Mr. Zemeckis, I tip my hat to you. Where the Wachowskis failed, you delivered. You took a popular film that originally was designed as a standalone story, and added two more installments that continued the tale without diluting the quality. Sure, I'll be honest when I say that Back to the Future Parts II and III aren't as good as the original, but they're by no means terrible, and manage to build off what was established in the first film without lessening it. So many more themes, layers and character moments are added in Parts II and III that they make the trilogy's overarching story really work.
We get a wider scope of Hill Valley's history by exploring its origins in the Old West and its progress in 2015. We get a nice cautionary tale about how the power of time travel can be abused, while also explaining the concept of parallel universes without confusion. And what's more, we get a deeper relationship between Marty and Doc, wherein Marty learns to take charge of his own life and be humble while Doc realizes the risks of time travel and falls in love. A perfect standalone film was turned into an epic story through its trilogy expansion, and I think it's a perfect example of how to flesh out a universe originally made for one movie.
The Dark Knight Trilogy is the most recent example of a great film trilogy, and I'm so glad that it came now to prove not only that amazing film trilogies can be made, but that superheroes can be the subject of them. As I mentioned in Part I, Spider-Man and X-Men could have been great trilogies if they had just stuck with the story arcs they were planning to use. The Dark Knight works because of that. Chris Nolan may have made the plots of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight largely standalone from each other, but with The Dark Knight Rises he successfully wrapped up all the threads from the last two films and brought them to their logical conclusion, while paying tribute to some of the best Batman story arcs of the comics.
When Rises ends, the League of Shadows from Begins is destroyed, Harvey Dent's corruption is exposed, Batman becomes the symbol Gotham needs to truly heal, Robin inherits the Batman's legacy, and Bruce finally moves on with his life without the pain of Batman. Bruce grows as a character throughout the trilogy, and by Rises comes to peace with himself while also achieving his mission for Gotham: to make Batman a larger-than-life symbol that would inspire Gotham to do good. Unlike most superheroes, whose status as comic book characters means they keep fighting crime forever, Batman in this trilogy gets an actual ending; one that is emotionally satisfying and makes sense in the context of this universe. The Dark Knight is a trilogy like no other, and its focus on moral and philosophical themes, character development and symbolism set it apart from other superhero franchises.
I grew up with Toy Story, and thought the first two films were great when I was a kid, but I never thought Pixar would craft a series of children's films into one of the most poignant trilogies of recent memory. I literally cried when Toy Story 3 ended, because if you go back and watch all three movies in a row, you find that they slowly morph from a story about friendship to one about growing up, accepting change and coping with one's own mortality. 3 deals with this the most, but the seeds of this are actually planted in 2, and while 3 has a large time gap from the first two films, it works in its favor since it allows the film to address those issues from 2 head on.
This also allows the kids who grew up with the original films to gain a whole new perspective from the series, since they literally grew up along with the characters. Seeing Woody's love for Andy transform from a need to hang on to him to accepting he needs to let him go was beautiful and painful to watch, and making these plastic toys into fully realized characters who are just as afraid of dying as we are was relatable in ways I can't even begin to fully express. This is by far the best animated trilogy I've encountered, and the fact that 3 came almost ten years after 2 and nearly surpasses its predecessors is an achievement unto itself.
There is no denying The Lord of the Rings is a massive achievement. In terms of character and story, LOTR is nearly flawless. Frodo's journey across Middle-Earth to destroy the One Ring is the definition of epic, and his transition from innocent hobbit who rejects his destiny to a traumatized traveler whose addiction to the ring consumes him is pulled off brilliantly by Elijah Wood. Other characters, from Gandalf, Aragorn and Gollum to Sam, Merry and Pippin all grow throughout the trilogy as well, and by the time we get to Return of the King we get several endings that, while long, provide an enormous amount of closure that wraps up the story in heartfelt fashion.
The way Peter Jackson executes these characters and the overall story is glorious, and the three films taken together really are just one long film, even though the individual movies also have clearly defined climaxes. Some say LOTR shouldn't really be considered a trilogy because they were all filmed at once, but at the end of the day this story was served the best because it was split into three parts. The trilogy format works so well for a story of this magnitude, and it's clear that to many this is the One Trilogy To Rule Them All. Normally I would agree with that, but there's one trilogy I think actually succeeds it...
Let me get one thing strait: BTTF, TDK, LOTR, and Toy Story are all amazing stories that truly benefit from the trilogy format, but honestly I think the reason Hollywood is so obsessed with the format to begin with is because Star Wars perfected it. Yes, Return of the Jedi is clearly the weak link of the three, but it's not a terrible drop down in quality the way the prequels were and still effectively wraps up its story and character arcs in a satisfying way, Ewoks notwithstanding. From a story standpoint, we have Luke's maturation as a Jedi and his rejection of the Dark Side of the Force, Han and Leia's blossoming romance, Darth Vader/Anakin's redemption, and the victory of the Rebel Alliance over the Empire.
But on another level, the Star Wars trilogy kind of lays the groundwork for what a perfect trilogy should be. Part I: introduce your main character and the universe he inhabits, as well as the central threat. Part II: the threat becomes ever greater, the story darkens, and the heroes experience a major loss or defeat. Part III: the threat is defeated, often in epic fashion involving a large climax, and the hero's personal journey comes full circle. Yes, this is basically script writing 101, not to mention Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey archetype, but the fact that Lucas managed to take the basic storytelling formula and expand it into a three-part saga was huge. Episodes IV-VI are not just the original Star Wars trilogy; it's the original Hollywood trilogy, and no amount of prequels, sequels, special editions or spinoffs will dilute the magic that these films have as a standalone story.
We have now seen how Hollywood can take the trilogy model and use it for better and for worse. But this also begs the crucial question-if you feel a franchise is the best way to tell a story on film, does that franchise always need to have three parts? Next time we will examine franchises that decided, for whatever reason, that three parts weren't needed (or weren't enough) to tell their stories.
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