What Single Scene Killed an Otherwise Great Movie?

[tgbennett30]

Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

Raptors are set up in the first movie as landbound killing machines equal to great white sharks with intelligence, and the first half of the second movie follows that theme....

....and then a junior high kid uses gymnastics to land a face kick and KTFO a raptor. Instant evaporation of all good will that the first 1.5 movies had generated.

 

[OneCatch]

I wasn't overly fond with Jurassic World to begin with (I wanted a return to the more low-key, thriller-esque vibe of the original) but the gratuitous killing of the assistant really killed it for me. That girl was just getting tortured, like, why did they include that? Made me a little uncomfortable even. So I won't say that it killed a great movie, but it did seal the deal for me.

Yeah, that scene was really fucking weird. I don't even know what they were actually going for by having her get mauled for an entire minute and then eaten. It wasn't funny, it wasn't cathartic, it wasn't even her getting her just comeuppance, since we didn't know her enough to dislike her.

Jurassic World wasn't 'great', but definitely this. Was completely tone deaf and very out of place.

As for me, the ending of Interstellar. I mean, I really like 2001 and have no problem with homages to it. But it was just out of place in that film, especially since they made such a song and dance about how it was all grounded in real science and Kip Thorne!! and supercomputer modelling and blah blah.
Which is a shame because Interstellar probably did have the potential to be great - a lot of the scene composition was absolutely breathtaking, probably the best I've seen in science fiction for a very long time;

Spoiler

and a few of those sequences were epic (the above docking one).

 

[happyninja42]

Any kind of scene where there is violence against animals REALLY puts me off. One that comes to mind was a scene where an adorable kitten gets diced up in The Brothers Grimm. Up until that point I thought it had been an okay movie.

I know what some will say that it was just a cat and why didn't I get more upset at the humans being murdered. But frankly I like animals more than I like most people.

How about I Am Legend? While it happens to also be my contribution to this thread for a different scene, the scene involving the dog was, in my opinion, both quite tasteful and quite depressing.

That scene was well done, but I can appreciate the posters comment about not liking scenes of violence against animals. The fact that it happened at all, makes a part of me go "NOPE! NOOOOPE! FUCK YOU MOVIE!! DON'T HURT THE CUTE ANIMAL!!" But to establish how tragic it was for Will's character, to lose the last thing he had in his life from his old life. His family pet, who was now his only friend, on top of the normal bond most people have with their dog, was heart wrenching. And so it was effective as hell in that regard. But, yeah it still makes me uncomfortable. If it's a "Kick the Dog" moment, just to establish how evil some character is, then I'm very against it. Like in the really cheezy movie from the 80's Summer Vacation, with a very young John Cusack. The father of the teenage badguy, is literally portrayed, in I think every scene he's in, as being violent to animals, simply for the joy of it. It's not enough to show him being a money grubbing land developer, uncaring for the concerns and desires of the townsfolk. No, let's show him boiling lobsters alive, with a stethoscope on so he can hear their little animal screams. And top that off with him literally kicking a dog, just because he's an asshole like that, right in front of the 10 year old girl who the dog belongs to. Those kind of examples of animal violence, tend to make me dislike your movie, because they're so gratuitous. I Am Legend, at least gave the scene the gravity and tragedy it deserved, considering the circumstances of the setting.

 

[FPLOON]

alright, spoilers ahead. It's related to "This is where I leave you" which I saw last night

Spoiler

towards the very end, Jane Fonda's character suddenly revealed she became a lesbian. And while that didn't really kill the film, it also contributed nothing, the relations between the siblings wouldn't have changed an iota. All it did was break up a brawl which would have been broken anyway by a different mechanic. It felt forced and completely token, the movie already drove its point across

I remember when I unintentionally laughed at that scene because it came out of left-field... Then, when the next scene tried to explain the situation, all I could think about was "When was this ever foreshadowed like some of the other moments from the movie?" because I was drawing more blanks than [REDACTED]... I still liked the movie, but I do agree that it could have been handled better considering it's still a "dramedy" and all...

OT: After Earth is the only movie that I could think of that had a scene that killed it for me... and it happens directly at the end when...

Spoiler: this happens...

after Jaden Smith survives the whole ordeal and get the signal out so that both him and his dad can finally get off Earth, Will Smith doesn't even salute him for a job well done...

and, to me, negates what the underlining story was actually about... even if it's technically a cliche...

Other than that, I still wouldn't call After Earth a great movie, but definitely one with wasted potential albeit "cliched", at best...

 

[M0rp43vs]

Funnily enough, I saw the censored version of Kingsman the first time and I thought the joke flowed better. Ended on Merlin's confused-but-slightly-interested reaction face then closing the monitor. So the humour came what was being implied. Saw the uncensored one later, wasn't too bothered, not as funny but no complaints. I will admit it was a lot more in your face than the film normally is.

OT: More like "when I gave up to notion that this film was even gonna be great"; Pan. My dad apparently really loved it so I was giving it as much slack as I could. I ignored the bad accents on the nuns and the bloody checklist of EVERY SINGLE PROPHECY MOVIE cliches (no, seriously, the CinemaSins Dings were playing nonstop in my head) at the beginning and was almost hyped with the flying ship and spitfire dogfights. Then the pirates sang "Smells Like teen Spirit" a Capella.

I gave up the notion that this film might be GOOD when they introduced Hook. And then the pirates sang Blitzkrieg Bop. First time I ever gave up on a film and walked away.

A more recent example; The Fifth Wave. Went in with no expectations. Kinda predictable, adaptation of Young-adults novel about a group of kids overthrowing a group of much more powerful adults. Some really neat effects for the intro, Actors are utter shite, kinda loses steam at the end but overall it was a fun waste of time.

But the scene where they introduce the goth girl. She's introduced a team of military trained kids (YA novel remember), she goes on this winding spiel about how she's not like the other girls, how she's a hardass who doesn't take orders well and how she's not an object (while the other kids and the camera lingers on shots of her ass).

Then she says, with no prompting, that she only plays chess (because she's soooo smart. No, she's never shown playing it in the film) and ask if their is a board. Then one of the kids goes "Howabout Strip poker?" (Really?) so she decks him and says, and this is not a joke, "No sexist remarks".

Like I get what they were trying to do, establish her as a badass but the actors were so bad that it just felt like a badly written scene in a fanfic written by a 13 year old. (Which to be fair, it is a YA novel)

 

[Lieju]

I wasn't overly fond with Jurassic World to begin with (I wanted a return to the more low-key, thriller-esque vibe of the original) but the gratuitous killing of the assistant really killed it for me. That girl was just getting tortured, like, why did they include that? Made me a little uncomfortable even. So I won't say that it killed a great movie, but it did seal the deal for me.

Yeah... Like it has lot of other issues writing wise (like how Pratt's character was handled) but that scene felt like pretty representative of the issues?
"We want this cool scene in, let's put it here. Does it make any sense? Nope!"
I mean... it was just mean spirited. It's a death reserved for a villain, or at least a person who you have gotten attached to, instead of this random woman who had done nothing wrong.
And yeah, it made me uncomfortable because it felt like they wanted me to enjoy a gruesome death without earning it.

Hmm, I like to pretend the ending after certain point in 'Splice' doesn't exist.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Dango]

I can't think of any scene that ruined an entire movie, but I do remember the scene in The Force Awakens...

Spoiler

Where they basically say "The stakes are higher in this movie because our Death Star is bigger than the old one."

...was hilarious

 

[PsiMatrix]

Love is a trans dimensional force. She claims its a force of nature they just can't measure.

It. Is. Absurd.

That one didn't ruin it for me because 'oh look' she's now within reach of the man she loves, that she hasn't seen for 10 years, and she knows Plan A isn't going to work (or at least not in time to save Earth's population). Let's try and manipulate the situation so I can finish my Plan B and reunite with the man I love. Cooper thankfully calls her on her BS.

What ruined it for me was the epilogue:

Spoiler

After they save humanity through a 5D 'quantum tunnel' Cooper reunites with his 80+ year old daughter who tells him "She's waiting for you"

Er, no. She thinks everyone's dead because she has no idea that humans from the future tunneled back through time and space to not only save Cooper from the black hole but give him the avenue to save humanity as a whole by projecting his daughter's room. She's alone, her husband is dead and she thinks she's the last living human in existence. She's not waiting for anyone and they've only spent about a week together due to the time dialation so why would she be waiting for him even if he survived?

 

[klaynexas3]

I'm gonna say the scene in Desolation of Smaug where they're in the barrels, and the fat dwarf flies out of the water, happens to roll around knocking over a bunch of orcs like dominos(you know, something that's very likely to occur in real life?) and then pops out with and starts fighting, all with this comical overtone to it all. It just feels like a scene written for an 8 year old. I get the Hobbit was a kid's book, but when the rest of the movies' tone was relatively darker, having these small little scenes of unnatural levity is just groan worthy. There is a lot more to groan about with these movies, don't get me wrong, but that was basically the culmination of what I found completely wrong with the movies, it was random bullshit added in because three movies is going to bring in more money than one, and it's LotR related and by Jackson, so fuck the writing and tone, you'll see it anyway.

 

[DoctorObviously]

The end of Law Abiding Citizen.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I wouldn't say "killed," but the ending action scene from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is what tipped me from the "defenders" camp to the "Yeah, Peter Jackson and co. took to too far.." camp when it came to The Hobbit movies.

I liked the first one. Still do. It wasn't as good as any of the LOTR movies, but I do think it found a good balance between the spirit of The Hobbit novel and being a prequel to the Jackson LOTR Trilogy. The only the thing that stuck out for me was that Radaghast seemed a bit too quirky-for-quirky's-sake. Other than that, fine film and I enjoy it.

The second one began pushing things a bit with working Legolas and a female-Legolas into the plot with an elf-elf-dwarf love triangle, and making the barrel-riding sequence a chase/fight scene, but I didn't mind it. I was still on board.

SPOILERS! (I don't feel like tagging it and the movie is two years old so "bleh" if you complain)

But then that last scene... With the dwarves leaping and swinging on chains to impromptu create a gold statue and then...uh...dump it? On Smaug? Before it solidifies? If they could've done that, why'd they need a burglar in the first place? And aren't dwarves supposed to be heavy and not good jumpers/leapers, which was well-established by Gimli in the "no one tosses a dwarf" LOTR scenes? And then the film just ends with Smaug flying off to Laketown? We don't actually get to the desolation that the film is named after?!

Yeah... I haven't even watched the third one yet.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I wouldn't say "killed," but the ending action scene from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is what tipped me from the "defenders" camp to the "Yeah, Peter Jackson and co. took to too far.." camp when it came to The Hobbit movies.

I liked the first one. Still do. It wasn't as good as any of the LOTR movies, but I do think it found a good balance between the spirit of The Hobbit novel and being a prequel to the Jackson LOTR Trilogy. The only the thing that stuck out for me was that Radaghast seemed a bit too quirky-for-quirky's-sake. Other than that, fine film and I enjoy it.

The second one began pushing things a bit with working Legolas and a female-Legolas into the plot with an elf-elf-dwarf love triangle, and making the barrel-riding sequence a chase/fight scene, but I didn't mind it. I was still on board.

SPOILERS! (I don't feel like tagging it and the movie is two years old so "bleh" if you complain)

But then that last scene... With the dwarves leaping and swinging on chains to impromptu create a gold statue and then...uh...dump it? On Smaug? Before it solidifies? If they could've done that, why'd they need a burglar in the first place? And aren't dwarves supposed to be heavy and not good jumpers/leapers, which was well-established by Gimli in the "no one tosses a dwarf" LOTR scenes? And then the film just ends with Smaug flying off to Laketown? We don't actually get to the desolation that the film is named after?!

Yeah... I haven't even watched the third one yet.

If it's any consolation, the third movie opens with said desolation. Still, I had a problem with that scene that wasn't mentioned. Their plan to kill Smaug was to dump molten gold onto him. Molten gold. Onto a fire-breathing dragon. That's like trying to drown a fucking fish!

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I wouldn't say "killed," but the ending action scene from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is what tipped me from the "defenders" camp to the "Yeah, Peter Jackson and co. took to too far.." camp when it came to The Hobbit movies.

I liked the first one. Still do. It wasn't as good as any of the LOTR movies, but I do think it found a good balance between the spirit of The Hobbit novel and being a prequel to the Jackson LOTR Trilogy. The only the thing that stuck out for me was that Radaghast seemed a bit too quirky-for-quirky's-sake. Other than that, fine film and I enjoy it.

The second one began pushing things a bit with working Legolas and a female-Legolas into the plot with an elf-elf-dwarf love triangle, and making the barrel-riding sequence a chase/fight scene, but I didn't mind it. I was still on board.

SPOILERS! (I don't feel like tagging it and the movie is two years old so "bleh" if you complain)

But then that last scene... With the dwarves leaping and swinging on chains to impromptu create a gold statue and then...uh...dump it? On Smaug? Before it solidifies? If they could've done that, why'd they need a burglar in the first place? And aren't dwarves supposed to be heavy and not good jumpers/leapers, which was well-established by Gimli in the "no one tosses a dwarf" LOTR scenes? And then the film just ends with Smaug flying off to Laketown? We don't actually get to the desolation that the film is named after?!

Yeah... I haven't even watched the third one yet.

If it's any consolation, the third movie opens with said desolation. Still, I had a problem with that scene that wasn't mentioned. Their plan to kill Smaug was to dump molten gold onto him. Molten gold. Onto a fire-breathing dragon. That's like trying to drown a fucking fish!

Thanks for reminding me. Yeah, I now remember thinking, "So...did you really think that that would kill him? Or hurt him even? Or were you just trying to drive him out of the mountain? In that case you succeeded, but did you have a plan for when he comes back? I don't think you really thought this through..."

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Prometheus. I have NEVER thought of walking out of a theater out of anger for how stupid these top notch "scientist" acted. Who the fuck charts a damn cave system with drones and doesn't have the map as well. What type of biologist plays with some unknown alien like it's a dog. Hell the end scene with them running from the spaceship made no sense, at least Sharknado had the excuse for running away like that.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

I gonna typed Prometheus but it kinda hard to pinned down the the specific single scene since there were several-

Those two scientist that got lost at the start of the film and both were stupid to approach that alien cobra vagina.
The other scientist touching stuff inside like there were no tomorrow!
The two female characters running away from the spacecraft SHADOW when it is clear the length/ width of the craft is alot shorter to escape from!

EDIT-
I just remember this scene from Ant-Man

Spoiler: Baskin Robbin

Yes I know Ant-Man was more comedical for a Marvel film and I still overall loved it but dangit I have a sence of disbelief. Don't quote me that I can believe in a god cube, a man achieving a sonicboom in a metal suit (a mate say he should had pass out). I just can't believed a man walked in there thinking they sell hot stuff WITHOUT looking at their advertment sign inside the shop!
It would be like if I walked into KFC without knowing what the C in KFC stand for, didn't bother looking at the menu above the staff and asked for a BEEF burger!
Maybe I just haven't encounter that sort of idiot in retail yet.
Also yeah that "dog" scene was the same level of stupidity too!

God dammit you posted pretty much all my complaints and more about Prometheus. Also I don't know why but I think that Antman scene was a jab about Diary Queen. Who does sell all that type of stuff, so the idiot customer assumed they sold it as well. I agree the dog was a bit silly, maybe cause I would have screamed till I passed out. Seriously, it's a GIANT FUCKING ANT!

 

[SKBPinkie]

Prometheus. I have NEVER thought of walking out of a theater out of anger for how stupid these top notch "scientist" acted. Who the fuck charts a damn cave system with drones and doesn't have the map as well. What type of biologist plays with some unknown alien like it's a dog. Hell the end scene with them running from the spaceship made no sense, at least Sharknado had the excuse for running away like that.

I'm not sure if Prometheus counts cause there was more than one scene that ruined it. ....Let's say a lot more than one scene.

OT: Same for me with Kingsmen. What a stupid note to end on. Completely agree with OP on that one.