Hello, Outposters! After watching the trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, it got me thinking about trilogies. A trilogy is the holy grail for franchises and some pull it off. Mostly, though, due to studio greed and short-sightedness, they can’t stick to their original plan and they frequently add nothing of value, ruining a chance at perfection.
Think of a trilogy as a series of events in life. First, you meet a beautiful woman. Second, you go out for drinks and have a blast. Third, she invites you back to her place and before you know it, she’s riding you like a cowgirl on the stallion you are.
I might be overthinking this.
However, you couldn’t stop at the trilogy. Oh no, you had to go for one more victory, didn’t you? You reach down and pop your finger into her rusty sheriff’s badge and boom – night over. She goes ballistic and kicks you out. You just couldn’t help yourself, you had the perfect trilogy but you just had to push your luck and now you’ve ruined everything. Well, that’s what some trilogies are like and it doesn’t take a genius to know what franchises I’m talking about.
So with that in mind, I am willing to overlook these sordid indiscretions and exclude them and concentrate on the original trilogy vision. So when you come across a trilogy in this list and say “Wait a damn minute Eggy, there were actually nine movies for that franchise, you can’t exclude the others!”. Yeah, well watch me!
As per usual, these are my personal favorites, I expect backlash for at least one of these, so once you have been through the list, let me have your own top trilogies in the comments at the end.
10. Toy Story
Let’s start with a family-friendly set of movies that not only changed the entire genre of animation but continued to be a family favorite an astonishing 28 years after the original. These movies are funny, and magical and pull on the old heartstrings too. You could say these are perfect movies that appeal to all ages and multiple generations.
9. Lord Of The Rings
Oh boy, here goes. LOTR is at number 9, WTF?! ARRRGGGHH!!! Yeah, I don’t care for The Lord Of The Rings. I find them boring. However, before you froth at the mouth and head to the comments section to call me a c**t, just let me have my say. These movies are technically brilliant and have everything (most) movie fans want from a franchise. Worthy of a Top 10 place, and no doubt a majority of you would easily put them in your Top 3.
They are grand in scope and visually stunning with a score of epic proportions. J. R. R. Tolkien has created a legacy that warrants to admiration it receives and these movies do not let him or the fans down. But for me, watching midgets on horses riding across landscapes and talking about breakfast for 15 hours, intermixed with the same kind of battles and armies fighting over and over again just doesn’t float my boat. Sorry, not sorry.
8. Jason Bourne
Back in 2002, I don’t think anyone saw The Bourne Identity coming, let alone progressing to be an awesome trilogy. Slick and stylish but grounded, the first Bourne was a breath of fresh air from your typical spy/action movies. The American Bond did away with the one-liners, and suave sophistication of Fleming’s secret agent, and stripped him down to a no-nonsense, efficient killing machine. In fact, I would say if it wasn’t for Jason Bourne, we wouldn’t have got Daniel Craig’s James Bond era. The Bourne trilogy is often overlooked and underappreciated.
7. The Planet Of The Apes
The trilogy that started my big noggin’ thinking about trilogies. When news of a new Planet Of The Apes first came out, it was met with indifference. The original movies peaked and then nose-dived pretty quickly with only the first one really standing up today. Then we had Burton’s reimagining which thinking about it, wasn’t as terrible as everything thinks, but it’s still not great.
When Rise debuted, it was unexpectedly excellent. Clever, well thought out and it really is a lesson on how to make a prequel that actually works. Dawn expanded on it in one of the rare occasions where the sequel surpassed the original. War was met with a little less enthusiasm by some, but I think it’s a masterful movie and a fantastic conclusion to this trilogy. Can Kingdom break the mold and give us a fourth of equal footing? We shall see.
6. Indiana Jones
Yeah, I know, another WTF. Raiders and Crusade are two of my very favorite movies ever! I just find Temple virtually unwatchable these days. There, I said it. I find Kate Capshaw so unbelievably annoying that every scene she is in and her hammy, over-the-top performance is teeth-grinding. Thankfully she never returned and Crusade is absolute cinema with arguably the greatest ending to a trilogy ever… or so we thought.
5. Star Trek
Now before you start, I reached out to the Outposters on our Discord channel to ask if Star Trek 2, 3, and 4 could be considered a trilogy as they are one constant story arc. Obviously, the answer was yes. These three movies are Star Trek at its finest and how some of you will feel about LOTR is how I feel about this franchise. Well, until Kurtzman got his grubby little hands on it and “put a chick in it and made them ALL gay”.
These three movies have it all, sci-fi, action, revenge, time travel, Doc Brown, and of course, two particular deaths, Spock and Kirk’s son that tug on this Alpha’s heartstrings. They have it all and I can’t get enough of them.
4. The Godfather
Yes, I know The Godfather Part 3 is criticized and not near the level of excellence as parts 1 and 2, but it’s still a damn fine movie. Copolla created the two greatest movies ever made, and for him to catch lightning in a bottle for a third time is only something God could have accomplished.
3. The Dark Knight
Before superhero movies become cape-shit cartoons full of woke nonsense and infantile humor, Christopher Nolan gave us a trilogy where a billionaire dressing up as a bat to fight criminals actually seemed possible.
Nolan treated the characters and source material with the utmost respect and cleverly aimed this trilogy at adults who had grown up reading the comics. Literally the polar opposite of Marvel movies which are for children. Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy really is the gold standard that no one had come remotely close to equalling.
2. Back To The Future
I don’t need to say anything more about these movies. All three are absolute perfection that haven’t aged a day.
1. Star Wars
It had to be, didn’t it? Star Wars is quite possibly the reason we are all here at Last Movie Outpost. A trilogy of movies that blew our minds and continue to do so. Genre-defining, groundbreaking, epic, mesmerizing, and unlike anything the world had seen before. The cultural impact of these movies is the most significant in all of movie history. I will not tarnish this trilogy by even mentioning anything after it… IT ENDED ON ENDOR!
So there you have it Outposters. I know there are quite a few trilogies I have left off, but as I said, these are my personal favorites. One caveat is that I was tempted to leave Lord Of The Rings off and slip in Snyder’s trilogy of Man Of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. But even a Snyder Bro like myself knew that leaving LOTR out of this list would have been obscene. Instead, the Snyderverse gets an honorable mention.
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