With "Iron Man 3" behind us and "The Hangover Part III" directly in front of us, this seems like a good time to look back at the many other Chapter Threes that have hit the screen. Here are a select few from Rafer Guzman.

Credit: New Line Cinema

THE WORST: "Austin Powers in Goldmember" (2002). It was amazing that Mike Myers’ one-joke James Bond spoof kept us laughing for an entire film, let alone two. By No. 3, the shagalicious character was tapped out, and appearances from John Travolta, Beyoncé, Fred Savage, Tom Cruise and the Osbournes provided only fleeting distractions. Can we drop that “Wayne’s World 3” petition now?

Credit: Handout

THE WORST: "The Godfather Part III" (1990). After creating two of the most iconic films in cinema history, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo added on this unnecessary epilogue. Thanks to the shocking ineptitude of Sofia Coppola as Mary Corleone, the casting of Andy Garcia as Al Pacino’s Mini-Me and an endless string of mafioso clichés, this “Godfather” sometimes felt like its own MAD Magazine parody. Way to tarnish a legacy, guys!

Credit: Lucasfilm

THE WORST: "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Speaking of tarnished legacies, how about this 135-minute toy commercial that ended George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” trilogy? Jar Jar Binks, the blackface alien minstrel, wasn’t nearly as grating as those proto-Teletubbies known as the Ewoks, and the film’s smiling-through-tears ending, in which the angel Darth Vader gets his wings, is unforgivable. With “Jedi,” one of popular culture’s great mythologies was finally reduced to mere marketing.

Credit: Handout

THE WORST: "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003). The wiggy first film was visually inventive. The second, less so, though at least it had that hilarious “rave of the future” sequence. The third, however, was a gargling, incoherent mess of flying bullets, anti-gravity chop-socky and random robo-aliens. “Revolutions” made about $139 million, less than half of its predecessor’s take, proving that even fans had lost the plot.

Credit: Getty Images

THE WORST: "Superman III" (1983). Despite scoring a hit with the tense, gripping “Superman II,” Warner Bros. made the still-baffling decision to go for a laugh-filled sequel. Richard Pryor played a computer hacker who shaves pennies off large transactions (a plot later mocked in 1999’s “Office Space”), but his bug-eyed comedy did not gel with Christopher Reeve’s straight-faced Superman. Their cringe-inducing chemistry, plus Richard Lester’s campy direction, proved fatal, and the franchise has never recovered. “Man of Steel,” it’s all up to you.

Credit: AP

THE BEST: "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" (1985). The down-and-dirty Aussie action-franchise went all glossy Hollywood with this distinctively mid-‘80s entry. Mel Gibson provides residual grit, while Tina Turner, as the diva Aunty Entity, pushed the movie into MTV rotation with the pop-existential theme, “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” Hokey for miles, but returning co-director George Miller kept it fast and fun, and the Thunderdome cage-fights packed a wallop.

Credit: AP

THE BEST: "Iron Man 3" (2013). Just when Robert Downey Jr.’s wit and director Jon Favreau’s energy seemed to be fading, in steps writer-director Shane Black (“Lethal Weapon”) to save the day. His movie not only mixed humor directly into the action but included inventive set-pieces that went beyond the usual superhero slugfests. The “barrel of monkeys” sequence, as it’s known in the credits, is nearly worth the price of admission.

Credit: AP

THE BEST: "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012). There will never be an equal to Christopher Nolan’s masterful second Batman film, “The Dark Knight,” but this follow-up held its own. Flawed but ambitious, overstuffed but beautifully filmed, it gave Batman (Christian Bale) a respectable send-off with a ruthless villain (Tom Hardy as Bane), a complicated love-interest (Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle) and -- spoiler alert! -- a possible successor that many of us are hoping to see again.

Credit: AP

THE BEST: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004). The first “Potter” films were critical and commercial hits, but the franchise gained a new credibility with “Azkaban.” Thanks to director Alfonso Cuarón (“Y tu mamá también”) and a maturing Daniel Radcliffe as Harry — not to mention Gary Oldman as the villain Sirius Black — the third film took on darker tones and edged away from kid-friendly spectacle toward bona-fide fantasy territory. “Azkaban” marks the moment when Potter, and his fans, began growing up.

Credit: AP

THE BEST: "Rocky III" (1982). Hitchcock said a film is only as good as its villain, and “Rocky III” had one of the best in Clubber Lang, a no-class loudmouth played by the inimitable Mr. T. Decked out in a pimpin’ suede jacket and gold bling, Clubber was a coded hip-hop villain — rap was just then starting to frighten white ears — but Mr. T tore into the role and became a pop-culture phenomenon in the process. The final Lang-Balboa battle, with a classic rope-a-dope comeback, still satisfies.

Credit: MCT

THE BEST: "Toy Story 3" (2010). A lot was riding on this trilogy-closer, given the iconic status of the first film and the box-office success of the second. But Pixar came through, wrapping up the story of Woody, Buzz and the gang with such heartwrenching emotion that the movie is sometimes hard to take. Beautifully done and more than a little profound, “Toy Story 3” may go down as “The Velveteen Rabbit” for the iPad generation.

Credit: AP

"Goldfinger" (1964) was one of the best. This film had it all: Harold Sakata as the hat-spinning hitman Oddjob, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Shirley Eaton as a babe-sized Academy Award, plus the best laser-to-the-crotch scene ever. If you had to pick just one Bond film, wouldn't this be it?

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