Trilogies are a hard type of franchise to crack, as it requires planning on behalf of the filmmakers. Even if not every installment of a trilogy has the same exact writer, director, and cast, they each should fulfill an important chapter within a narrative arc. There are many film trilogies that simply can’t live up to the potential of their first installment.
Being the first in a film series comes with a significant amount of pressure to nail aspects of worldbuilding, introduce compelling characters, and create a style that can be replicable. However, the first chapter in a larger franchise also comes with a sense of “newness” that can’t be recaptured once audiences have already experienced the world for the first time. Here are ten film trilogies in which the first of the three films is the only one that is a masterpiece.
10
The Iron Man Trilogy
Iron Man is one of the most important blockbusters of the 21st century because it kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would go on to be the dominant popular culture for an entire generation. Although Robert Downey Jr. would reprise his most famous role as Tony Stark in many great MCU films, the Iron Man series peaked with its first installment; Iron Man 2 was a disappointing miss because it was written during the WGA strikes, and Iron Man 3 was an ambitious leap forward that didn’t entirely stick the landing.
Iron Man is still one of the best MCU films because it featured a fresh perspective on what a superhero could be, and depicted a compelling redemptive story arc that doubled as a meta-commentary on Downey’s own resurgence as an actor after many years in which he was considered to be unemployable.
9
The Matrix Trilogy
The Matrix was a breath of fresh air for science fiction as a genre because of the multitude of influences that the Wachowski sisters drew from. The Matrix followed the same hero’s journey story from Joseph Campbell that had guided George Lucas when he was making the original Star Wars trilogy, but also incorporated cyberpunk visuals, the philosophy of Plato, Japanese-style action sequences, and a warning about overreliance on technology that feels even more relevant today.
The legacy of The Matrix sequels has changed over time, as while both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Resurrections were initially viewed as disappointments, they’ve gradually begun to earn more fans who have come to appreciate the deeper mythology. However many interesting ideas they have, they don’t capture the same “lightning in a bottle” that made the first film such a generational classic.
8
The Clerks Trilogy
Clerks completely changed independent filmmaking because it proved that all it took was a great script and a lot of passion to make a film that could connect with a significant amount of people. Kevin Smith infamously maxed out his own credit cards in order to create his passion project, which became a word-of-mouth success and the first chapter in the interconnected “Viek Askewniverse” that is still continuing today.
The larger View Asknewniverse is better than any of the direct Clerks sequels, which struggled because they didn’t have the same intimate feel of the original film. Clerks 2 was saddled with a more emotional storyline involving staying with one’s friends that Smith wasn’t quite equipped to handle, and Clerks 3 took some very strange narrative turns that weren’t congruent with the more upbeat style of all the other films Smith had made within his original cinematic universe.
7
The Star Trek Kelvin Trilogy
Star Trek was a film with an impossible task on its hands because it had to reboot characters that fans of the franchise had already grown to love in their original incarnations. J.J. Abrams made a brilliant choice in making his prequel origin film an “alternate history” because it took place in the “Kelvin Timeline,” which allowed the new series to not be encumbered with the expectations of following the original series.
Star Trek worked because of how strong the dynamic was between Chris Pine’s Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock, as it offered insights on how they became friends. Both Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond are underrated films that nonetheless failed in their third acts because of their somewhat underwhelming villain reveals, whereas 2009’s Star Trek ranks among the very best installments in the entire franchise.
6
The Ocean’s Trilogy
Ocean’s Eleven is one of the best remakes ever made because Steven Soderbergh took the premise of a mediocre Rat Pack film and assembled an all-star cast of A-listers for one of the most fun heist thrillers imaginable. Ocean’s Eleven has incredible gags and some truly inventive heist sequences, but it also had an emotional undercurrent with the story of how Danny Ocean (George Clooney) tries to win back his ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts) from the casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).
Ocean’s Eleven is the most narratively succinct and fulfilling of the series, but both of the sequels are fun enough in their own right. Ocean’s Twelve took a meta approach to Hollywood stardom and became a hangout movie, and Ocean’s Thirteen changed up the cast dynamics by forcing Benedict and Ocean to work together, and included Al Pacino as a memorable new villain.
5
The Taken Trilogy
Taken was a shock that totally revitalized Liam Neeson’s career by turning him into an action star. While Neeson was best known for doing stately dramas and period pieces, Taken was an old-fashioned thriller with just the right amount of pulpy violence, and it kickstarted an entirely new era for him in which he could play older action heroes.
Taken may have led to literally dozens of other Neeson action thrillers, but the two sequels it spawned are some of the worst films that the actor has ever made. The gimmick of the characters’ daughter getting kidnapped was really only ever going to work for one film, and the sequels got so ridiculous in trying to find ways to stretch out the story that any of the concentration and grittiness that had made the first installment feel so special was completely evaporated.
4
The Mummy Trilogy
The Mummy was a truly surprising hit because it did away with the more traditional horror elements of the original Universal films and made an action-packed, globetrotting adventure that felt closer in tone to the Indiana Jones films. Brendan Fraser surprisingly made for a great action lead, and his chemistry with Rachel Weisz completely elevated the material.
The romantic tension between Fraser and Weiszs’ characters is what gave The Mummy such a fun twist, but making them parents in the sequel The Mummy Returns was a boring choice made even worse by the fact that the film cast one of the most irritating child actors in history. By the time that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor came out, the franchise had become entirely irrelevant, even if there is hope that the upcoming fourth installment will give Fraser and Weisz the opportunity to redeem the series.
3
The Deadpool Trilogy
Deadpool was a surprise hit because R-Rated superhero films were by no guarantee box office successes, and 20th Century Fox had already screwed up the character when he briefly appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Deadpool was a passion project from Ryan Reynolds that poked at the cliches of the superhero genre while also telling a surprisingly affecting love story involving Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa.
Deadpool succeeded because it existed on the edges of the superhero universe, but the sequels became closer to what the original film had been trying to parody. Deadpool 2 was an intermittently fun sequel that nonetheless had a thematic focus on family that simply felt undercooked, and Deadpool & Wolverine was a cash cow of nostalgia that used appearances by other characters from the other Fox Marvel films to mask the fact that it wasn’t doing anything new with either of its leads.
2
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the most successful independent films ever made, believe it or not, and managed to take the slightly edgier aspects of the comic books and merge them with the sillier aspects of the popular cartoon show. The use of animotonics from the Jim Henson workshop resulted in an instant hit for young fans that holds up remarkably well to this day, especially when compared to the other superhero films of the ‘90s.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze is a fun camp classic in many ways, but it felt more definitely geared towards children and lacked the substance of its predecessor. The less said about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the better, as the sequel that sent the turtles back in time to feudal Japan is one of the most embarrassing superhero films of all-time.
1
The Men in Black Trilogy
Men in Black is a perfect ‘90s film that took the buddy cop formula and inserted it into a science fiction adventure with no shortage of action and comedy. Not only did Men in Black confirm that Will Smith was the biggest star in the world, as it was released just a year after Independence Day, but it got a surprisingly hilarious and oddly nuanced performance from Tommy Lee Jones.
The sequels to Men in Black were trapped in development hell, and Men in Black II had to be seriously reworked months before its release because it had originally had a finale that prominently featured the Twin Towers. Men in Black 3 was a better sequel that used Josh Brolin’s performance as a younger version of Jones’ Agent K to its advantage, but it nonetheless felt like the franchise was far past its prime and shouldn’t have spent fifteen years only making three films.
