Your top 5 movie trilogies of all time, and why?

[dragoner]

Allegedly, it was originally intended to be an anthology film series, with each entry tackling a new Halloween-themed horror spectacle, but the first film was so wildly successful that Moustapha Akkad insisted the second film also be a Michael Myers feature (because, you know, the money). That pretty much sealed the fate of the franchise. When the third installment hit and it wasn't another Michael Myers flick, nobody wanted it. I still contend that had the second film been an anthology series entry as originally intended, instead of another Michael Myers feature, the anthology series probably would've panned out (or at least had longer legs).

Halloween I & III imo were pretty good, and this is similar to Nightmare On Elm Street, it was actually really good for a low budget slasher flick, the rest not so much. Hellraiser was one that really hit it big also, and is still meme'd, and it had so many films 11? Amazing. I loved the weird late 90's early 2000 tie ins with sci-fi, like Jason X, the Friday the 13th where he's on a space station. lol

 

[Bagpuss]

(or at least had longer legs).

Longer than 13 films?

 

[jdrakeh]

Longer than 13 films?

Please re-read what I wrote. I clearly specified the originally planned anthology series, not the series of Michael Myers vehicles.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Allegedly, it was originally intended to be an anthology film series, with each entry tackling a new Halloween-themed horror spectacle, but the first film was so wildly successful that Moustapha Akkad insisted the second film also be a Michael Myers feature (because, you know, the money). That pretty much sealed the fate of the franchise. When the third installment hit and it wasn't another Michael Myers flick, nobody wanted it. I still contend that had the second film been an anthology series entry as originally intended, instead of another Michael Myers feature, the anthology series probably would've panned out (or at least had longer legs).

I love Halloween III. The images of bugs spilling out of those Halloween masks as children died was terrifying.

In a lot of ways, I think the series would've been better, had it taken the anthology route. Maybe they could've brough Michael Myers back now and then, and it would've been a big deal.

Interestingly, both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street tried their hand at anthology storytelling with their respective TV shows.

 

[Arilyn]

LotR: Of course. Watch it every year
Back to the Future: So much fun energy
Star Trek: ll to IV The best Trek
Toy Story: The first three are brilliant, funny and touching. Pixar at their best.
Star Wars: Original three. I don't acknowledge the others.

 

[Gradine]

The only five I could truly put forward are:
Lord of the Rings (Peej Edition, naturally) - A bit of a cheat to film all three at the same time, but hell if it didn't make it the best, most cohesive movie trilogy of them all.
Star Wars (Original Trilogy) - The only truly cohesive AND excellent of the main SW trilogies. People love to hate on Return of the Jedi but those people are wrong
Toy Story - The first three formed such a wonderful trilogy of movies. They really did not need to keep it at it
Poirot (Brannagh Edition) - Excellent, all three, even with enough champagne to fill the Nile
Cornetto Trilogy - World's End I think was the weakest of the three, but all three are very, very good; an excellent thematic trilogy

Would otherwise love to but can't quite say yes to:
Back to the Future - Third film just doesn't quite capture the magic of the other two
Dark Knight - They don't hold up quite as well as my memory of them, and the third definitely drops the ball
Indiana Jones - I wish Temple of Doom wasn't as awful as it was, or else this would be a shoe-in
Ocean's 11-13 - The sequels just don't have the charm of the original, though 13 is significantly better than 12

 

[Clint_L]

Can you count the Cornetto films as a trilogy in the same sense as Star Wars 4-6? I love all three, especially the first two, but while they share actors, themes (to a certain degree), and pay homage to each other with some gags, there's no shared story or even shared world.

To me, it feels weird to put them in the same category as the Godfather or LotR films, etc. They're more like Hitchcock's "trilogy" of Rear Window, Vertigo, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Like, trilogy broadly meaning "a complementary set of three things." I feel like once we open the category that wide, there are a lot of other outstanding sets of films that I need to consider.

Like, what about Robert Altman's Nashville, The Player, and Short Cuts? Or Scorcese's "greed" and "God" sets of films? Etc.

I suppose I am thinking of trilogy in the sense of a series of directly connected films - sequels.

 

[jian]

Can you count the Cornetto films as a trilogy in the same sense as Star Wars 4-6? I love all three, especially the first two, but while they share actors, themes (to a certain degree), and pay homage to each other with some gags, there's no shared story or even shared world.

To me, it feels weird to put them in the same category as the Godfather or LotR films, etc. They're more like Hitchcock's "trilogy" of Rear Window, Vertigo, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Like, trilogy broadly meaning "a complementary set of three things." I feel like once we open the category that wide, there are a lot of other outstanding sets of films that I need to consider.

Like, what about Robert Altman's Nashville, The Player, and Short Cuts? Or Scorcese's "greed" and "God" sets of films? Etc.

I suppose I am thinking of trilogy in the sense of a series of directly connected films - sequels.

Yes, I’d agree with that, but the question is whether we count thematic trilogies defined as such by the director. If we didn’t accept the Cornetto Trilogy we couldn’t accept the Three Colours trilogy either, and I think I’d prefer to. They may not share characters or a world but they’re meant to be viewed in sequence and complement each other.

 

[billd91]

There's another trilogy in a similar vein as the Cornetto Trilogy - and that's the trilogy based on the Barrytown novels by Roddy Doyle. The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van. They all focus on families in North Dublin shenanigans (the novels are all about the same family, though the movies aren't because of different studios and rights) - and Colm Meaney appears or stars in each one, though as different characters each time.