Spiderman 3, Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 have come out in the past month, with lots of hype and big budgets, but I haven't seen any of them, mainly because they reviewed so poorly, among my friends and the papers. I would think that these movies would have done worse among reviewers if not for the hype and ad campaigns and big budgets. Don't waste your money; go see Hot Fuzz instead. The third film of a trilogy remains really hard for Hollywood to get right. They are riding high on the success of the first two, and maybe bring in a new writer or new director, a larger budget, and don't want it to go to waste, so they pack it with special effects and forget that good storytelling attracted people to the first two movies, not over-the-top effects. For my money, the original Star Wars trilogy and the Lord of the Rings share the title of best three-movie trilogy ever made. Even The Godfather 3 wasn't that good. While a book isn't subject to board meetings, producers and budgets, I am not hopeful for Harry Potter 7.

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