Movies with moments of greatness but ultimately suck

[MessiahDecoy123]

I'll start with Ghost Rider.

The scenes with Sam Elliott, Ghost Rider climbing the building and the Penance Stare were all great but the rest of the movie was trash.

Can you guys think of any other examples?

 

[CashforStash]

Halloween 2. I found the bar scene and hospital scene to be epic, but the rest sucked balls.

 

[Gilpesh]

Watchmen. For a good scene when Manhattan is made... the rest is so goddamn awful.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Yeah it's like Snyder didn't get the graphic novel at all. The tone is off for 80% of the movie.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Spidey 3 -- the creation of Sandman. Yep, had to go there.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Matrix Reloaded.

The superman scene was thrilling and very well crafted. Too bad the story couldn't match its quality and was a complete shell of the original.

 

[Homer J. Fong]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - The minecar chase and the sequence on the bridge are terrific set pieces. Being stuck with Willie and Short Round in a movie this dreary? Something like torture.

 

[redfirebird2008]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Iron Man 2 sucks because it doesn't, but it is generally boring IMHO. However, the scene where Howard Stark is telling Tony about his "greatest creation" stands out big time compared to the rest of the movie.

 

[SuperFerret]

Batman & Robin. Aside from the comedic greatness, the scenes with Bruce and Alfred are damn good.

 

[redfirebird2008]

The Lost World -- raptors mow down everyone while they're running through the fields.

 

[That-Guy]

Yeah it's like Snyder didn't get the graphic novel at all. The tone is off for 80% of the movie.

Yeah... if only Warner Brothers had selected someone off of these message boards to direct that movie. It would have been so much better.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

or how about an established director who understood the appropriate tone and themes?

 

[That-Guy]

I'm not going to say that someone else couldn't have done better. But I think overall, Snyder "got" the tone well enough. I wouldn't call the movie perfect, but I think that he conveyed the story and themes as best he could without making the movie 10 hours long. There were a few moments that felt a bit off, but I think overall the movie worked. Some people will call its mediocre box office reception as "proof" that Snyder failed, but I honestly don't think that the movie was ever going to make more than it did no matter who was at the helm, simply because mainstream audiences don't flock to superhero films that feature characters they don't know. Kick-Ass was another classic example.

 

[SuperFerret]

What was so inappropriate in tone and theme about Watchmen?

 

[dude stannis]

Oh man, don't get some nitpicking nerd going. Unless it's Mike Plinkett...

FPS scene in Doom.

 

[chaseter]

POTC 3 had a lot of moments of greatness, they just didn't mesh together well and there were too many.

X3 house fight

Hancock first 30 or so minutes

I am Legend - everything up until you see the monsters

Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions

 

[Matt Mortem]

I agree with every single post in this thread thus far. That's unusual for the Hype

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

What was so inappropriate in tone and theme about Watchmen?

The fighting scenes are choreographed like a an episode of Adam West's Batman with some gore thrown in for good measure. The sex scene is played for laughs. Ozymandias and his accent come off as cartoonish when compared to the GN. Carla Gugino overacts and looks ridiculous in her old age make up as does "Nixon". Some of the music choices seem forced and misguided. A combination of over-acting, jarring music choices, and slow motion make you think you're back watching 300 again instead of a Watchman adaptation. The movie as a whole plays like self-parody. Any amount of quite poignancy and meaningfulness is derailed by the clownish missteps.

Thematically. The conspiracy lacks the grim lasting impact of the book or the troubling build up. Rather than a deconstruction of the superhero the movie is closer to Dick Tracy with set pieces and costumes overshadowing characters. Parts of the book are thrown into the mix as Easter eggs without the proper context. Overall it's a noble failure and doesn't come close to the tragedy, satire, and psychological realism of the source material. All lost in translation during the cut and paste direction of Snyder.

 

[SuperFerret]

Eh, I think you're looking too deep into it. The movie was pretty good, and it accomplished pretty much the same thing that the book did.

 

[Matt Mortem]

The fighting scenes are choreographed like a an episode of Adam West's Batman with some gore thrown in for good measure. The sex scene is played for laughs. Ozymandias and his accent come off as cartoonish when compared to the GN. Carla Gugino overacts and looks ridiculous in her old age make up as does "Nixon". Some of the music choices seem forced and misguided. A combination of over-acting, jarring music choices, and slow motion make you think you're back watching 300 again instead of a Watchman adaptation. The movie as a whole plays like self-parody. Any amount of quite poignancy and meaningfulness is derailed by the clownish missteps.

Thematically. The conspiracy lacks the grim lasting impact of the book or the troubling build up. Rather than a deconstruction of the superhero the movie is closer to Dick Tracy with set pieces and costumes overshadowing characters. Parts of the book are thrown into the mix as Easter eggs without the proper context. Overall it's a noble failure and doesn't come close to the tragedy, satire, and psychological realism of the source material. All lost in translation during the cut and paste direction of Snyder.

While I agree with you 100%, I still have to say I enjoyed the movie for what it is.

 

[Sawyer]

Star Wars prequel trilogy: The John Williams score was ****ing epic. It's a shame it couldn't have been attached to three good movies.

 

[Max J Power]

Beerfest. It was a pretty bland lowbrow comedy, but I thought the part where [blackout]the fat guy tried to drink his way out of the beer vat but drowned, only to be replaced by his previously unseen twin brother (who wanted to go by the same nickname) five minutes later[/blackout] was very clever and totally unexpected for a movie that was so unclever.

I haven't seen the entire movie though, so they may be some other great part I missed.

 

[Ipodman]

The creation of Vader in Star Wars 3 was quite good compared to the rest of the film... hmm.

Some people would say Forest Fight in Transformers 2... hmm.

I agree with Ghost Rider... the character itself was good to see... hmm.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Batman & Robin. Aside from the comedic greatness, the scenes with Bruce and Alfred are damn good.

This is exactly how I feel. In fact I always thought Clooney played a good Bruce, just not a good Batman. Though without Schmacher maybe he could have done both.

I'd say Freddy vs Jason for my movie. Honestly, the first 10 minutes with the human Freddy flashbacks, the Nightmare series recap, and Freddy messing with Jason as his mother are actually really great in my book. Yeah the rest is a cheesefest with only a couple good parts, but ultimately I think FvsJ gave us a Freddy at least on par with the one from Dream Warriors, dark but had that sense of humor that the first two entries lack much of, and the latter entries (New Nightmare nonwithstanding) had way too much of.

 

[xwolverine2]

zack snyders dawn of the dead... the first 10 min..

didnt completely suck but didnt live up to the beginning of the film