ETHAN BARNES ROTTEN FOURTH FILM THEOREM

So, as you’ve probably gathered from the title of this one, this isn’t one that started as my idea, in fact, when this idea was put to me I wasn’t even sure it was feasible, until I started looking at the numbers.

To be honest I don’t even know what was being dicussed, I think it was Harry Potter when Ethan commented that most fourth films in a sequence were rubbish.  Upon such a general statement I felt that I had to correct such a blanket prejudiced statement and correct his stance, but I couldn’t.  “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is arguably one of the better books in the series but the lousiest of all the films.  It splits Harry and Ron up, mutilates much of the original text horribly and the best thing about it is the ending.  

Then I thought of other fourth films made.

In Star Wars, the fourth film made is episode 1 and let us not beat around the bush, episode 1 is pants compared to the first three trilogy.  

Even though the third X-Men film was given a critical pasting it is fair to say that compared to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “X-Men III” is a shining beacon of a film that straddles art and blockbuster status effortlessly.

The fourth Bond film made was “Thunderball”, which again, falls into the category of tedious mess, rather than exciting adventure which can’t really hold a candle to the films either side of it, “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice”.

“Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” is one of the most tragic fourth films ever as the special effects budget ran out mid-way through the film leaving it looking like it was shot in a photo-booth.

“Rocky IV” may be commercially successful but I dare anyone to feel anything but cringy watching Rocky tell Gorbachev that people can change bearing in mind the man’s impact on political history.

And let’s not even look at the Batman films which have the rare distinction of having two shit number four films depending on if you count the Adam West “Batman: The Movie” as the first Batman movie (The fourth Batman movie in this case being “Batman Forever”) OR Tim Burton’s Batman as the first (The Fourth film in this case being the even worse “Batman and Robin”).

“Jaws 4: The Revenge” is of course an absolute shocker that nearly ruined Michael Caine’s career and one wonders if it was somebody else’s revenge on him for some crime he’d performed earlier in his career.

Countless horror films have hit problems when they hit 2 or 3 but by the time they hit 4 are virtually all but out of ideas.

The only fourth film I have known that is the exception that is “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”, which only survives this rule s it is the third part of the Kobyoshi Maru trilogy with the next film Star Trek V: the final frontier being the shit one.

So with that in mind why mention this now ...Well.

This year sees two fourth films this summer and they are big blockbusters.  “The Hobbit” and also “The Bourne Legacy”.  Now one would think with all the time and money spent that Hollywood would be able to get it right now but still they falter.

You have been warned!

And of course if you haven’t already check out my first novel FREE AT LAST: A NOVEL available on Amazon Kindle.  Many thanks

Mister Chatable.

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