In a recent Let's Do This someone asked the question why the third movie in so many movie series suck and if they can think of any good ones. And the guys gave a good answer as to why these 3rd films suck; its because there is no story. The original inspiration for the movie tends to only be found in the first and sometimes second movie. The third one is usually forced and the soul of the movie is usually dead by that time. Then the guys themselves could not think of any movies third in a series that they liked aside from Return of The King


Well I got to thinking about this and it troubled me because I have High Hopes for Toy Story 3 as well as a third Batman movie. So I got to thinking are there any really good third movies in a series and I was actually able to come up with a few that I really love. So here they are in no real particular order... (bear with me I'm new to this blogging thing)





1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade


I thought I'd start off with one of my personal favorites Indiana Jones. In this third movie they tone down the action to develop this relationship between Indy and his father. I'll argue to death that this one is much better than the 2nd (and of course the 4th) and rivals the first movie. Some may say it's a better movie than Raiders, I personally like Raiders just a bit more but either way this is a great film.






2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors


When I was still small I was shocked to see my favorite cowboy from Pee Wee's Playhouse in this movie. This film takes a bit of a different tone from the first movie being more about suspense then the actual scares but even still this is a great third film in a series. Like most sequels this film was followed by others that weren't as great to say the least.









3. Mission Impossible 3


This is my favorite of the series by far(which isn't saying much). It seems like with this series there was a Goldilocks and the Three Directors: This movie is too slow(De Palma), This movie is too fast (Woo), This movie is just right(Abrams). This having a good mix of action story and special effects is what had me so pleasantly surprised when watching this movie, and also having Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain was good move. I'm not arguing that it's the greatest movie of all time but It's still a good movie on it's own and even better considering it's the third in that series.








4. Goldfinger


The movie that set the stage for the rest of the Bond movies. It has for a long time been THE Bond film, up until Casino Royale where we saw a bit of a different side of agent 007. It's kind of hard to count this one because although it's the third Bond film, the James Bond movies really are like stand alone films. As long as James Bond is in it screwing girls and killing people you have a Bond movie. It's very rare that a Bond film really feels like a sequel or that you'll see a character aside from Bond and the M16 people come back for another film. Goldfinger is proof positive that a sequel can exceed the expectations of the original. I mean Casino Royale was incredible and I don't even know which one that is in that series, I'm sure you can get on Wikipedia yourself and find out. But maybe making a good sequel means not looking so much at previous films but just trying to make a solid stand alone film. However I have to say that while a stand alone movie like this one is great, its even more satisfying when that stand alone film adds on to the previous ones just like in...










5.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban


I was never really a big Harry Potter fan and the first film didn't really change that. I found that I enjoyed the second film, but when I found out that one of my favorite actors, Gary Oldman, was cast in the third it instantly caught my interest.

I really loved this movie and I will argue that it is much better than the first two. The story was great as was the music and the performances. Gary Oldman was perfect as Sirius Black. Speaking of which is it just me or with a name like that doesn't he sound like he should be a rapper? "A'yo It's Sirius Black in the building!" Maybe it is just me anyways, while I got lost in the silliness of the second movie and enjoyed it, I really didn't take it seriously until this movie came out. This is the reason why I watch these movies now.



So yes there can be good third movies. Yes I know we see a lot of ones that are just crap(Jurassic Park III, The Godfather part 3, Rush Hour 3, many many more), and some that aren't all that bad but they let us down as compared to the first two(Return of the Jedi, Back to the Future 3, Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End, Shrek the 3rd, etc.). However a good sequel to a sequel could be a third movie in a trilogy like In The Name of The King, or it can be a stand alone movie like Indiana Jones 3. But I think that as long as the filmmakers know when to STOP they can have strong sequels. I hope someone gets that message to Sylvester Stallone soon before 3 new Rocky Movies come out.

So when it comes to movies with two or more sequels lets condemn them before we see them. I'll issue a silent prayer for this 3rd Batman movie and Toy Story 3. All we really can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best.