Better than 2
More action.
shareNo. It really wasn't.
share
MovieChat Forums > Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) Discussion > Better than 2
2's better but the original is better than all of them. I don't think any of the sequels have held up particularly well.
share100% correct
shareThe first one is the only good one. It's a classic. 2 & 3 are mediocre. 4 is crap.
shareI have to disagree with you there. LW2 was a great sequel. It felt very different from the first movie to the point where it was almost a stand alone film. LW2 is more softer than the first LW, but still leagues better than the woke prototype that is LW3. I even enjoyed LW4 more than 3 because it actually feels more connected to the first two films in terms of darkness and tone.
shareThe second is not bad, I think I liked it more as a kid than I do now, probably because it has much better action than the first one. That's its strongest point.
but still leagues better than the woke prototype that is LW3.
That's a great way of putting it haha.
I can barely remember 4, I think I recall smuggling illegal asian immigrants or something. Some guy with a flamethrower at the start. I think at least 3 is memorable and that's a good thing ie the opening with the building blowing up, sting's intro theme, the jaywalker, ice hockey game, the housing development, riggs and murtaugh fighting on the boat.
I think 4 is the one that feels least like a LW movie. share
"I think 4 is the one that feels least like a LW movie."
For me LW3 felt least like a LW movie. Perhaps not completely though. It was so cartoony. The writing and dialogue for the characters were so off. Riggs saying something like he would bet vital parts of his anatomy is something he would never say in the first two movies, or even 4.
The different writers for LW3 just made it weird even though I used to enjoy ithe movie as a kid. LW4 felt like the true follow up to LW2. The tone for both movies are almost completely the same. The opening with the flamethrower guy was funny, and I love the team up of Riggs and Martaugh fighting Li's character, mainly the part when he jumps to kick them but the both of them catch him and throw him down. A very underrated ending fight that is about as dark and gritty as the duel with Vorstedt in LW2.
At the end of the day, I enjoy all of the films, including LW3 despite its flaws.
Riggs saying something like he would bet vital parts of his anatomy is something he would never say in the first two movies, or even 4.
LW3 was goofy in a lot of places, probably to balance out things like the subplot with Murtaugh shooting his son's friend and then the fight him and riggs had on the boat, which was similar to the overdramatic stuff in the first two movies. I don't remember that kind of stuff in the fourth. Maybe that's a good thing haha? I dunno.
Maybe the problem is that the LW4 is the one I've seen the least of, while I had 1 & 2 on vhs and 3 was constantly on tv growing up. It might be better if I rewatched it.
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"LW2 was goofy in a lot of places,"
I assume you that meant LW3 haha. I agree, it was so goofy in a lot of places. A disney Bonkers tv movie would have worked using the same script minus the shooting lol.
"Maybe the problem is that the LW4 is the one I've seen the least of, while I had 1 & 2 on vhs and 3 was constantly on tv growing up. I might be better if I rewatch it."
By all means, please do. When it first released I can see why fans and critics panned the movie. They were tired of the rehashed formula. And some (or most) did not like that Mel's hair was short instead of his long hair that was within his character. Gibson was not thrilled on working on LW4 and in a few scenes it does show. LW4 itself offered nothing new to the action genre. Just some added lore to the story with Martin and Lorna, Rianne and Buters getting married. Still, the humor was as funny as ever. The action scenes were nice. The ending fight scene was good, despite being on the unrealistic side. I appreciate that the tone of the film was more in line with the second film, with more night scenes brought back when compared to LW3.
Yes, I can imagine Gibson being bored in LW4 and if his hair is short then that's a good indicator of it as the 80s hair metal do is Rigg's trademark. He also probably thought he was too old by that time and that it should've been left as a trilogy (this was the pre-expendables era when it was frowned upon for actors to still do action movies when you weren't young anymore).
shareGibson did a UK interview around the early 2000's when he was still hot property, and he pretty much admits here that the the fun he had with Danny Glover and Joe Pesci was the reason he kept doing them not the script quality. And i'm sure the money helped too😂
At 22:00
https://youtu.be/muE-O7zKEkI?feature=shared
both had their good points. 3 is filled with more cheese than part 2 but part 2 has cheese as well. part 2 is more hardcore still but starting to show some softness but also feels like a direct continuation of part 1. part 3 has a new look and was 90s, it had more daytime scenes and i liked the action and locations riggs on a motorcycle and the fall seemed like an attempt to be like die hard. just not the jaywalker an film production scenes. it's a good end to the trilogy. 4 is a bonus.
shareThere isn't much between them, they're both inferior sequels.
The third one is far too political, too preachy. All that stuff about gangs and Murtaugh's son. Early woke themes such as tough girl cop Rene Russo beating up all the bad guys while Riggs struggles, which was probably seen as a novelty in 1992 but today it's just an annoying agenda.