Trilogies: Planned ahead or play by ear?

[KenK]

That was artistic license. Like the Coens' claiming that Fargo was based on a true story.

Nobody knew that BTTF would be as successful as it was at the time, especially starring a tv actor. They thought they simply had a fun, time travel story on their hands.

True story. Remember, Fox was splitting his time between filming the original BTTF and Family Ties. It was pretty exhausting for him. The "To Be Continued. . . " was meant as a joke, as the movie was ending with Marty, Doc, and Elizabeth going into the future. Lots of movies have done the whole "just got back from another adventure, but it looks like we've gotta go on another," style of ending.

 

[KenK]

The problem with Blade Trinity is Goyer threw in all the ideas he had for the first two movies into the third. I remember seeing watching the specials features for the first Blade and them talking about the idea of storing humans in suspended animation, but thought it wouldn't work. Sure enough Goyer finally gets to put it in the film he's directing.

I think the only idea he brought over from his intentions for the first two films was the bloodfarming (Funny, now we've got Daybreakers coming out to address the logical concern of what happens when all the blood's gone!). It wasn't his ideas that were the problem, it's that his execution was poor. He actually dropped a lot of what made the first two films interesting. Instead of bringing back the Karen Jensen character (even if they had to recast), he introduces Sommerfield, and makes her blind for no damn reason. This is especially stupid when the Jensen character was established as someone who managed to cure herself of early-stage vampirism, and they have King's character being a cured vampire (arguably, he should have either just been a former familiar and/or someone who hadn't fully turned before being cured). Going back to the first film establishing that there were vampire hunters other than Blade and Whistler, Blade shouldn't be surprised by the Nightstalker's existence. As for the vampires themselves, there's no more emphasis on the "vampire nation". Just a bunch of people who ALWAYS LOOK LIKE VAMPIRES!!! That was the biggest thing that pissed me off! They always had fangs extended, and they were always pale!

 

[jmc]

I honestly don't get the obsession with trilogies. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with 2 films? Heck one film? Why is '3' this magical number? Perfect example is Terminator 2, there is no better ending to a series, and yet what do we get? Some suit in some Hollywood deciding we need another one.

 

[KenK]

I honestly don't get the obsession with trilogies. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with 2 films? Heck one film? Why is '3' this magical number? Perfect example is Terminator 2, there is no better ending to a series, and yet what do we get? Some suit in some Hollywood deciding we need another one.

I actually prefer Terminator 3's ending. Sorry, but I liked that they actually acknowledge that Judgment Day had to happen.

 

[E-Man]

I would prefer that they played it by ear. I think that you can leave room for sequels without going overboard. I think if you set things p for a sequel too much that it can hamper the current movie, and tie the sequel down with having to keep the same exact storyline going. That's not to say that planning trilogies ahead of time hasn't worked, it's just that the expectation of trilogies really is becoming too common. Not every movie needs a sequel, and not every franchise is trilogy worthy.