," I felt a genuine emotion of sadness. I found Owen's neurotic assassin much more interesting and involving than Bourne. I found none of the real "action" sequences to have much punch. Let's not even talk about the climactic "stairwell drop" or whatever the heck was going on there.

I so disliked Identity that I avoided the sequels for years. I finally caught Ultimatum on television in a hotel. And I was just instantly swept up in it.

Now I need to make a couple of things clear. I don't really disagree with what you say about the character of Bourne in Ultimatum. Frankly, I couldn't really care less about his character journey in Ultimatum. The one time the film falters is in the closing scenes as Bourne confronts Albert Finney and they growl at each other for about ten frigging minutes in a tiny room. I mean, who cares? Seriously. Even the attempted callback to the best scene in Identity falls flat. Damon doesn't have the chops to make us feel the line the way Owen did.

But I would resist the idea that this film doesn't connect, quite powerfully in fact, with the emotions, or at least with mine. The film is a frenetic, intense thrill ride. The percussive score pounds away; the camera zips here and there, cutting incredibly fast; the action is ferocious and unrelenting. It is one of the most unrelenting thrillers I've ever seen actually; it really never lets up or slows down for more than a minute or so at a time. No, I didn't feel any great emotion for Bourne's character, but, boy, did I feel some intense emotions. Incredible, tense suspense for one; a recurring sense of awe and wonder; most of all, a transcendent euphoria. It's hard to really express but the film just literally came in at ninety miles an hour, scooped me up and started cranking up over a hundred. Two hours later, I was deposited, disheveled, awestruck, absolutely filled with joy, on the other side. I've seen it again a couple of times since that first viewing and had essentially the same experience every time. No, it's not a deep sorrow or a complicated moral ambivalence that I feel watching the movie. But don't tell me that isn't emotion I'm feeling during that stupendous roof-top chase/book fight. Because it definitely is.

I'm trying to think of another film that I love for the pure intensity of the action while not having any real connection to the story or the characters. I can't think of one. I love action and suspense, but without real emotional tension, it's just a lot of sound and fury and that gets wearying (see last half of Inception). Somehow this movie overcomes that by the sheer force of its presence.

I would also say that I do find both David Straithairn and Joan Allen to be somewhat compelling in their roles. As with Owen's performance in Identity, this is more because of their acting talent and less because the roles are written particularly well. They're kind of one note, both of them, but they have the chops to make their characters somewhat interesting and fun to watch.

Anyway, that's my defense of Ultimatum. I need to see Supremacy sometime.

 

Trilogies I enjoyed:
Nolan's Batman
Back to the Future
Indiana Jones
Toy Story
Lord of the Rings
Matrix
The Godfather
Star Wars (pre 1999)
X-men
The Naked Gun
Alien

Honorable Mentions:
Mission: Impossible
Austin Powers

Liked 1 and 2; 3 fell flat:
Terminator
The Santa Clause
Spider-man
Karate Kid

Liked 1; 2 and 3 fell flat:
Jurassic Park
Men in Black

 

Regarding the Bourne films, I think Ultimatum is terrific, and that Supremacy may be the most complete of the three films. Legacy is a non-entity to me, and I've ignored it. It never happened, so far as I'm concerned.

I'm really glad you finally saw Ultimatum, Rogue. I think the attempted callback on Clive Owen's line doesn't work as well in part because the scene doesn't allow for it. The Identity scene is quieter and gives Owen more room to work. As for the rest of the film, the action scenes are some of the best ever done. The sequence through Waterloo Station is masterfully accomplished, as is Tangier. Having seen it again recently, the breakneck pace is remarkable. There's not a single gimmick moment throughout both sequences, which I'm thankful for. It's all-out from the start.

On a different note, I recognize that I'm no doubt in the minority, but I still believe Julia Stiles' character had by far her strongest appearance of the main trilogy, and she connects on an emotional level with Damon. I thought it was well done. Was it a bit shoe-horned in, given the lack of anything like it in Identity? Sure, but that doesn't matter to me.

I need to watch Supremacy again sometime soon.

 

No. Not even Star Wars OT.
At least one movie in a trilogy has disappointed me.
BttF is probably the closest that did not.

 

I'll agree that Ultimatum and Supremacy are entertaining, high-energy thrillers with great setpiece sequences, and I'm happy enough to sit and be entertained by them -- but I also can't get over how empty and lazy they are outside that one quality of kinetic showmanship. What's Bourne's motivation? What's he even doing in this movie? Nobody seems to care. He mumbles something about "ending this" and OH LOOK WATERLOO STATION SETPIECE LOOK OVER HERE. Strathairn gives it his all, but his character's just an empty suit too -- a paranoid fantasy villain whose only response to anything is to assassinate everyone he sees and scream about his ULTIMATE AUTHORITY HEY HOW UNSUBTLE CAN I MAKE MY HALF-ASSED COMMENTARY ON THE WAR ON TERROR? Chris Cooper's guilty-boy-caught-with-his-hand-in-the-cookie-jar ass-covering bureaucrat in Identity or Brian Cox's corrupt schemer furiously spinning Joan Allen and being forced to think on his feet in Supremacy are a billion times more compelling, because they're actual people and not hilariously over-the-top caricatures. Joan Allen and Julia Stiles have to carry the entire burden of "acting like actual characters" in Ultimatum, and that's too few people (though the one nod I'll give Ultimatum is its handling of Bourne and Whateverstilesnameis's relationship, which hints ambiguously at some sort of past relationship that she can remember and he can't without feeling the need to give us a hard answer).

It's lazy, empty characterization, lazy plotting, lazy and silly treatment of the CIA (HACK ALL THE PHONES IN EUROPE! DO IT NOW! GET ME EVERY SURVEILLANCE CAMERA EVER MADE TECHNOBABBLE INSTANT CELLPHONE TECHNOBABBLE ASSASSINATE EVERYONE IN A 60-MILE RADIUS!) . . . all the really core elements of making a film are ignored in favor of cinematographic intensity and setpieces -- which are good things, but I can't shake the feeling that it wouldn't have killed the filmmakers to pay some attention to the other elements too. Identity, on the other hand, has setpieces that work -- not at as high a level as in the sequels, but well, plus all the other filmmaking basics. I can't do anything about you not connecting with it, but for me at least, I have to say that Identity works a lot better than Ultimatum. I don't disagree with most of what you're saying (I don't think the stuff with Finney works, either), but Ultimatum leaves me feeling far more hollow than Identity even if I can enjoy it for the ride. Identity works as a wholly rounded movie; Ultimatum is a showcase for incredible competence in one element of filmmaking and an abject failure in all the other respects while pretending to this serious dramatic status. I just can't endorse that as an advance on Identity.

 

Yeah I think the main thing I'm grateful for about the Bourne films is that their increasingly bloated BS makes the Craig 007 films realistic.

Also, in 3 years of national security work, I never heard one Australian, Brit or American talk about being on or off "the grid".

 

I don't really count LotR 'cause as far as I know, the three books were pretty much written in one go and printed separately only at the behest of the publisher-- and the films were produced all together.

 

I think 13 holds up to 11 just fine. It's the horrible nonsense that is 12 that keeps that from being a trilogy that doesn't disappoint.

Also, as long as we're able to go away from movies, I'll nominate Super Mario Brothers 1-3 from the NES as a trilogy that did not disappoint. Fantastic set of games, and all three remain replayable, even to today.

 

I would say the OT and LOTR for me for movies.

 

If we're including trilogies where the third installment is satisfying but not really up to the high watermark of the second installment, then I'd go with the OT, The Godfather, and Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

If we're going with improvement or solidarity throughout I'll go with Bourne, Dr. Mabuse and Apu.

 

Star Wars OT
Indiana Jones
LOTR
Nolan's Batman
Toy Story

Bonus trilogies:
Nightmare on Elm Street
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Matrix

 

Well BTTF is pretty much a split, I just like westerns so III edges it out for my personal enjoyment. The first is still technically the best.

 

It's almost odd to say given the emotions involved in the original, but I've always felt that BTTF 3 had the most heart/emotion out of trilogy (I rank Part II the lowest, 3 1/2 out of 4), hence why it's always been my favorite as well. I feel the same for the first three Indy films... the dynamic between father & son in The Last Crusade has always stood out to me/it will always be my favorite Indy film.

 

I have no desire to ever see Temple of Doom or Last Crusade again, and I haven't seen either of them in a long time (a decade or more). Both of them are pale shadows of Raiders in my view.

 

In particular, why do you feel that The Last Crusade is a pale of shadow of Raiders? The emotional dynamic is quite different in each.

 

No I agree. I think both films have the most heart and the best character development.

 

I'm really unclear on what the metric is here. Is it trilogies that never let you down or didn't let you down in the third movie? The OP is a little hazy.

This Trilogy Meter meme was going around a couple of years ago and I filled out the applicable ones for myself back then. The major change I would make now is that I've seen Aliens and would give it a box slightly fuller than Alien, but I haven't seen Aliens 3. Also I rewatched parts of X3 and would just leave it as is and remove the "idr."

Last Crusade is the best of the Indys, for sure. I prefer BTTF 1 to BTTF 3, but only by a hair, the third is excellent. For both of those trilogies I could pretty much do without the second movie altogether, though.

I honestly can't remember (and I was trying when I went to see Legacy) what happened in which Bourne movie, so I guess for me those three are all of equal quality.

Haven't seen Toy Story 3. TDKR was pretty terrible, so it wouldn't make my list.

 

The way they use characters called "Marcus" and "Sallah" who are played by actors from Raiders but have no semblance to their characters might be a start?