There are several movie trilogies that should have stopped after two installments. When a movie becomes successful at the box office and with fans and critics, it is natural for a sequel to occur. Sequels are fifty-fifty when it comes to replicating the same success that the first movie did. When it does succeed, the studio and creators want to make a third movie to capture that lightning in a bottle success. That’s where the franchise usually runs into trouble. It begins to suffer from sequelitis. Most of these are either retcons, the writers are running out of ideas, or just straight up cash grabs. It’s rare that the third movie is just as good as the first two. The studios should have either stopped at one or two. Here are four movie trilogies that should have stopped after two installments.
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1. Godfather
This is practically Francis Ford Coppola’s most famous work. The first movie was spectacular. The trilogy follows an Italian mob family through the years in upstate New York. Everything about the first movie is iconic from the opening speech in the beginning to the final shot of Kay looking at the camera as the door closes. The Godfather received critical acclaim and made back its money at the box office. The Godfather Part II shared the same success even though it left some viewers wondering, “Why am I watching this?” The Godfather Part III was a mess. For starters, Coppola cast his daughter, Sophia, as Michael Corleone’s daughter. This girl could not act. Wynona Ryder should’ve gotten this part. This whole movie felt rather pointless and the ending was just dumb. According to the special about the movies in the History channel, the third movie was all the studio’s idea. Looking at The Godfather Part III, it is easy to see why that the AMC only shows the first two all the way.
2. V/H/S
The found footage genre has about run its course. They aren’t as scary as they used to be. People can practically predict where the movie is headed. V/H/S did something a little bit different. They took a frame story and added other stories in a story. The first movie focused on a gang of thugs looking to be big-time crooks. They receive a text about a mission to go into a house to steal a videotape. The gang breaks into the house and find a dead old man in front of a TV. While they go around the house stealing tapes, some of the members sit down in front of the TV and watch random creepy videos. Despite the mixed reviews, V/H/S was pretty unique in the setup and some of the videos. V/H/S 2 was just as good in the setup and videos. Only this time, it’s a private detective couple looking for a missing college student. Then came V/H/S Viral. For one this, they took out the main element of the first two: VHS tapes. Instead, the movie focused on the viral video angle with disastrous results. Maybe the third one should’ve stuck with VHS tapes instead.
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3. Lars Von Tier’s Depression Trilogy
Lars von Tier has been a controversial man. He showed sympathy for Hitler and creates movies that leave a bad taste in the viewers’ mouths. Von Tier has a history of mistreating his actors. Some either put up with it or chose not towork with him ever again. He’s even tricked one actor into playing a role in his movie. Von Tier makes his movies in trilogies based on a theme. His depression trilogy came out around 2009. It all started with the movie, Antichrist. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in all three of these. Antichrist has some dark and uncomfortable moments in it. It even borders on being sexist. In 2011, Melancholia was released. This film focused on two sisters as the world is about to end. This turned out to be slow and boring. Finally came Nymphomaniac. The movie was so long that it had to be split up into two movies. Both of them were so boring and there was nothing sexy about them. It just most about a hypersexual woman who was beaten up and a kind stranger takes her in and lets her tell her story. The movie is filled with a philosophy you don’t really care about and the ending is just a slap in the face. The uncut version of both volumes isn’t any better either.
4. The Hangover
This started out as fun idea. Three close friends wake up from a wild night of partying and try to figure out what happened while looking for their missing friend. Wolf Pack made it entertaining and funny doing the first Hangover movie in Vegas. Their bad friend, Leslie Chow, made it that much more fun. The second one took them to Thailand. By the third movie, all of the fun was gone. It turned into more of the “Allen and Chow” movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 21%, showing that critics and audience wished that the Wolf Pack would grow up and move on.