5 Near-Perfect Movie Triologies That Will Stand the Test of Time

What’s better than a really good movie? What about three really good movies?

Watch With Us loves a good trilogy. The tricks and events Indiana Jones, fantasy perfection Lord of the Rings, or the terrible slapstick charms of Evil is dead triple

Additionally, a trilogy allows for deeper stories and the ability to see growth over time between characters, themes and the director’s own filmmaking style.

Today, we’ve put together our picks for five movie trilogies that are not only timeless, but downright perfect.

‘Lord of the Rings’ (2001-2003)

Peter Jacksonand lord of the rings trilogy includes the three books from JRR Tolkien’s original series of novels: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King. The fantasy saga tells of the quest of the hobbits Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin). Meanwhile, their friends are on their own journeys elsewhere, like the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), human Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and the wizard Gandalf (John McColl) battle against Orcs and other evil creatures that threaten the human world.

lord of the rings trilogy is a beloved fantasy trilogy that succeeds both as an entertaining piece of mainstream filmmaking but also as a very faithful adaptation of the source material, an exercise in meticulous and detailed craft and top-to-bottom acting excellence from the entire cast. The film was so popular that each installment received several worthy Oscar nominations, with Return of the King receiving an award for Best Picture and becoming the first fantasy film to do so. Although Hollywood has tried to recapture the success through misunderstanding The Hobbit adaptation and a forgotten Amazon Prime series, nothing compares to the magic of the original films.

‘The Evil Dead Trilogy’ (1981-1992)

In the first Kill evil movie, a group of college kids travel to a cabin in the woods where they accidentally unleash a malignant force called “Deadites” who want nothing more than to make their victims drag each other to death. First Kill evil the film was a huge budget success, and five years later the director Sam Raimi they basically decided to make it over the first movie as more of a splatstick horror comedy on purpose in a one man show with Bruce Campbelland Ash Williams from the first film. Campbell’s performance cemented him as a formidable icon, and a story about Evil Dead II continues to far funnier and more absurd heights in the direct sequel and final installment, army of darkness, in which Ash accidentally travels back in time and must defeat the Deadites in the middle ages.

Evil is dead trilogy is perhaps the most iconic horror trilogy, a perfect blend of terrifying, gripping energy, inventive filmmaking techniques, stomach-churning practical SFX and a genuinely funny and inventive sense of humor. The success of the original trilogy spawned an entire franchise that now includes a remake, several spinoff films (with one on the way this year), a TV series and more. The films also prove that Campbell had the power and charisma to be a leading man in Hollywood, so the entire film industry should be punished for not being able to make one.

‘The Godfather Trilogy’ (1972-1990)

Okay, so not all movies are in The Father trilogy is very good – The Father Part III it is, indeed, unfairly infamous. But The Father and The godfather Part II so amazing (and both took home best picture wins at their respective Academy Awards ceremonies) that they more than make up for a lackluster final installment. The trilogy chronicles the exploits of the Corleone crime family, with the first film depicting the Michael Corleone film (Al Pacino) first reluctantly rises to the leadership of his mafia family, taking over from his ruthless father, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), while the second film charts the rise of Vito as a young man (played by Robert De Niro) is opposed to his son handling affairs in the present day. The Father Part III ending with Michael trying to justify his criminal enterprise.

Much more than just mindless gangster movies, The Father films are thoughtful studies of power, family, morality and the American Dream. They feature iconic, star-studded turns from a young Pacino and De Niro, both early in their careers, and a legendary late performance from Brando as Don Corleone – a performance that would go on to be recounted, staged and remembered into oblivion. The exquisite storytelling, sophisticated character studies, meticulous craftsmanship and confident filmmaking from Francis Ford Coppola cement The Father trilogy as a touchstone of American pop culture.

‘The Cornetto Trilogy’ (2004-2013)

Although it is not a continuous story, the Cornetto three flavors a trilogy consisting of three Edgar Wright movies linked by the stars, themes, genres, and a brief appearance of a Cornetto ice cream cone in each installment (hence the name). Shaun of the Dead follows Simon Pegg and Nick Frostand slacker best friend characters because they are forced to grow up and fight zombies. Hot fuzz sees the actors in the platonic enemies-to-lovers trope, as two mismatched cops (Pegg the slim, stubborn Nicholas Angel, Frost the jovial goofball Danny Butterman) who come up against an evil cult taking over the citizens of a small country town. The last movie, end of the world, Frost and Pegg play middle-aged men who deal, in different ways, with aging, while facing a deadly alien invasion.

The Croissant the trilogy ends up being a funny but surprisingly poignant study of adulthood, male friendship and responsibility, with a unifying line relating to time: the relentless journey, the struggle to keep up with it and the need to be able to grow alongside it. Through three different stories, three different lives and three different threats from horror films – zombies, cults, monsters – Wright and Pegg (who co-wrote the scripts of the three films together) manage a thematic arc that really affects and satisfies over their three films that only grows sharper and more emotionally mature with their characters.

‘The Before Trilogy’ (1995-2013)

Over nearly two decades, director Richard Linklater exploring the romance between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy), which meets first Before sunrise as young adults while on a train to Paris, Jesse an American student on a European vacation, Celine a French student on her way to visit some relatives. The two struggle to date and end up stopping for one night together in Vienna, wandering the streets, taking and falling in love, but ultimately going their separate ways the next morning. They decide to meet again sometime, and they enter Before sunset, set nine years after their first meeting in one evening in Paris. Despite being a married father, Jesse decides to miss his flight home to stay with Céline. And finally, Before midnight follows the couple, now married with middle-aged twin daughters, as they face real marital conflict and the imperfections of love.

Less about plot than about two actors with irresistible chemistry communicating with each other, the Before trilogy is very small, but they are not small movies. Each film explores the changing nature of love across three periods of a real-time couple’s life, spanning nearly two decades. Hawke and Delpy’s natural performances immerse you in the world and into the lives and dynamics of their characters so beautifully you’d think they really loved twenty years of history. All three films do an excellent job of moving from idealistic romance to true, long-term love that is less beautiful and intimate in its many flaws.