Sequels and Trilogies

Once upon a time, there was a movie. It was released and people went to see it. If it was well received the studio might greenlight a sequel (which a director would use to raise money to work on something that they REALLY wanted to do). I think Spielberg did Jaws 2 so he could make money to do ET, or something like that.

Then along came an insane man by the name of George Lucas who completely screwed everything up. He made the trilogy popular. Accidentally, I think. Sure he may have had this grand sweeping 6 film epic in mind, but I'm sure 20th Century Fox said "You get to make one." So he did.

And it was popular. So he went back to the studio and they agreed to let him do a sequel.

And so we have Empire Strikes Back.

As I too young to have seen the movie in the theaters and always had the luxury of being able to watch Return of the Jedi immediately afterwards, I never knew the sense of betrayal one feels when a movie just sort of ends without resolving anything, forcing you to wait a year or two to see how it turns out.

I never knew that sense of betrayal until 4:00 this morning. When the 1:15am showing of Pirates of the Caribbean just sort of...stopped.

Honestly, it was something of a relief after two and a half hours.

I was not expecting epic. Nor was I expecting to have needed to see the first movie. And to have paid attention. Because that wasn't what the first movie was about! It was a mindless romp in the world of pirates. That's what I wanted in a sequel. Even more mindless.

Instead, they squeezed as much as they could from the first movie and spent two hours rebuilding exposition only to leave me unfulfilled at the end. I recall thinking "this movie has no idea where it is going." I think I was right, after all, they can worry about that in the sequel...of the sequel.

So here this Hollywood: Not all films are "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Ring"s. Not all movies are sequel worthy, let alone trilogy worthy! Everything comes in threes now, even though it shouldn't. Let the trilogy be a novelty. And if you want to build a franchise, make them self contained. Because I don't want to sit through another 2.5 hours of exposition again before seeing the "stunning conclusion." Especially if the stunning conclusion, well, sucks.