Crafting a sequel that lives up to the expectations of the original movie is no easy task, but it seems as though creating a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy is downright impossible. Good threequel movies are hard to come by, with far too many franchises ending on a disappointing note as they go out with a whimper.

The fact is that while many great cinematic trilogies have the second film reign supreme above the others, the third is often easily the worst. Whether due to difficulty with filming impacting the story or simply not having a compelling resolution to a long-bubbling conflict, some third films are simply too disappointing to bear.

10

Spider-Man 3

Hilarious For All The Wrong Reasons

While the first two movies of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy are genuinely groundbreaking comic book fare, especially Spider-Man 2, the third film fumbles the conclusion to an iconic series in a spectacular manner. Here, Peter Parker has to contend with Harry Osborn as the New Goblin, Sandman, and the symbiote that goes on to become Venom.

The overstuffed narrative teeming with villains was too impossible a balancing act for even Sam Raimi to manage, resulting in a bloated mess of an ending. It doesn’t help that Raimi’s lovably corny charm goes a step too far here, resulting in unintentionally hilarious scenes like Peter’s infamous dance moves or Harry’s amnesia-causing fall.

9

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor

An Unnecessary Coda To A Great Duology

Brendan Fraisier’s The Mummy series is a wonderful action-adventure franchise that deserves more credit, inspiring one of the best theme park rides based on a movie ever and catapulting a great actor’s career into the spotlight. Yet after the first two great movies, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor comes along to ruin the fun.

Realizing that other cultures used mummies besides Ancient Egypt, the change in setting isn’t the main problem of this film. Rather, it’s the terribly-aged CGI, lackluster new characters, and vacuum of charisma that made the first two movies great that renders this follow-up a totally unnecessary addendum to an already completed arc.

8

Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines

Began The Series’ Decline Into Madness

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is such an impossibly perfect action movie that following it up was a task doomed to fail, as proven by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Here, yet another new cybernetic killer comes along to face John and Sarah Connor, with both the strengths of the T-800 and T-1000 models.

After the previous film’s perfect bow-tied ending, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines really had no reason to exist. It represented the beginning of a series of increasingly terrible sequels that sullied the messy Terminator timeline into what it is today, without even the decency to feature action good enough to warrant a viewing.

7

X-Men: The Last Stand

Failed To Adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga

The early Fox X-Men films don’t get enough credit for pioneering the idea of the superhero team-up movie, and it’s largely because of X-Men: The Last Stand. Here, a “cure” for mutantkind threatens to render Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters extinct at the same time as the Dark Phoenix and the Brotherhood of Mutants mobilize for war.

X-Men: The Last Stand is a similarly bloated superhero film to Spider-Man 3, failing the task of adapting the famed Dark Phoenix arc from the comics into live-action with a pitiful version of Jean Grey’s alter ego. After cringeworthy moments like the Juggernaut’s meme-worthy introduction, it’s amazing the franchise was allowed to continue at all.

6

The Matrix Revolutions

Provided A Confusing Ending To An Esoteric Plot

Whereas the original The Matrix is a science fiction classic and the sequel is a less cerebral, but still entertaining action popcorn flick, The Matrix Revolutions has few redeeming qualities. Neo and the rebellion’s final battle against the machines seeks to finally disrupt the cyclical nature of their war, leading to some confusing implications.

Rather than going the route everyone expected, the idea of a Matrix-within-a-Matrix, Neo’s ability to use his powers in reality is attributed to a far more vague and symbolic purpose. The sludgy gray “real world” the film spends more time in than any other Matrix movie isn’t a captivating enough sight to justify this eye-rollingly pretentious conclusion.

5

The Dark Knight Rises

Fell Far Short Of Impossible Expectations

The tragic early pᴀssing of the legendary actor Heath Ledger ensured that almost nothing the third Nolan Batman movie could do had a chance of matching The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight Rises pivots hard back to Batman Begins, bringing forces of Bruce Wayne’s past with the League of Shadows to bear against a newly-saved Gotham.

The Dark Knight Rises is easily one of Christopher Nolan’s worst films, if not his outright worst, with hammy dialogue strained through goofy voices and a pitiful motivation for its comparatively disappointing villains. It’s not a terrible film, but its characterization of Batman and his rogues gallery falls far short of expectations.

4

Robocop 3

So Bad, Most Don’t Even Realize It Exists

The Robocop movies include a final entry in a trilogy so bad most fans of the original don’t even realize it exists, rightfully giving up after the already mediocre Robocop 2. In Robocop 3, the legendary Peter Weller is replaced as cyborg crimefighter Alex Murphy with John Burke, who can’t sell the stiff, awkward movements of the restrictive suit nearly as well.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Robocop himself hardly appears in the film till the third act, wherein a downsized budget is made painfully obvious by laughably bad special effects. Robocop 3 isn’t just bad, but it should have never been made in the first place.

3

Blade Trinity

Allows Its Infamous Production Woes To Shine Through

Blade is a bizarre hybrid masterpiece of martial arts, horror, and comic books, and Blade II is at least an accessible guilty pleasure for most fans. However, there’s no excusing Blade Trinity, which represented a failed attempt at a larger ensemble cast that didn’t deserve to carry on the franchise’s name.

Here, the daywalker is joined by a forgettable group of vampire-hunting buddies, including a particularly annoying prototype ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool character played by Ryan Reynolds. The movie’s infamously difficult production thanks to Wesley Snipes’ diva status is also painfully obvious, especially the infamous scene in which his eyes had to be CGI’d open.

2

The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies

Displayed Everything Wrong With The Hobbit Trilogy

While Peter Jackson’s Tolkien movies have reached a legendary status, the idea to split The Hobbit into three films was a disastrous one from the start. The conclusion to this ill-made trilogy emphasizes all the reasons why in the most atrocious manner possible, making for a slog of an ending that satisfied no one.

The lack of source material to cover for the necessary time means that Jackson had to fabricate pages and pages of on-screen action out of thin air, not to mention totally new invented sub-plots. The resulting haze of CGI creatures smashing into one another for hours on end is enough to hypnotically lull even the most die-hard Tolkien lovers into bored sleep.

1

The Rise of Skywalker

Desperate Backpedaling That Left A Mess Behind

Plenty of third movies might be bad, but none of them retroactively ruin a long-standing and beloved franchise like The Rise of Skywalker. After the divisive response of The Last Jedi, Disney’s Star Wars division used the last film in the mainline sequel trilogy to frantically retcon, producing a hollow and contrived appeal to nostalgia that wrecks the entire series’ story.

Nothing about the jarring and sudden plot developments of The Rise of Skywalker makes sense, from Palpatine’s return to Rey and Kylo Ren’s romance. The movie doesn’t just insult its predecessor, but retroactively cheapens the entire experience of the Star Wars movies up to that point.