Threequels: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Harrison Pierce

In honor of this year's Summer of Action and Iron Man 3's incredible display of box office prowess, and also in tribute to the classic final film in Sergio Leone’s “The Man Without a Name” trilogy, we give you The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of some of moviedom’s most famous - and infamous - threequels…

GOOD: Return of the Jedi 1983)

Some fans gripe about those pesky Ewoks, but this third and final episode in the original Star Wars trilogy kicks off with a rousing rescue mission from Jabba the Hutt’s palace and concludes with an intense lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader that brings the series to a fittingly powerful and emotionally-charged finale.

GOOD: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

The third installment in the Mad Max trilogy is probably best remembered for diva co-star Tina Turner’s power ballad “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” but this threequel also serves up a visionary expansion of the post-apocalyptic universe introduced in Mad Max and The Road Warrior and kick-ass fight scenes in the cage-like Thunderdome!

BAD: Poltergeist III (1988)

Haunted by the tragic, pre-release death of young star Heather O'Rourke, Poltergeist III seemed doomed before it even hit theaters. Turns out its ill fate was sealed when its makers decided to relocate the series’ ghostly action from the suburbs to a big city high-rise, which diffused its once more relatable domestic thrills.

GOOD: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

When Raiders of the Lost Ark debuted in theaters in the early ‘80s, it promised “The Return of the Great Adventure.” George Lucas and Steven Spielberg delivered two more great Indiana Jones adventures in that decade, including this imaginative and humorous trilogy-capper that saw Harrison Ford’s globe-trotting hero reunited with his bookish father, played by Sean Connery. (Let’s just pretend Crystal Skull never happened.)

UGLY: The Karate Kid 3 (1989)

The first Karate Kid told the simple, crowd-pleasing story of a bullied California kid (Ralph Macchio) learning to defend himself with the help of a wise karate expert (Pat Morita). By Part III, all lessons had been learned, plot points recycled, and the original film’s philosophy of nonviolence lost in an overly violent finale.

BAD: The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) attempts to legitimize the family business in Part III of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic crime saga. With convoluted plotting and a distractingly bad performance by Coppola’s daughter, Sofia, Part III is certainly the weakest cannolo in the batch. Thankfully, Coppola refers to III as a mere “epilogue” to Parts I and II – in other words, it’s the brief chapter at the end of the book you can skip.

BAD: Alien³ (1992)

Ignoring the fact that Sigourney Weaver was brought back as a part-alien clone in Alien Resurrection, the Alien trilogy featuring the human Lieutenant Ripley reached its dark and depressing climax in a threequel most fans hate for killing off beloved characters Newt and Bishop in the beginning and Ripley at the end.

BAD: Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The fast-paced adventures of time-traveling teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) slowed to a horse’s trot for this easy, breezy sequel set in the Old West. While Part III has its charms, the repetition of beats from parts I and II – Lea Thompson reassuring Marty he’s “safe and sound in [insert future or past date]; Biff covered in a pile of manure – makes it feel like the film’s creators were, by this point, beating a dead horse.

UGLY: Look Who's Talking Now (1993)

The once humorous and popular Look Who’s Talking series went to the dogs – literally – for this lame third and final film that depended on talking dogs, not babies, for laughs…not that there were any.

GOOD: Jurassic Park III (2001)

The Jurassic Park series lost its footing with its turgid first sequel, The Lost World, but regained it with this fleet-footed threequel starring Téa Leoni and William H. Macy as parents searching for their missing son on the island of misfit, man-eating dinos. With all the expositional “Dino D.N.A.” stuff taken care of in the first Jurassic Park, III cuts right to the T-Rex chase!

UGLY: The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

If you’ve used up all your good ideas in the first movie, here’s an idea: Don’t make a sequel. Or two. The Matrix trilogy reaches its nadir – or conclusion – with this third chapter, in which Neo fights, like, a million Agent Smiths. As the original Matrix proved, less was more.

GOOD: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)

The same year The Matrix series short-circuited, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy concluded in majestic form with The Return of the King. King was justly awarded the Best Picture Oscar for its own achievements – breathtaking battles, breakthrough special effects, moving performances – and those of the series at large.

BAD: X-Men : The Last Stand (2006)

Although it stands as the most financially successful of the original X-Men trilogy, The Last Stand received mostly mixed reception from critics and fans. Many blamed director Brett Ratner, who traded in original X-Men director Bryan Singer’s emphasis on character development and heart for action and explosions.

GOOD: Men in Black 3 (2012)

Here’s another series that redeemed itself after a hot mess sequel. In Part 3, Agent J (Will Smith) travels back in time to the swinging ‘60s in order to save his partner (Tommy Lee Jones), the agency and the future of humanity! Don’t miss Josh Brolin’s dead-on impression of a younger version of Jones’s character in this entertaining – and likely final – Men in Black outing.

GOOD: Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

The third and final round of Steven Soderbergh’s crime caper saga returns its heist-friendly ensemble to Las Vegas after a bizarre, Europe-set meta-sequel involving a Fabergé Egg and Julia Roberts played “Julia Roberts.” The result is a more clear-cut, revenge-themed storyline that wraps up the series as entertainingly as it began.

BAD: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

We're not sure if it’s a Pirate’s curse but there’s definitely a quality curse on series that shoot their sequels back to back. While the second films typically turn out okay, the third films usually suffer serious creative fatigue. Just ask anyone who suffered through this bloated shipwreck of a threequel.

UGLY: Spider-Man 3 (2007)

The part 3 so bad its studio rebooted the franchise five years later. Featuring too many villains (Sandman, Venom and Goblin), a bizarre dance sequence with a funkified Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), and - personal gripe - redheads playing blondes and blondes playing redheads (Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard should have swapped roles), Spider-Man 3 concluded Sam Raimi’s once heroic trilogy in less-than-Amazing fashion.

GOOD: Toy Story 3 (2010)

When Toy Story 2 was released in 1999, it was something of an anomaly since animation studios rarely made sequels to their beloved classics. Thankfully, Pixar did it twice - and brilliantly - with the Toy Story trilogy, which concluded its story with its most imaginative and moving chapter yet.

GOOD: Transformers : Dark of the Moon (2011)

The Transformers series fell a bit in quality with Revenge of the Fallen but bounced back with Dark of the Moon, which featured greater special effects, sharper humor and more metal-on-metal action! As always with a Michael Bay spectacle, however, leave your brain at the door.

GOOD: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

While the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy didn’t rise above the level of 2008’s The Dark Knight, it did feature some spectacular action sequences, a memorably sinister turn from Tom Hardy as Bane, and a feisty one from future Oscar winner Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.

Ready for the awesomeness of Iron Man 3? Or more of this season's explosive blockbusters? Start your movie mission with our Summer of Action!