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Are Part III's bad?


Unlucky Bastard

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The third installment in a movie series is usually the most looked down upon regardless of there being a better or worse fourth part, even if they?re good movies (in my eyes, at least). However, unless they do something fresh, some people might see that a series is running out of steam by Part III.

Here are some that are generally disliked:

Return of the Jedi ? my oh my, don?t SW purists who were around when it was released have something against this one. I don?t understand the flack thrown at it. The only thing that brought it down just a little bit was that it was a little more episodic than the previous two films, but for me it?s an almost perfect ending to a perfect trilogy. As usual though, a superb score by John Williams.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ? there?s a small amount of people who reckon this film is rubbish in comparison to Raiders and Temple. I love this film, regardless. And Johnny really made the score the deepest out of the Indy lot.

The Godfather: Part III ? I can understand why many think this was bad and a disappointment, because no matter what Francis Ford Coppola was going to do, he was never going to be able to top the genius and grandeur of the first two films, but I really think this movie is better than many give it credit for. To me, the only thing that hurts the film is the absence of Robert Duvall; George Hamilton was forgettable in his own watered down version of the ?lawyer? character. Tom Hagan 4eva! Not to mention Carmine Coppola did a good job imitating Nino Rota.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ? book purists hate this one because it wasn?t a carbon copy of the book like the first two films. They're going to hate GoF even more because it won't be 240 hours long.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? after the high standards set by James Cameron in T1 and T2, it was going to be hard to ?wow? an audience like that again, but I liked it nonetheless.

Superman III ? yes, it was bad, but I think of it as a guilty pleasure.

Austin Powers in Goldmember ? I don?t know, it entertained me for 90 minutes, but there some people who reckon they ran out of ideas on this one.

Jurassic Park III ? I thought it was absolutely terrible when I saw it at the theatre, but then it kind of grew on me.

Alien ³ ? yes, it?s dreary and boring compared to Alien and Aliens, but it has its moments.

Then we have some real stinkers like Poltergeist III, Jaws III and Batman Forever, and ones that are really good but receive an absurd amount of praise like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Tell me what me what I might have missed.

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Return of the Jedi ? For me it sucks compared to what came before... It's still far better than the prequels though.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ? Yet again, only inferior when compared to the others, but it's still far and away better than other competitors. I'm thinking King Solomon's mines here. Ugh, please don't make me do that.

The Godfather: Part III ? I enjoyed it. Again, it's only hated in comparison to the two classics that came before. Sofia Coppola probably didn't help much either.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ? It's the best one!

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? Meh.

Superman III ? I agree, it's a guilty pleasure. Still better than the fourth one though.

Austin Powers in Goldmember ? Yep, they ran out of ideas.

Jurassic Park III ? Meh, again. It's isn't like The Lost World is exactly a masterpiece.

Alien ³ ? Underrated.

The absurd amount of praise for Return of the King was more a recognition for the trilogy as a whole, so I don't know if it really counts. Both Jaws 3 and Batman Forever are terrible, but they both have sequels that are even worse. Some people say that Star Trek 3 is terrible, but I think it's quite good, and much better than TMP (the original cut at least), 5, 7, 9 or 10. Then there's Back to the Future 3, which is better than the second. As a rule, I agree that sequels usually don't fulfill their potential, but I don't see part 3's particularly standing out.

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IJATLC: I haven't watched to many films from this genre but when compared to the first two it doesn't come up to scratch. Personally the change in music was a source of disappointment for me. I think Indy should have remained a little more serious as in Raiders rather than the comic style IJATLC was made in.

Terminator 3: Just an excuse to milk more money from the cinema going public. A very poor finale to Arnie's career.

I thought The Godfather III was great. It was great to see many original faces from the first film there. I thought the ending with the death of Mary was great. After all was said and done nothing hurt Michael more than the loss of his beloved daughter. From that moment on Michael died a slow death.

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Return of the Jedi. Awful conclusion compared to the brilliance of its predecessors. The style and look is very conflicting with the previous films (although arguably ESB looked different from SW as well), and the storyline is rubbish. Death Star II? Ewoks? Leia is Luke's sister? Luke is suddenly a Jedi Knight? Wha???

The Godfather part III. It has an interesting story to tell with Michael's character, but the rest of it is boring and distracting (particularly the love subplot). Its main problem is that it has to live up to two of the greatest movies ever made.

Batman Forever. Yeah, pretty bad, but not as horrid as the fourth film.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I never realized what a genius James Cameron is until I saw this film. The first one was a great cult sci-fi, the second one one of the best sequels ever made, packed full with great action. T3 sinks into trying to do the same thing again. Yeah, Kristinna Loken is hot as all hell, but that's about it. The CG is overbearing, and nowhere near as cleverly used and well-integrated as the revolutionary effects in T2.

Jurassic Park III. An obvious cash-in attempt. The entire movie looks and feels like a direct-to-video product. Only the dinosaur effects (both robotic and CG) rise above the rest. The directing is stale, and the script is like a bad movie of the week and is terribly predictible. This movie also could have done with a bit more killing.

Back to the Future part III. I don't think this is a bad movie, but it's not as engaging as the classic first part and the fun sequel. I guess it's because it's set in such a different time and location, so the film looks very different. A fun popcorn ride nonetheless, and a bit underrated at times.

- Marc

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Return of the Jedi ? Pure unadulterated trash!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ? Fun movie when I watch it. When I stop and think about it, it's flaws stand out.

The Godfather: Part III ? Not horrible and it held up pretty well at a trilogy screening I went to last year. But still it can't compare to the brilliance of the first 2 films.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ? This is better than the second one but it can't compare with the first film, which is really excellent.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? Not a total waste of time, but was this necessary?

Superman III ? Well, the fight in the junk yard is well done. Beyond this film has little to offer.

Austin Powers in Goldmember ? After an excellent opening with great cameos this film completely runs out of ideas. A complete waste of time.

Jurassic Park III ? Saw it once. That was enough.

Alien ³ ? A very misguided film that had many obstacles to overcome. Considering the total screw up of a production, this film came out pretty well.

Now lets not forget the best third film in a series, Goldfinger. This is the prototypical James Bond film and arguably the best in the series.

Neil

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Return of the Jedi ? Weakest of the original trilogy, has some moments, most of them bad, features the worst acting sequence of all 5 films, and the cheap cop out of making Vader good is unforgivable.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ? Fun movie when I watch it. When I stop and think about it, it's flaws stand out. (I borrowed that from Neil), easily the weakest. No one was inspired and it shows.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ? The weakest of the 3 films to date. Sadly all that would have been required to make it better was about 6 to 10 more minutes. Plays like a series of sequences rather than a coherent film.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? Popcorn, popcorn, but a stupid ending.

Superman III ?yuk.

Jurassic Park III ? Hated it the first time, liked it better the 2nd. I mean really it has dinosaurs so its ok at worst. Still I hated the fake spinosaur, which never existed as shown in the film.

Alien ³ ? Awful, waste of film. It destroys the foundation that Aliens was built on. Odd how Europeans seem to love it, and most Americans hate it. Typical Fincher, he's such a hack.

Son of Frankenstein, Artsy in its presentation, and abstract in its look, this is a fine film, not the calibre of Frankenstein, or Bride, but worthy.

Star Trek III, The Search for Spock, really good film, with great effects, ok story, but superb characterizations from all. Features the films series greatest sequence, that shows the true meaning of Star Trek.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes, an inspired twist on the series, turning it on its heels. Fun movie with a nasty villian, and a tear jerking ending.

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Jurassic Park III ? Still I hated the fake spinosaur, which never existed as shown in the film.

Im not so sure about that. There existed in Germany one skeleton of a Spinosaur found in Egypt (or at least in North Africa) So I suppose that should be an Spinosaurus aegyptiacus or whatever is it spelled. That measured approximately the same as the movie. Plus the Crocodile face is real too. See the more popular Barionyx which is also a Spinosaur. And the latter one has a big claw in one finger of the hand (Im not sure if the Spinosaur had though). Unfortunately it got destroyed in WWII. Now, that it is a vicious human eater, or that it could kill a bulkier T-Rex, being made to fish, that is what may not be likely...

http://dinosauricon.com/genera/spinosaurus...ml#measurements

I would be more worried with the raptors, who get a new look in every movie, and never were accurately done in none of them. Now why they choose asian raptors instead the american Deinonychus (which i knew prior to the movie unlike Velociraptor), is puzzling. Specially when they are digging out raptors both in JP and JPIII.

dinoboxing.gif:mrgreen:

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They were made bigger in the film. In reality raptors didnt stand much taller than your hip.

I think they measure less than 1.8 meters long while in the movie they are 3 or more, plus in reality they were sleeker (similar to Disney's Dinosaur, unfortunately since i loke the looks of JP dinos)

http://dinosauricon.com/genera/deinonychus.html

http://dinosauricon.com/genera/velociraptor.html (interesting fact here, one species of Velociraptor were missasigned as one Species of Deinonychus or viceversa)

(seeing the pages, raptors were as much as 2 meters, and the smallers deinonychus was 2.4, which is not much but if you contrast less than 2 meters (as the samllest raptor) and up to 4 (as the biggest deino), there s difference...

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The offical explantion, i think, is that Hammond wanted Fearfull dinosaurs. So they genetically modified them....

The JP raptor theme has an hommage (i meant it without malice) in 'Raptors' by JNH, right?

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Back to the topic, I gotta mention some part IIIs.....

The Final Conflict - way better than Damien....but followed by a large pile of poo.....

From Dusk Til Dawn III - Way better than II....

Robocop 3 - Way better than part II (though - before anyone else says it - I know that wouldn't have been difficult!!)

Beastmaster III - Way better than II.....

Die Hard with a Vengeance.......hmmmmmmm........

Tremors 3...to be honest, I've never bothered to even try.....

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Don't forget the appalling Omen III: The Final Conflict. Horrible film. The whole reason the first two Omen films worked is having scary children. Number III doesn't work on SO many levels, despite Sam Neil doing a pretty good job.

Matrix III is definitely the weakest IMO. Although number two wasn't that great it at least had some exciting action sequences.

Army of Darkness, for all it's humour, still doesn't live up to Evil Dead 2. It's too slapstick and not enough scares.

By contrast, Nightmare on Elm Street prt 3 (Dream Warriors) was ten times better than the ghastly part 2 (Freddy's Revenge).

For all it's mistakes I still tink that Prisoner of Azkaban is a much better movie experience than the first two Harry Potters.

As for Lord of the Rings, I think parts 2 and 3 are much better than part 1 which I was disappointed with. I didn't think Fellowship did justice to the book, whereas I felt Two Towers and Return of the King exceeded my expectations.

Search for Spock (Star Trek 3) was much too lightweight IMO. It feels like a big introduction which doesn't really deliver. It has some good sequences I agree, JoeinAr, but as a whole I think it misses the mark.

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The offical explantion, i think, is that Hammond wanted Fearfull dinosaurs. So they genetically modified them....

Well there was something like that in the book, but in the film there's no mention of it. In fact, Hammond even says he wanted to create something that was real, and not an illusion.

The JP raptor theme has an hommage (i meant it without malice) in 'Raptors' by JNH, right?

Never noticed. I'll have to pay attention when I hear it. :)

- Marc

:mrgreen: James Newton Howard - Breakout from Dinosaur

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I love Return of the Jedi and I love The Last Crusade, which I consider sometimes to be the best of the series (according to my mood). POA was by far...but by really far, the best HP movie to date. I thought ROTK was awful (I loved FOTR) and JP III was fun if you didn't take too seriously. I enjoyed it.

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I love Jedi.

Last Crusade, good but probably not on par with Raiders. The Indy-Senior stuff was one of the highlights of the entire series.

RotK, great. TTT was actually my least favorite LotR film, I felt that one deviated from the book too much.

Prisoner of Azkaban, very good but not without flaws. It had the advantage of being the best book of the first three, I think as a movie the first one is the best yet.

Back to the Future III, Marc said it best, a fun and underrated ride, though not as good as the first two.

Star Trek III, good but not great. The TPM Director's Cut is the best odd Trek film, though I think Generations is great until the last half-hour or so.

And I guess I'm in the minority in that I liked Austin Powers in Goldmember. Michael Caine was perfect. But I'm not exactly clamoring for a fourth one.

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Hey lookie what was in my Chinese fortune cookie!

"He who loves a "three" has never understood "one".

It means: He who loves a third installment is not critical. He takes whatever he can get."

Damn, those Chinese fortune cookies are so smart.

----------------

Alex Cremers

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Search for Spock (Star Trek 3) was much too lightweight IMO. It feels like a big introduction which doesn't really deliver. It has some good sequences I agree, JoeinAr, but as a whole I think it misses the mark.

The stealing the Enterprise sequence is the best in the whole series, and when Kirk, and Co. have their discussion on the bridge just before stealing the ship, never has there been a finer Star Trek movie moment, and Horner's music is perfect at that moment. I call it Hymn for Captain Kirk.

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Actually Joe that's EXACTLY the scene I was thinking of! Wonderful! Especially when the other ship tries to follow but ends up stalling! For me the movie loses its momentum after they arrive on the Genesis planet. The first time I saw it I really expected those life forms (the grubs) to grow into large dinosaur-like creatures at the end, which never happened. Although the "I have had enough of you" line is fantastic, I don't think there's enough plot beforehand for it to really seem like a climax. Of course I realise the whole film is a big set-up for Star Trek 4, but I still wish there was a little more to it plot-wise.

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They were made bigger in the film. In reality raptors didnt stand much taller than your hip.

I think they measure less than 1.8 meters long while in the movie they are 3 or more, plus in reality they were sleeker (similar to Disney's Dinosaur, unfortunately since i loke the looks of JP dinos)  

http://dinosauricon.com/genera/deinonychus.html

http://dinosauricon.com/genera/velociraptor.html (interesting fact here, one species of Velociraptor were missasigned as one Species of Deinonychus or viceversa)

(seeing the pages, raptors were as much as 2 meters, and the smallers deinonychus was 2.4, which is not much but if you contrast less than 2 meters (as the samllest raptor) and up to 4 (as the biggest deino), there s difference...

It's True Luke. Good links.

Viva el Deinonychus! :mrgreen:

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I don't like Return of the Jedi that much, and it's mostly because of a link Neil posted, "50 Reasons Why Return of the Jedi Sucked." It pointed out stuff I'd never noticed before...in particular:

- Weak dialogue - "Look, Artoo, it's Captain Solo, and he's still frozen in carbonite!" (This is completely unnecessary because of Jabba's previous line, "I like Captain Solo where he is.")

- Boring locations - Tatooine we've seen before, Jabba's Palace is dank and musty, Endor looks like my backyard, and the ship/Death Star sets aren't particularly good (although I do like the Emperor's Throne Room).

- Direction - Not as inspired as the first two films'. This is a little hard to explain, besides, there's some controversy surrounding what Richard Marquand actually did for this film.

- Ewoks - These don't bother me too much, actually, but obviously they weren't the best choice.

- Luke/Leia - Very poor plot twist. It's completely redundant because of Vader being Luke's father. Although to be fair, there weren't very many options after Yoda's "There is another" line in ESB.

- Music/music editing - Weakest score (but not by much), and it's pretty badly edited in the film.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - I watched the "Making Of" documentary on the DVD set, and I remember Spielberg saying with this big grin "We wanted to bring back everything that made Raiders great." Um, no, they should've been original. The supporting characters, Brody and Sallah, are bothersome...Brody's fine until he leaves New York, then he turns into a blundering fool. Sallah has very little to offer, and I'm not even sure why he's there. Henry Jones is a pretty cool character, although he has similiarities to Abner Ravenwood, the big difference between the two being that he's actually in the film. And LC harkens back to Raiders all the time, it really gets on the nerves after a while. The score is calmer and more by-the-book than the first two...hey, just like the film.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - I made a longer post in the Potter thread, the gist of it was that while the individual scenes are pretty cool, there's no cohesiveness; the film doesn't "flow" at all.

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Luke/Leia - Very poor plot twist. It's completely redundant because of Vader being Luke's father. Although to be fair, there weren't very many options after Yoda's "There is another" line in ESB.

Actually there was a perfect opportunity there that was not used, but I won't say what it is, since it's not my idea and at this point it's completely useless. But Leia did not need to be the other at all.

Neil

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Vader would be perfect for it. Lucas wouldn't even had to have changed the Vader redemption subplot. See, he is already the "last hope" that Obi-Wan refers to, in RotJ. He kills the Emperor, after all. Just get rid of the brother-sister subplot!

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Drax, you forgot Jaws 3 in your list...

ROTFLMAOROTFLMAOROTFLMAO

Mirko - who will add his opinion later on this thread. :wave:

Think of me like this in 10 minutes---> :sleepy: ...25 minutes after midnight here you know.........bye!

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Wait...Leia could still be the "other," but not Luke's sister. Yeah, that would've worked well enough, probably would have made for a more interesting resolution to the love triangle as well.

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Well, but Leia being Luke's sister was pretty much evident in ESB, when Luke, through the force, calls out for her. THere was clearly a very deep bond between these tow, and they're being brother and sister is pretty coherent.

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Yes. If they're both brothers, they'd both be male, making not only the ESB kiss even weirder, but turning Han Solo into a queer as well. That would explain the wushy Greedo-handling abilities, perhaps. (no offense to any of our gay members) ROTFLMAO

I believe you meant siblings, or twins. :)

- Marc

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Actually there was a perfect opportunity there that was not used, but I won't say what it is, since it's not my idea and at this point it's completely useless. But Leia did not need to be the other at all.  

Neil

I'm dying to know who you mean, Neil, I think you should come forward and tell us.

Is it a gargantuan Wang?

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Yes. If they're both brothers, they'd both be male, making not only the ESB kiss even weirder, but turning Han Solo into a queer as well. That would explain the wushy Greedo-handling abilities, perhaps. (no offense to any of our gay members) :thumbup:

I believe you meant siblings, or twins. :mrgreen:

- Marc

I just mixed up the spanish way. When we generalise, we do with male words, but then brother and sister only differ in a word (hermano-hermana)

Sibling must be the word i meant...

Neil, the character you say, is just a joke you will made mocking us, or are you serious with true arguments?

'This boy is our only hope'

'No, there is another'

Really that has to imply its a character from ANH...

Could it be wedge? it has exceptional piloting skills (and he isnt supposed to ahve the force). But then neil, you will ruin the EU :baaa:.

Bobba fett? He is a bad guy.

Lobot? nah i dont think so

Jabba the hutt? he was still alive...

Dodonna? too old

General Rieekan? the same

Someone one from the holiday special?!

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Actually there was a perfect opportunity there that was not used, but I won't say what it is, since it's not my idea and at this point it's completely useless. But Leia did not need to be the other at all.
Come on, man!
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The Matrix Revolutions: Garbage. The worst ending to a major trilogy ever. Period.

Superman III: A guilty pleasure, but understandbly, it is not a good film.

Back to the Future Part III: Has much more heart than its predecessor; not as good as the original and arguably duller than the zany II, but still a great film on it's own.

Return of the Jedi: Jedi actually used to be my favorite of the trilogy when I was younger. It's a bit lighter and doesn't mesh as well with the dark tone set by Empire before it. In spite of the problems, it still tells the Darth Vader story damn well, which is ultimately what the entire series is all about.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: It really tries, but cannot even stand up to its predecessors. Not to mention that the ending completely defeats the climaxes of the films before it.

Juassic Park III: Like Terminator, it tries, but just winds up being fluff and unnecessary.

Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade: A fun, wild romp with Indiana Jones for the last time. It does feel as though it lacks that "childhood gleam of excitement" Spielberg gave the earlier films (and his other early films in general) and sometimes comes off as a big apology for Temple of Doom, but overall, still a great movie. Sean Connery as Indy's father - genius.

Austin Powers In Goldmember: At times is very funny, but for some reason, it just doesn't do it for me like the way the other two do.

Batman Forever: Might've been better had Warner stuck to the original cut of the film, but the movie would still suffer from being completely done in the wrong tone, poor direction, and its ridiculous design and plot points.

LOTR: The Return of the King: Fantastic. Engaging, exciting, action-packed, and heartfelt. Easily the best of the trilogy.

Neil, I respect your opinion of ROTJ, but how you can speak of Alien 3, Godfather Part III, and Austin Powers in Goldmember in a higher manner than that film is just baffles me.

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