The meme is funny, I'm going to acknowledge that first.
But what are these rankings? Indiana Jones 3 is ranked the same quality as 2. Spider-Man 1 is ranked demonstrably worse than 2. Jurassic Park 3 is ranked work than Jurassic Park 2????
I know it comes down to a matter of opinion but I also have to wonder if the person who originally created this meme watched the movies, because those are some spicy takes.
I disagree, the more texture the 'real' world gets the less portent the message. Same with John wick, one they start making it into a movie about the honor system in this world wide assassin network it loses its urgency.
The power of both is the mystique of the superimposed world, you don't understand it, but it lends an excellent backdrop to the movie, that is really about something much smaller, self realization and vengeance.
Once the first movie concludes, the narrative cycle is basically over and a new, more convoluted, plot line gets drawn up that doesn't feel as important as before.
The mystique gets filled in with additional detail, which rubs the wrong way with the metaphor, as a new rule system gets put in place in order for the protagonist to re-live the exact story arc of struggle and eventual victory as in the first movie.
Yet with every iteration it feels more hollow, the emotional pay off subsides. There is no resolution as three needs always be narrative room for the next sequel. It leaves you emotionally drawn out and no expertly choreographed fight scene can fill that hole.
As it wasn't about the fight scenes, it's storytelling.
They didn't deliver on the promises that Neo made at the end of the first movie. They're quite different than the first film. The 4th one was an obvious cash grab by the studios. The Wachowskis didn't want to make the movie, and they straight-up tell the audience in the movie that they were forced to do it, or let someone else do it.
Wtf do you mean, part 3 is awesome and has some of the best humor in the series. Sure it's a bit derivative, but that doesn't stop it from being a better 3rd in a trilogy than most others. It's also got a lot of quotable moments, I quote this for just about anything that's hot
Well, I suppose if you had a straight stretch of track with a level grade, and you weren't haulin' no cars behind you, and if you can get the fire hot enough, and I'm talkin' about hotter than the blazes of hell and damnation itself... then yes
1 and 2 are about even. 3 is a little lower than them, but not by much.
The first two really are parts 1 and 2 of a story. The 3rd completely changes the scenery, which gives some people the impression it's not as good. It is though , and it ends the story well.
Then there's the fun fact that parts 2 and 3 were filmed at the same time. So the impression the films give is backwards from how they were made.
I am fully aware I'm pretty much alone with my opinion, but I find Terminator 1 far superior to T2.
Even with the limited budget T1 manages to create a far more horrifying vision of an unstoppable killer coming after you. The lo-fi'ish synth soundtrack sets a perfect oppressive feeling. The casting is perfect, Michael Biehn' s scarred and wiry Reese with Hamilton's young and scared next door girl going against metal-Arnold in his prime is the epitome of underdog scenarios.
And the pacing is very good, the plot flows.
T2 is a good film, but like many sequels, it suffers from the "let's do the same thing from a different angle, but bigger and louder!" - syndrome. It doesn't really get to be it's own kind of beast. I was very surprised that Cameron fell for the trap, after he avoided that mistake with "Aliens". Switching genre from space horror to space action made that film stand firmly on it's own feet and the result was good.
Lastly, T2 has the young John Connor doing the "badass kid" - role, which so many seem to love. I just find the character annoying.
I think T2 hits everybody that was a certain age when it came out a bit different. Young John Connor appealed to the divorced-parents-latch-key-kid generation.
Though hard agree the first one was pretty solid. Definitely more of a horror vibe.
I was 12 when T2 came out. I remember all my friends talking about how young John was the coolest kid ever, which I never understood. But I have always had a quite different mindset than most men of my generation.
Nope, including the LotR movies. I will die on this hill.
Specifically, Robert Zemeckis > Peter Jackson. the BttF trilogy was masterfully executed with great plot, pacing, and incredible attention to detail (down to things like e.g. "Twin Pines Mall" becoming "Lone Pine Mall" because Marty ran over one of Old Man Peabody's pines). Meanwhile, Peter Jackson couldn't even figure out how to get major plot points like the Scouring of the Shire to work, let alone Tom Bombadil.
THANK YOU; everyone (that I've anecdotally seen) thinks the second LotR is the low point while so much irritates me about the third, in comparison to the first two.
I still want him to do God Emperor. If anyone can do it, it's him. Also, I want James McAvoy to reprise his role as Leto and that's the only chance of it happening.
A lot of those crappy trilogies were not written all at once the way LOTR was. The more common case of writing follow-ups to cash in on the popularity of the original is a time-honoured way to make money while producing derivative garbage.
I feel like we need a different word to separate those “cash grab” trilogies from proper multi-part stories like LOTR.
Since no one here is talking about the Jurassic Park trilogy, I'll go ahead and say my hot take. JP3 is way better than 2. And obviously the originals are all miles ahead of the Jurassic Worlds.
Whoa whoa whoa mad max 1 is the best of the three. Sure, the sequels have crazier worldbuilding and fancier visuals but the first is tight, well shot, and tells a good story well.
That's true, but I'd argue that the more personal that any art is, the fewer people who will instantly understand their meaning.
Think about it like this, if you were watching a movie in a language you don't speak (without subtitles), you could still enjoy a lot of it, but might not be able to fully follow the story. But, the story is still there if you know how to hear it. Sometimes you just need someone else to help translate.
Eh, the subtext in 2 and 3 is neat but the first movie is by far the best. It sets up a premise and concludes it beautifully and doesn't get too big for its britches. I still enjoy some of the over the top moments from 2 and 3 but there's definitely a leap and I'm not sure the pay off is as good as the first film.
My only real gripe with the matrix trilogy is where Neo can “see” agent smith in Bane’s body and “see” all the machines at the machine city. It didn’t need that over the top messiah thing when he was already the messiah simply because of his power within the matrix.
And if the idea is “the real world is also a simulation, made to convince humans they were free” it sort of goes against all the monologuing that smith and the architect do about how humans rebelled against versions of the matrix in which they were free
A lot of sequels aren't as good because the original director and writer (and maybe other staff) aren't involved. The original staff may have had a vision for the one movie, and when it's completed, they're not interested in making another one. So the studio that owns the copyright hands it to some newbies so they can get experience and do a low-budget cash-grab sequel.
Bro. Have you seen Fellowship of the Ring? It’s 3 hours of “Hey, could you schedule a meeting so we could nail down our deliverables and figure out a timeline?”
And 30 minutes of “good meeting, everyone.”