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What movie trilogies follow The Spider-Man pattern?

posted 6 years ago by TMC-4 (20489)
11 replies | jump to latest

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/ampbom/what_movie_trilogies_follow_the_spiderman_pattern/

Film 1 - Considered to be very good, a solid enjoyable movie, not worshipped, liked by most people

Film 2 - Considered to be by far the best in the trilogy. Sometimes even hailed as the movie in it's genre

Film 3 - Considered the worst out of the trilogy, somewhat divisive, at least somewhat disliked.

https://www.looper.com/143745/every-spider-man-movie-ranked-worst-to-best/

Spider-Man 3 starred Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman, Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, and James Franco as Harry Osborn/New Goblin (who wins the award for laziest supervillain name ever). Franco appeared in the first two films as Peter Parker's friend, but the others were new and their introductions were horribly rushed. One of the silliest plot points in the film is the way the Venom symbiote attaches itself to Parker — it falls out of space and randomly hits his scooter. Obviously, the comic book version — which would involve a massive superhero crossover — wouldn't be a viable option, but considering Harry Osborn had just taken over his father's science-based corporation, it seems like there were plenty of more believable ways to introduce the insidious oil slick.

While the overcrowding of villains was a chief complaint, it was hardly the only one. "Evil" Parker's dance number is so memorably mockable that even Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse took potshots at it. But perhaps the worst crime Spider-Man 3 committed was retconning the death of Peter's uncle. Toward the end of the film we learn it was actually Flint Marko — and not the guy Parker let run past him in Spider-Man – who murdered Ben Parker. One of the things that makes Spider-Man stand apart from other heroes is that he actually is partially to blame for the traumatic death he tortures himself over. Pulling out the rug from under that makes him a very different dude.

[–] AP (5295) 6 years ago

Most, really. Superhero movie trilogies almost always fall off by the third movie. Ragnarok, Civil War, and Infinity War are some of the few that defied this curse. And even then, the second Thor movie was considered pretty bland and the second Avengers movie was considered weaker than the first and third.

[–] Alex (1508) 6 years ago

Age of Ultron was infected with stupid and a Psychopathic robot who kept cracking jokes. Killed all the tension for me.
Even "Next Avengers: Heroes of a Tomorrow" did a better justice to Ultron than Avengers 2 ever did....

[–] sONOMArEturns (1339) 6 years ago

Considering Ragnarok is one of the few MCU movies I'd consider to be really good, Imma have to disagree with you.

[–] AP (5295) 6 years ago

Reread my post.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Could The Dark Knight trilogy be thought to follow a similar pattern?

I think most people would agree that The Dark Knight Rises is a better film than Spider-Man 3 (it's certainly been better received by critics), but it's also generally considered the worst of the trilogy, whereas The Dark Knight, like Spider-Man 2, is definitely considered the best, and certainly a seminal movie in its genre.

The Burton/Schumacher Batman series is not, of course, a trilogy, but the first three films arguably follow a similar trajectory (Batman Returns is a lot more divisive than Spider-Man 2, but it's increasingly regarded by many people as the best in that cycle of films).

Likewise, see also the first three X-Men films (personally I think X2 is overrated and X-Men: The Last Stand is underrated but my opinion clearly goes against the grain).

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

It's not a trilogy but I always thought the Superman movies had strong parallels to Spider-man. The second film is widely considered the best and both involve the hero temporarily giving up his powers for the woman he loves. The third of each series seems to be a marked drop in quality with the humor amped up in each.

Although Superman also has something in common with the Batman movies since each contained a series-ending atrocious fourth entry.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7985) 6 years ago

The problem with the Superman movies though is that the guy behind the first 2 which were good, Richard Donner, got fired and then the producers just ignored anything that would actually make it good and just turned it to crap. Frankly, not talking bad about Christopher Reeve with this but I think the people who wrote and directed Superman 3 and 4 were snorting cocaine and taking hallucinogens when they came up with Superman 3 and 4. Though I found 4 more entertaining than 3. 3 was awful with the stupid Richard Pryor bullcrap.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The Godfather trilogy fits the pattern perfectly.

I didn't think Godfather 3 was that bad, but it gets a lot of hate.

[–] HelpMeRhonda (1158) 6 years ago

The first 3 X-Men movies, although I enjoy them all.

The original Star Wars trilogy sort of follows this pattern as well.

[–] Scape (527) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TheLittleHavana (105) 6 years ago

Terminator trilogy. Excluding salvation and genysis because they shouldn’t exist