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Published Sep 29, 2026, 11:25 PM EDT
Jeremy has more than 2800 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings).
When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account.
He has achieved his 2025 goal of reading all 13,467 novels written by Stephen King, and plans to spend the next year or two getting through the author's 82,756 short stories and 105,433 novellas.
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If a movie does well, and there’s even a slight chance the story it told can be continued, then you probably shouldn’t be surprised if a sequel gets made. If the first sequel does well enough, then you're looking down the barrel of a probable trilogy, and once a collection of movies is three entries long, or longer, it’s fair to call it a series.
There are some trilogies below, and there are also some series that have grown beyond the bounds of a trilogy, but everything here is united by one thing: there’s only one truly great movie in each respective series. Now, “great” is different from “good,” with lots of these examples having more than one good movie, but if you're talking great and/or hard-to-fault films, then each series here only has a single one.
8 'Ocean's' (2001–present)
Image via Warner Bros. PicturesYou can count Ocean's 11 (1960) as part of the Ocean’s series if you want, but either way, there is only one Ocean’s film that’s pretty much great, and it’s 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven. It’s pretty much a reboot of the original film, and it takes some of the stuff that kind of worked and updates it all, making it really work, or maybe making it deliver in a way that people might've felt watching the original some 40-ish years earlier.
The series technically isn't over, so maybe there’ll be another great Ocean’s movie one day. But for now, it’s just Ocean’s Eleven.
Also, Ocean’s Eleven was very successful and well-liked, so sequels were inevitable. Ocean’s Twelve felt a bit smug and inconsistent, while Ocean’s Thirteen was a little better, but perhaps played things too safe. Ocean’s 8 was also lacking, because there was very little sense of suspense or danger there, and sure, the series technically isn't over, so maybe there’ll be another great Ocean’s movie one day. But for now, it’s just Ocean’s Eleven, and the rest don’t have quite as much to offer.
7 'Iron Man' (2008–2013)
Image via Marvel StudiosIron Man kicked off the Iron Man series, obviously, but did also do a whole lot more by being the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s worth considering that as part of its history and all, but that’s also being stressed as a way to say that, no, Iron Man is not the only great film in the MCU. Counting the Iron Man films as belonging to their own series, though…
…Yeah, Iron Man (2008) is the only absolutely great one. Iron Man 2 was a bit awkward, but a little easier to appreciate in hindsight, given how it worked to set up the first The Avengers, almost being like Avengers 0.5 (by the same logic, Captain America: Civil War is kind of like Avengers 2.5). Iron Man 3 is better, but it’s still a little uneven, so calling the first one the only properly great one doesn’t feel like too outrageous a claim to make.
6 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (2003–2017)
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesThis one’s hopefully not going to be controversial, since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) is an undeniable classic, and also quite the tough act to follow. Films #2 and #3 certainly have their fans, and there are aspects of those movies that are strong for sure (they're hard to fault technically and in terms of spectacle delivered), but the cleanness and overall effortlessness of the first movie make it stand out and then some.
The less said about later films in the series, the better, though this is another Ocean’s situation where new movies are planned, albeit none are as far along, so for now, it’s a series that “ended” in 2017. Things could change, though, especially if a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie focuses on being a sequel rather than a remake or reboot, and if said sequel happens to be good, then yes, this would have to be amended. That doesn’t feel super likely right now, so for the moment, Pirates of the Caribbean is going to have to stay here (sorry).
5 'The Dark Knight' (2005–2012)
Image via Warner Bros. PicturesProbably the most questionable selection here, it should be stressed that Batman Begins is still quite good, and The Dark Knight Rises, though messy, has its moments and certainly has a good deal of spectacle. It’s also worth stressing that this is just concerning the Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan, counting his trilogy as its own series, because if you look at Batman overall, there are some arguably great non-Nolan Batman movies.
Of this particular series, though, The Dark Knight is easily the highlight of the bunch, and is deservedly held up as something of a modern classic generally speaking (not just as a comic book/superhero film). It’s great, and also hard to fault, exceeding the other two movies in the trilogy it belongs to in terms of quality rather comfortably.
4 'Spider-Man' (2002–2007)
Image via Sony Pictures EntertainmentLike with Batman, it has to be specified that only the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies are being counted here as one series, because it would be sacrilege to suggest that the Spider-Verse movies weren’t also great. With Raimi, though, Spider-Man 2 is the highlight, and one of those sequels that took everything good in an already more-than-solid first film and improved upon every single one of those things.
Things collapsed a bit with Spider-Man 3, though even that one has its moments, even if it’s fairly easy to identify it as the most flawed of the bunch. Also, 2002’s Spider-Man is close to greatness, to the point where putting the Raimi trilogy here felt a little iffy, but Spider-Man 2 is genuinely great, while Spider-Man (2002) is slightly flawed but still close to great, and also worthy of scoring a few extra points, so to speak, because of its overall importance to the superhero genre.
3 'The Matrix' (1999–2021)
The only undeniably great Matrix movie is the first, from 1999. That being said, all the sequels are, at the very least, interesting, and with the second, The Matrix Reloaded, you have something that’s even quite good. “Great” is a stretch, but at least the action in that film delivers, and then some of the world-building adds to the overall series (not all the world-building, though, and pacing-wise, The Matrix Reloaded is a bit uneven).
The Matrix Revolutions feels like a finale, for what it’s worth, but disappoints action-wise, and then it’s also not really as moving or powerful as it should be. As for the fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections? Conceptually, it’s fascinating, and there’s a lot to appreciate if you want to dig below the surface, but it’s lacking in more straightforward entertainment value, and the action, at this point, is honestly beyond unsatisfying.
2 'Thor' (2011–2022)
Image via Marvel StudiosThe Thor series is honestly pretty fascinating to look at, just with the highs and lows within. The first film isn't great, but it’s better than films #2 and #4, just not really achieving greatness, even if you're feeling generous. Fantastical and otherworldly Shakespeare is still an interesting vibe, and that approach was missed when Thor: The Dark World ended up feeling like more of a generic (and honestly forgettable) superhero movie.
Thor: Ragnarok is the one pretty great Thor movie, and it refreshed the series and character by having a more comedic tone. Sadly, Thor: Love and Thunder committed too hard to comedy and silliness, and without many good jokes to back such an approach up, it ended up being a rather painful viewing experience. At the time of writing, Thor’s still part of the Avengers series, and looks as though he’ll have a major role in Doomsday, but whether there’ll be any more solo Thor movies remains to be seen.
1 'Jurassic Park/World' (1993–present)
Image via Universal PicturesThere have been a bunch of Jurassic Park movies, and also a fair few Jurassic World movies, but they're all going to be counted as part of the same series, especially because Jurassic World Dominion tied the two together, and unsatisfyingly, at that. The first Jurassic World was a fine enough blockbuster, but not particularly great, and then while there are more great moments in The Lost World: Jurassic Park than some give it credit for, it is a fairly messy and flawed movie in other ways.
So, unsurprisingly, it’s the first Jurassic Park that stands as the one truly great one, and it probably feels the least dated overall, even with it being (obviously) the oldest of the bunch. It’s got everything a movie of its kind needs and then some, honestly being a perfect blockbuster overall and also so great it’s hard to imagine any other dinosaur-related movie ever coming close to it quality-wise.
