Trilogyitis

Today, sitting at home watching my son, I randomly started popping in movies, and I find myself watching a personal favorite, Spider-Man 2

Oh s**t!  Doc Ock is gonna get you!

I grew up on the Spider-Man cartoon of the late '90's, and it really built a love for the character and the world he lived in.  When it really comes down to comic book movies, I feel the original Spider-Man movies have the best casting.  Willem Dafoe and James Franco as Norman and Harry Osborne is fantastic.  Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus is perfect, almost the best casting in the film.  But by far, the role they absolutely nailed on the head is J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.

"Parker, you're fired!"

But I'm not here to talk about casting.  Watching the second Spider-Man, I find myself thinking of the first and third installations in the series.  The first is good - really good - but the third just takes a big steaming dump on the screen.  I've often said that the reason the 3rd is so bad is they simply tried to do too much.  Sandman/Venom/Green Goblin 2.0 is waaaay too much for one movie, especially with all the origin information crammed in as well.  It makes for a lame film that spends way too much time explaining itself, which requires scenes like this.

But then I got to thinking about other film franchises, and their 3rd installment.  X-men?  Atrocious.  Pirates of the Carribbean?  Eye scarringly bad.  The Godfather?  You see where I'm going here.  What is it about the third movies that makes them suck so bad?  Are there exceptions to this rule?  Of course.  Just look at the Batman relaunch.  I don't count the Lord of the Rings movies here because they were three books first, not three movies.

Book trilogy = good

I mean, I understand the need to end a series, and the third installment seems to be the limit that people take on series, and they decide to end them there.  But you don't need to end it terribly.  Look at Toy Story.  It's arguable that the third was the best installment AND it effectively ended the series.  It did so in a powerful and moving way, and I still cry like a baby when I see it.  So Trilogyitis isn't a required illness in movie land, but it sure as hell seems easy to catch.