I enjoyed the original Ocean’s 11. Fun little movie, honest and enjoyable.
The remake obviously gave up some of that charm in exchange for some flashy, artsy style. Enjoyable in its own way, especially with the few tributes it paid to the original.
The second was a huge, huge dropoff from the first. It took too long to tell the story and was far too self-conscious of how fancy and self-referential it was.
The third gave up so much of that, gave up the weak romance storylines (which the rat pack didn’t even bother with because they were unneeded), and just gave us a fun story of revenge.
It’s too bad you have to watch 12 to understand 13 because 13 is probably the best of the remake series. It’s lessy artsy but more gripping and more entertaining.