Haven't done one of these in a while. My sister Katie asked me why I'm just doing these three movies in comparison, when there are so many other movies that could warrant the "Pop culture debate" treatment. I'm mainly just doing these three sagas, because they are the best mythological movies ever made. And the reason why I'm focusing on these movies now, in a series, is because of the upcoming finale of the SW saga. So I thought it'd be fun to do a countdown of sorts until the big day. Seeing who has a bigger Messianic complex between Sting and Bono, and comparing Jaws to Jurassic Park will have to come after that magnificent third movie comes out.

So with that....

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Which trilogy has the best "Second Movie"?

"The Matrix Reloaded" from The Matrix Trilogy

"Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" from the Original Star Wars movies

"The Two Towers" from The Lord of the Rings

"Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones" from the new Star Wars movies

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Second movies are all about upping the ante. You take the characters that you fell in love with in the first movie, and you give them harder tests and put them in more perilous danger. Second movies are supposed to take the black and white issues and characters of the first movie, and repaint them in shades of grey. And if the second movie is ultimately effective, you make the good side's ultimate victory seem as far away as ever.

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Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

The new movies are tricky, because they're not as black and white as the old movies were. Part of that is in how it's written, but part of that is because we know all along that the Jedi are going to get wiped out, that Padme is probably going to die a horrible death, that Yoda and Obi Wan are all that are left, and that this cute little tyke is going to become the ultimate villain.

The new movies don't really follow the conventional path of a trilogy. This is mainly because the third movie here, is supposed to act as both a third and final movie of a trilogy, but also as the middle story of a much larger story line. So with the third movie being as pivotal as it is, with not much of an ending, but more continuation, the second movie of this trilogy takes many of the rules and lessens the impact of them a bit. Because here, the third movie is going to be the movie that places the heroes in the greatest peril and the movie that makes eventual victory seem as far off as possible.

Much like the new movies, "Attack of the Clones" is about grey area. More than any of the rules above, "Attack of the Clones" do really well in painting shades of grey over nearly everyone involved. Anakin was a cute pod-racing kid, but now he's a hot shot Jedi, short on patience and full of "fear." Yoda is a teacher of not using the force for attack, yet does so in his fight with Dooku. Palpatine is the Chancellor, but Yoda begins to suspect that there is more to him than meets the eye. Padme was a Queen who bravely helped free her people, yet finds herself on the losing side of an argument of finding a way to keep the Republic peace, without resorting to violence. The only one who really gets off scot free is Obi Wan.

Much of the other rules get thrown out the window though. Are they in more danger at the end of Ep. II than they were at the beginning of the movie? Yes, but we don't know in how much danger until Episode III. Does victory seem far from attainable? Yes, but we don't know just how deep they are until Episode III. I'm placing a wager that Ep. III makes both Ep. I and Ep. II better movies.

Episode II also saw the birth of the Empire, which as we know, doesn't get fully done away with until 4 movies later. That's significant.

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The Two Towers

"The Two Towers" follows many of the second movie rules, but somewhat lacks in other areas. When Tolkien wrote "The Lord of the Rings," he never wanted each part to be taken in and of themselves. He wanted all three to just be one big story. Peter Jackson did what he could to make them three separate stories.

I'd say that the only characters who really get "the grey treatment" are Sam, Gollum, and Frodo. Whereas they were the happy go lucky hobbits from the first movie, Sam and Frodo find themselves knee deep in a quest that they don't quite know they can pull off. Gollum was your basic bad guy in "Fellowship," but he gets a great expository backstory to show that he's more than just an evil spirit. But the rest of the Fellowship doesn't really get much in the way of more character development. It's more of the same, which isn't bad.

What made "The Two Towers" great for me was perhaps the greatest display of alliance building and war preparation that I've seen in a movie. The orcs and the orukhai were establishing their ranks, at the same time as a shaky alliance between elves and humans was made anew. And it ended with perhaps the greatest battle of the three movies. As great as the battles in "Return of the King" were, I really dug the Alamo-esque doomsday approach to the battle for Helms Deep.

They did put the characters in more danger, but we really don't have a sense of how much danger they're in. We know that Frodo and Sam must prove victorious, but we don't really quite know just how much danger they face. We know that their is a big spider involved, but in the grand scheme of what they have to face, that seems almost like small potatoes.

The movie ends in a cliff hanger, but it's not enough of a finale cliffhanger for me to desperately long for the next movie. I longed for "Return of the King," but that was mainly because I had grown accostomed to greatness, and was wanting to see if PJ could pull off a three peat. But as far as cliff hangers go, the end of "The Two Towers" was a bit lacking. It was more of a "wha, it's over," and less of a "Oh...this can NOT be over because I have to see how this story ends" type of thing.

But the movie was trully great in nearly every conceivable way. I got more of an excited response after seeing "The Two Towers" than I had with the either two movies. Where it lacks in following the second story rules, it makes up with just being a fantastic movie.

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The Matrix Reloaded

ummmm....

next

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The Empire Strikes Back

"The Empire Strikes Back" is, and will probably always be, the gold standard for what a second movie should be. The rules I have set up, are the rules that I took from this movie because they worked so well.

I love how "TESB" basically just existed as if the first movie never existed at all. It was like, "Oh, you remember the good feeling you had at the end of Ep. IV? Well, let's beat that to a bloody pulp over the snow on Hoth." and "You thought Vader was just a bad guy? You haven't seen anything yet."

Does the movie put people in more danger than the first movie? Yes. I don't need to elaborate. If you've seen the movie, you know. It's basically the Luke, Leia, Han, and crew getting their butts kicked from one end of the galaxy to the next.

Does the movie end with a Rebel victory far from sight? Um, let's put it this way. Luke's hand is chopped off, Leia, Luke, Chewie, and Lando barely make it out alive and are seeking refuge in the darkness of space, and Han is frozen in carbonite.

What "The Empire Strikes Back" has over the other movies is a feeling of intimacy. It's less about the Rebels and the Empire (although there is some really good stuff in this movie about them), and more about friends and family escaping "the bad guy." And as we find out in this movie, the bad guy is just a dysfunctional member of the family after all.

This movie is great if for nothing else than the great interaction scenes between Yoda and Luke. It's those scenes that help place Star Wars amongst the great mythological stories told through the years.

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Okay, fine...The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded has really grown on me. Although I'm not a big fan of the direction the story took, I can't say that Reloaded is a bad movie. Well, not all of it anyway.

Neo might as well have been wearing a grey jacket because he was given so much grey area, it was almost too much. Whereas he was the untouchable chosen one in the first movie, he ends up being told that he isn't the first "anomally" to come around these parts. That wasn't so bad a change really, but I was kind of upset that they had done such a good job in the first movie of establishing him as THE one. What I don't like is that I had totally bought the story put forth in the first movie, and it feels like they disregarded that story a bit.

I know, I know, we find out that he IS the one, but by the time that we do, it's too little too late for me.

I don't like how Morpheus turned from Master Yoda to door to door Mormon salesman. He was such a great character and teacher in the first movie, that I was kind of upset to see him turned into a wide-eyed religious fanatic.

Trinity pretty much stayed the same, but I prefer the butt kicking Trinity to the 12 year old diary writer that she became as she died in Neo's arms.

But overall, the movie is pretty good. There are some really great moment. My problem with the Matrix movies is that after establishing a fan-friggin-tastic first movie, they seemed to flush it all down the toilet. And then, no matter how good the movie is, I really didn't care all that much.

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my rankings

The Empire Strikes Back - for it's intimacy for establishing the gold standard by which all second movies would be judged

The Two Towers - Remember the Alamo! For breaking some of the rules of a second movie, while continuing the story in interesting ways.

Attack of the Clones - For establishing the origins of the climatic events of Episode III.

Matrix Reloaded - Good movie. Interesting movie. Not the movie I wanted to follow the first movie.

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matt out