Jason Bourne: The Lord of the Caribbean

There are few things better in life than a three-day weekend and we are coming off one of the best of the year. Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer and a well-known bad holiday weekend at the box office. This is due to several factors, including college football, school starting and people trying to get one last BBQ in. Despite this three-day weekend being bad for movies, the early to mid 2000s treated us to some amazing big screen trilogies.

Lets take a look back at three great movie trilogies that came out in the early to mid 2000s. 

 

Up first, the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). For the sake of this list, we are not including the Bourne Legacy (2012) or Jason Bourne (2016). This is due to the large time gap between the release of the Bourne Ultimatum and Bourne Legacy. Also, Matt Damon, Jason Bourne, was replaced by Jeremy Renner, Aron Cross, which just feels like an insult to the franchise and fan abase alike. He did make his return in the 2016 Jason Bourne, but the damage had already been done.  

 

Jason Bourne is a CIA agent (assassin) suffering from amnesia trying to figure out who he is. While also fighting off other CIA assassins who are attempting to neutralize him due to the mission he just failed. He meets a woman that he knew prior to the amnesia, and she helps shed some light on his situation. This sets the wheels in motion for the following two films and what becomes an iconic 2000s trilogy. 

 

The Bourne movie franchise is undeniably iconic in many respects. However, its lasting legacy may always be the shaky cam filming style that is synonymous with action movies from the time period. Tight shots, lots of quick cuts and of course the camera constantly shaking. This style thrust the audience into the action as opposed to being just a viewer. Overall, the Bourne franchise will remain a highlight of action movies from that era.

 

Moving to what is probably the best movies franchise to come from an amusement park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean (ft. Orlando Bloom). Much like the Bourne franchise, there are a total of five movies with the most recent one coming out in 2017. However, Bloom was not in in movies four and five which ultimately lost a lot of core fanbase and sucked part of the charm out of the movies and our ragtag pirate crew. Also, worth noting, the Blue-ray box set box set of the three Bloom films are available on Amazon right now. There is also the full five movie box set but I think everyone is better off without those last two. 

 

LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Caribbean-Trilogy-Blu-ray-Johnny/dp/B001BKZD7S

 

Critically thinking about a movie franchise about pirates based off an amusement park ride seems ridiculous. Instead, I will rattle off some fun facts from about the franchise that we all know and love. First and foremost, Johnny Depp was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars and he won Best Male Performance at the 2004 MTV awards. Obviously, the MTV award being the important one. 

 

The second film in the franchise, Dead Man’s Chest, grossed over $1 billion and is the franchises highest grossing film. The franchise itself is the 14^th highest grossing film series ever with a movie six set to release sometime in the future. The list of awards that these first three movies have been nominated for and won, is amazing all things considered. There is so much in fact that it has its own Wikipedia page.

 

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_the_Pirates_of_the_Caribbean

 

These films are not without there flaws but are undeniably entertaining and enjoyable. As the franchise lifespan progresses, it continues to get watered down with less than great subsequent films. Regardless of the below average movies that have come out sense the Bloom three. Those first three are cemented in the 2000s as iconic family films from the Disney umbrella. 

 

Last up on iconic trilogies from the early to mid 2000s, Lord of the Rings. Honestly, this may be the most iconic and highly regarded trilogies of all time. The first movie, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, came out in 2001 with the latest movie, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, coming out in 2003. 

 

Each of the three films boasts above a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score. Along with that, each movie was nominated for best picture at the Oscars with The Return of the King winning it, along with Peter Jackson winning best director. Beyond that, the series won 17 of the 30 academy award nominations it received, both are records for trilogies. 

 

If those accolades weren’t enough evidence of what a historical movie franchise this is, this next stat defiantly will. This statistic is one that already has little to no meaning but in the early 2000s this would hold some water. The home media version, DVD and Blue-Ray, grossed more than $2.4 billion as of 2017. This includes normal DVD release, special edition releases, Box sets and Blue-Ray release later. 

 

The early to mid 2000s was a special time for movie trilogies, from CIA thrillers too the high seas and all the way over to Middle Earth. In the current profit driven film industry, it is hard to believe we will ever get as a great compact trilogy as Lord of the Rings. We already see the use of popular existing IPs in the other two franchises I mentioned. Which makes those older franchises all the more memorable.