Can Batman escape the "Third Act Curse"?

[TLH]

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

[bullets]

Originally Posted by TLH

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

I don't understand the incessant need to compare the two. I'm glad both franchises did well. The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying conclusion and easily broke the third act curse. Unfortunately the trilogy is plagued with real life tragedies.

[henzINNIT]

TDKR didn't escape the second sequel curse for me, much to my surprise and disappointment. It was of higher quality than most 3rd outings but still had the same basic problems; bloated story, too many characters, weak villain motivation and ultimately a pretty underwhelming climax.

[TLH]

Originally Posted by bullets

I don't understand the incessant need to compare the two. I'm glad both franchises did well. The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying conclusion and easily broke the third act curse. Unfortunately the trilogy is plagued with real life tragedies.

Oh absolutely. I wasn't planning on comparing them, but found it strange when I came in this thread and saw it happening. Couldn't help but comment.

Originally Posted by henzINNIT

TDKR didn't escape the second sequel curse for me, much to my surprise and disappointment. It was of higher quality than most 3rd outings but still had the same basic problems; bloated story, too many characters, weak villain motivation and ultimately a pretty underwhelming climax.

Glad I don't share this minority opinion. It wasn't flawless (needed to be a touch longer to develop a few minor plot points) but other than that, I loved it. Excellent final film and satisfying conclusion, just shy of TDK.

[Anno_Domini]

Originally Posted by TLH

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

The last sentence particularly

Originally Posted by henzINNIT

TDKR didn't escape the second sequel curse for me, much to my surprise and disappointment. It was of higher quality than most 3rd outings but still had the same basic problems; bloated story, too many characters, weak villain motivation and ultimately a pretty underwhelming climax.

Didn't The Dark Knight have more characters?

[DoomsdayApex]

My point being, The Avengers didn't come close to overshadowing TDKR (as Chris Wallace's post insisted). The villain [Bane] was ingrained into pop-culture by political pundits, activists and comedians with the hysterical comparisons of Romney's Bain Capital to Bane -- on an Election Year. Then, of course, we have the iconic role in Catwoman where the actress' portrayal is being raved about in virtually every critical [positive and negative] review.

Sadly, TDKR will be not be eclipsed by any film this year (most notably) thanks to that lunatic who shot up a theater and killed 14 innocent people and wounded 70 others.

[henzINNIT]

Originally Posted by Anno_Domini

Didn't The Dark Knight have more characters?

Not really. The only important new characters were the Joker and Dent, who were both used well.

With this, you have Blake, Catwoman, Bane & Talia all competing for some spotlight with varying degrees of success. Hathaway was great and felt well implemented. Not so much with the others, and I thought Cottilard's role was particularly half-baked and a dull performance.

[Anno_Domini]

But then you had Maroni, the Chechen, Mr. Reese, Ramirez, Wuertz, Stephens, Lau, even Gambol if you want to count him. I feel that TDK had more even if more minor characters. Still more characters.

Although I do agree that there should've been more to do with Tate; Blake, Bane and Selina were given quite enough for the audience to appreciate them.

[The Joker]

Originally Posted by Anno_Domini

But then you had Maroni, the Chechen, Mr. Reese, Ramirez, Wuertz, Stephens, Lau, even Gambol if you want to count him. I feel that TDK had more even if more minor characters. Still more characters.

Every one of them were more interesting than Foley.

[Anno_Domini]

Originally Posted by The Joker

Every one of them were more interesting than Foley.

Which is probably why I clapped my hands when Foley was laying on the concrete floor, lol.

Seriously, I don't know why the character was even created in the first place since there wasn't a Deputy Commissioner walking around trying to still Loeb's position in BB/TDK.

[Baneis8feettall]

I'm glad movie escaped the "Third Act Curse" but i was expecting it, so surprise.

[FlawlessVictory]

Originally Posted by TLH

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

Agreed. The Avengers is fantastic but lets see where the quality of The Avengers franchise is when it reaches its third film. And the fact that it takes an all-star lineup of superheroes to compare to this Batman franchise speaks volumes to the quality and success of this franchise.

And it becomes tricky now with The Avengers franchise because its doubtful you will be able to just sit and watch The Avengers 1-3 and have it be completely cohesive. Other Marvel single franchise films will occur in between The Avengers films filling in the story in some way. So it won't be a trilogy in its truest sense. Same goes with Iron Man 3 but I felt that franchise already had a slight misstep in quality with Iron Man 2 (still a good film though).

This Batman franchise is without question one of the greatest trilogies ever made in cinema.

[BlackFox]

Not only did it escape the curse, it crushed it beneath its bat boot.

One of the best trilogies made period, of any genre not just comic books so yeah it did well.

[Alex Logan]

Originally Posted by TLH

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

This.

[KalMart]

It didn't escape it completely, but it did fight through it quite better than most. Interestingly, some of the things that were kind of designed to not suffered a third film curse actually hurt it a bit.

But for all intents and purposes, it was one of very few third/last installments that weren't embarrassingly bad, and that's quite an achievement.

[BlackFox]

Originally Posted by TLH

As of right now, Batman has the best superhero trilogy in existence, and one of the best cinematic trilogies of all-time, to his name. Anyone who would dispute this has a long, difficult fight ahead of them.

The Avengers franchise, however, still has to deliver two more movies with no real missteps to even enter the talk with Batman. And that's an EXTREMELY difficult task it has ahead of itself.

So yeah, Avengers wins the box office battle with a 3D boost and no tragedy. And you know what, it probably would have won anyway (I'm not going to fool myself), but people need to stop making it out like it's some huge victory.

In the end, the quality of the movies is what endures and what people remember. TDK Trilogy is destined to be a classic. Can't say the same for The Avengers... yet.

"Maybe It’s Time We Stopped Trying to Outsmart the Truth, and Let It Have Its Day"

[Alex Logan]

Originally Posted by KalMart

It didn't escape it completely.

Yes... it did.

[Jick]

Completely.

[FlawlessVictory]

Originally Posted by KalMart

It didn't escape it completely

A third movie in a trilogy that has an 87% critical rating (average 8/10) and a 92% audience rating (average 4.5/5) in Rotten Tomatoes, is currently in the top 25 of IMDb Top 250 movies of all time with a rating of 8.9 and will have grossed at least a billion WW at the end of its theatrical run.

It has escaped it. Completely.

What else could you realistically expect?

[Alex Logan]

Originally Posted by FlawlessVictory

A third movie in a trilogy that has an 87% critical rating (average 8/10) and a 92% audience rating (average 4.5/5) in Rotten Tomatoes, is currently in the top 25 of IMDb Top 250 movies of all time with a rating of 8.9 and will have grossed at least a billion WW at the end of its theatrical run.

It has escaped it. Completely.

What else could you realistically expect?

The second coming... and people like that set themselves up for disappointment.

[Micromind]

I think some people wanted it to earn more than what previous movie earned domestically.

As the overseas collections for TDKR is more than that of TDK, some wanted the same thing for the domestic collections, but there are several reasons why that did not happen.

[Alex Logan]

Originally Posted by Bruce_Begins

I think some people wanted it to earn more than what previous movie earned domestically.

That's only one reason why people are saying it's not good.

Originally Posted by Bruce_Begins

As the overseas collections for TDKR is more than that of TDK, some wanted the same thing for the domestic collections, but there are several reasons why that did not happen.

What do you think those reasons are? I have my own ideas, but I would like to hear another take on it.

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by FlawlessVictory

A third movie in a trilogy that has an 87% critical rating (average 8/10) and a 92% audience rating (average 4.5/5) in Rotten Tomatoes, is currently in the top 25 of IMDb Top 250 movies of all time with a rating of 8.9 and will have grossed at least a billion WW at the end of its theatrical run.

It has escaped it. Completely.

What else could you realistically expect?

As I said, it comes down to more than just money and ratings, as it also clearly has some issues that are both inherent to its story and delivery, and part of the unfortunate baggage that comes with making a third movie of anything. And it is, to me and many, the weakest of the three movies although not by much. But more aptly, it's not really a 'curse' that makes third movies so much more susceptible to disappointing as if some stroke of bad luck. But for all intents and purposes comparing it to the awful efforts we've come to expect in third movies, it's rare in being very successful in still being very good, and overcoming a lot more of those pitfalls than most.

[BatLobsterRises]

Nah, it definitely escaped the curse. It did what all third movies in these kinds of series should be striving for, but rarely reach...

It was darker, bleaker and raised the stakes to an unprecedented level. It took the series yet again into different genres. Yet, it concluded the hero's journey on a hopeful note, and gave a great resolution to all the characters and themes that were explored over the three films.

It's everything a third film should be. It didn't escape the curse in that it was a clearcut better film than the last two, because people are always going to have opinions about which was the best of the 3 (another sign of a great trilogy)...it escaped the obvious creative exhaustion and inability to raise the stakes from the second movie in an effective way that a lot of third movies suffer from. If anything, TDKR is almost too robust and too ripe with thematic and story ideas to contain everything in one film, but that's still a victory over the factors that have always contributed to "the curse". And the film still essentially pulled it off IMO.

[KalMart]

Put it this way, it did incredibly well in being less affected by it than most.