7. Avoids The Threequel Curse
We all know the threequel curse; we've all seen countless massively-hyped third films that turned out to be complete disappointments - The Matrix Revolutions, The Godfather Part III, Alien 3, Halloween 3, Superman 3, Terminator 3 etc - and yet few of them were as highly esteemed as the Before series up to this point. Fans were no doubt nervous that, after the seemingly conclusive nature of the second film, that making a third one might just come across as a needless after-thought, something to milk an audience's fascination with these characters rather than contributing something meaningful. However, Before Midnight ensures that the trilogy goes out on a high, maintaining the same level of consistency present in the previous films, and even exceeding it quite often. As far as threequels go, this film stands alongside Toy Story as one of the few that cannot be easily scrutinised.