5 Underrated Movie Trilogies That You Need To Binge-Watch (& 5 That Are Overrated)
Everyone loves a good movie trilogy, but, while there are plenty of quality ones, there's an equal amount of unsung cinematic triptychs.
While there are plenty of beloved movie trilogies out there, there are just as many that get forgotten about that are just as worthy of being in the conversation for the age-old debate, the best movie trilogy ever. On the other side of the coin, there are just as many movie trilogies that are gushed over by fans a little too much.
Whether it’s a superhero series where the director clearly felt fatigued by the third movie, an animated franchise that’s been getting away with telling the same story over and over, or an influential but largely unknown foreign crime series, the debate still rages on.
10 Underrated: The Mighty Ducks
On the face of it, The Mighty Ducks is just a bunch of Disney movies featuring a group of teenagers annoyingly chanting “quack,’ but there’s a lot more to the movies than that. The Mighty Ducks series is more worthy of being called a great trilogy than many others, as it sees the same 10-year-old characters in the first movie grow and learn life lessons all the way to becoming college students in the third movie. There’s no better on-screen duo than the Bash brothers, two of the characters we want to see make a return in the Disney+ series.
9 Overrated: Spider-Man
The Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy is completely and unabashedly fun, but the first two movies are held in such high regard, it's as if they aren’t all filled with the same campiness and cringeworthy jokes as Spider-Man 3.
The series had been guilty of such things ever since the first movie in 2002, as it was frothing with questionable one-liners and actions. When the Green Goblin first gases out Spider-Man, he literally says, “sleeeeep," and, as thrilling as the second movie is, every single performance is so hammy—just as much as the third movie.
8 Underrated: Infernal Affairs
With The Departed being one of the movies you didn’t know was a remake, the original movie doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves, as the people who have seen it even believe that it’s better than the Martin Scorsese classic.
However, Infernal Affairs isn’t just a standalone movie, as it has two sequels, with each movie being just as great as the last. The movies are like if Michael Mann made a bunch of crime movies in Hong Kong, and they were all as great as Heat.
7 Overrated: Toy Story
Toy Story is a great franchise, but all the whimsy and nostalgia of the movies has clouded many people’s judgment of the series. Most of the storylines in the movies are the same, and, though the dynamic within the group of toys differs from movie to movie, it doesn’t change the fact that Toy Story 2 and 3—and 4, for that matter—all feature an antagonist who is angry at the world after being abandoned by their human owners.
Even with the side characters in Toy Story 4, even though it’s not technically a part of the trilogy, Duke Caboom’s story arc is identical to Buzz Lightyear’s in the first movie, even though it is one of the animated sequels that’s better than the first movie,
6 Underrated: The Prequel Trilogy
As the Disney Star Wars movies are now disliked by even the actors who starred in them, and, after the string of movies released between 2015 and 2019 seemingly divided Star Wars fans into two separate camps, effectively starting somewhat of a civil war, the prequels are looking pretty good by comparison.
The movies are full of overly long scenes where characters go on diatribes about trade federations, but there’s still a lot to love in between, and there are loads of great uses of CGI that still holds up.
5 Overrated: Back To The Future
As classic of a movie as Back To The Future is, the sequels bank on the excitement and thrills of the movies more than positing any actually interesting ideas that a time-travel movie should have. The goofy character of Doc is used as a veil that hides any factual errors or genuine questions people have about his inventions.
This even dates back to the beloved first movie, as Doc turns up at the end of a film with a Delorean that can now somehow fly. However, there’s no denying that the series is full of classic moments, such as the hoverboards and the 3D Jaws, and the original is one of the most rewatchable movies of the 1980s.
4 Underrated: The Matrix
Every cinephile is in agreement The Matrix is one of the greatest movies of all time, as it defied what a sci-fi movie could be in terms of narrative, and, at the same time, it completely revolutionized CGI.
The sequels may not be quite as great as the first movie, but they still pose just as deep, unanswerable questions as the original, and the effects continue to be just as jaw-dropping, which is why The Matrix 4 is one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies of 2021. The movies may feature way too much exposition, but, after watching any Christopher Nolan movie, most of the exposition here feels as if it could be boiled down to simple one-liners.
3 Overrated: The Original Star Wars Trilogy
It seems blasphemous to criticize the original trilogy, even when it’s guilty of doing the same things fans criticize the other movies for, and it’s arguable that, of the original trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back is the only truly great film. A New Hope spends way too much time aimlessly following Luke and Obi-Wan through the desert, and Return of the Jedi marked the point when the series started to care more about toy sales than movie-making.
2 Underrated: The Jersey Trilogy
As the recurring characters that appear throughout these movies that make it a “trilogy” also appear in several other of Kevin Smith’s movies, there are some real liberties taken with the term, especially as the movies have completely different protagonists and are, for the most part, standalone films.
However, the first three movies directed by Kevin Smith perfectly showcase the director at the top of his game, capturing the kind of humor that would make the likes of Seth Rogen and his gang famous. It also shows the incredible progress of climbing up the movie-making ladder. The first movie, Clerks, is black and white and was made for less than $30,000. The follow-up, Mallrats, had a cameo from Stan Lee, and the final movie, Chasing Amy, featured as close to an all-star cast as a Kevin Smith movie can get.
1 Overrated: The Dark Knight Trilogy
There are loads of great moments in the series, and the trilogy is a great set of three well-crafted movies, but the reputation that The Dark Knight has is all thanks to the Joker.
The whole plot of The Dark Knight doesn’t make any sense, and it started an annoying screenwriting trend in which villains would intentionally get themselves caught by the hero just to escape again. Following that, The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most polarizing superhero movies ever made, and there were a whole string of loose ends that weren’t tied up.