Good movies with bad endings

[KingstonU]

A.I. as well. Had high hopes for that movie, but the ending ruined tho whole thing for me.

 

[Redfraggle]

A.I. as well. Had high hopes for that movie, but the ending ruined tho whole thing for me.

To be fair, that movie went wrong about halfway through.

 

[Malak]

Also Lord of the Rings. They took the actual ending and shat on it, then served it to loyal fans after taking a bite out of it themselves. Too late, you already paid!

 

[Crono]

It's a shame, because Will Smith is talented, and you could tell that there was a large budget involved. Sadly, both the theatrical cut and the original alternate ending are a terrible distortion of the classic novel.

Agreed.

I look at the movie as simply taking the name and basic premise, and converting it to a zombie apocalypse film. Which is fine, because I love zombie movies, and I Am Legend was a decent movie, but I am disappointed now because it means a new movie true to the book isn't too likely in the near future.

I highly recommend the book to everyone, by the way. It's not very long, but it's poignant and timeless. Where the movie takes a second to bring up the question, "who is really the monster?", you face that a lot more in the novel. Matheson paints the vampires (not pseudo-zombies like in the movie) in a different light than most other writers.

I think Will Smith made a good Robert Neville in the movie, but it would have been better if he were the character of the book set in that Matheson's world, and not the screenplay so loosely based on it.

 

[AstroManLuca]

How about Signs with crazy ass Joaquin Phoenix? Oh gee golly the aliens don't like water? How weak is that?

haha yeah that movie's ending was total shit, they spent the whole time building up the suspense and then it turns out the aliens get burns all over their bodies when their skin touches WATER, the most abundant substance on Earth! They apparently have the technology for interstellar travel but not for environment suits or any kind of scanning technology that would tell them how much water is on Earth and in its atmosphere.

 

[Redfraggle]

haha yeah that movie's ending was total shit, they spent the whole time building up the suspense and then it turns out the aliens get burns all over their bodies when their skin touches WATER, the most abundant substance on Earth! They apparently have the technology for interstellar travel but not for environment suits or any kind of scanning technology that would tell them how much water is on Earth and in its atmosphere.

I saw that movie probably while I was working in a theater in college. The whole thing was pretty lame. I remember having a similar barrage of thoughts when I saw the ending.

M Night is a very inconsistent guy.

 

[JulesMaximus]

'The Firm'

Great movie but they fucked up the ending from what happened in the book. Book was much better...and believable.

 

[gorcorps]

So if the name was different would it be a good movie? I enjoyed it having never read the story or knowing the premise.

Yup. If it wasn't connected to the book then I wouldn't have went in expecting one movie, and getting an entirely different one.

It's hard to explain... but say you go to the theater to see the next Batman movie. Let's say you liked the first two and are excited to see the next one, and you know what to expect based on what you've seen before. But then in this one Alfred and Bruce actually get blackout drunk in Vegas, find a baby, and have to spend days figuring out what happened that night.

That sure as shit isn't what you're expecting, even though in different context it might be a great movie. When you call something Batman you have an expectation. By calling it I Am Legend they got me excited as it's a great story... but then they changed absolutely everything about it except for the title and main characters name. I'm serious, they changed everything. They changed how the main character acts, the tone, the ending, the "enemies", the message of the story, the background, etc...

 

[zerocool84]

This times 20,000,000,000!!!

I read the original Richard Matheson story shortly before seeing the film, and boy was it butchered, and I don't mean in the typical hollywood way where things are left out because they wouldn't flow well in the limits of a ~2 hour visualization of the novel, but rather a complete bastardization of the entire concept.

I'll go ahead and assume that everyone has already seen this that wants to, but if not, then minor spoilers ahead, these are the fundamental divergences from the superior source material :

(1)- It's QUITE clear in the novel that what he's dealing with is vampirism.

(2)- The 'vampires' are approximately human in strength, and with varying degrees of coherence. Creepily, some of them talk and taunt the protagonist. The creatures are NOT superhuman CGI zombie retards that flip SUVs and climb 10 story sheer buildings with their fingers.

(3)- He is fooled by a very eloquent 'vampire' that has worn makeup and masquerades as another human, to infiltrate his facility and gather info on him.

(4)- He is eventually captured by this emerging vampire society, and is set for execution, whereupon he reflects that he is really the 'monster' to them, having been killing them for quite a long time and going back into hiding. He declares before death that 'I am Legend', which makes perfect sense given the context of the story.

It's a shame, because Will Smith is talented, and you could tell that there was a large budget involved. Sadly, both the theatrical cut and the original alternate ending are a terrible distortion of the classic novel.

So you must never want to watch any movie based on a book. They're hardly even close to the books.

 

[chowderhead]

'The Firm'

Great movie but they fucked up the ending from what happened in the book. Book was much better...and believable.

I disagree. I remember not liking the ending in the book (reading it first before seeing the movie) and thinking the movie had a clever ending.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

what's wrong with how Contact ended?

 

[IronWing]

Wizard of Oz

 

[Possessed Freak]

Army of Darkness

 

[her209]

what's wrong with how Contact ended?

Because you watch the 3 hour movie and the alien changes its form into her father.

LAME!

 

[BrokenVisage]

The Matrix trilogy made me very upset too, but i liked the first two & even a good portion of the third...i guess i just expected too much in hoping for an ending that nicely closed the trilogy.

And that's kinda the issue I have.. people expected too much or something completely different out of the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies. The problem is the story got wider and more complex because now you got Zion, the Machine City, and Agent Smith taking over the Matrix. So we're not focusing on a tight nit group of unplugged freedom fighters anymore, learning about all the cool shit they can do with uploading Kung-Fu on-the-fly and going into construct programs. We're not seeing Mr. Anderson turn from a battery into Neo. We're not seeing the magic that made the first Matrix movie great because the focus has been shifted to the big picture of what Morpheus was trying to accomplish by seeking out Neo. The sequels did what I wanted and expanded the story, I couldn't care less about the cave rave, the love story, Neo being stuck in limbo, and all the other ancillary BS they put in. Yeah there were things I didn't like and a lot of the effects were probably over the top, but a lot of them were pretty well done too.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Because you watch the 3 hour movie and the alien changes its form into her father.

LAME!

Pretty narrow view of the ending if ever I've seen one.

 

[Firestorm007]

I am Legend. Things start getting really cool... and then it ends.

Agreed! However, I thought the alternate ending was way better.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Castaway. Tom Hank's character goes through all of those challenges and emerges as a man who has conquered nature and survived. Then what happens? He comes home and his wife kicks him to the curb because it would be unfair to her new husband to try to recapture their past. Then he goes on a ridiculous package delivery trip and the movie ends like a deflated balloon.

was not his wife, he hadn't even officially proposed to her, he handed her a box which was assume was a ring and told her not to open it until New Years and then said "I'll be right back" and went to go get on the doomed airplane

heck, at the end she jumped into his car and admitted he was the love of her life, but it was HE who pretty much made her go back to her family

if there was a part to complain about the ending of that movie is the fact that Wilson dies, that was bullshit, it was Wilson who was there for him through thick and thin, not that unfaithful bitch

 

[purbeast0]

Signs - was such a cool movie w/a great atmosphere taht went to shit.

LOTR:ROTK - waaaaaaaay to long of an ending and way too many fade to blacks scenes at 4am in the morning.

The Happening - yes ... it really was the plants, killer plants spreading air in the sky, and wind would kill you ... hope i spoiled that for some people so they never have to watch this pile of shit.

Latest Indiana Jones - 2 things ... aliens + monkeys that have hair like elvis. nuff said.

 

[purbeast0]

I saw that movie probably while I was working in a theater in college. The whole thing was pretty lame. I remember having a similar barrage of thoughts when I saw the ending.

M Night is a very inconsistent guy.

no he isnt ... he is very consistent. all of his movies are total shit.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The Final Countdown

Spoiler

Saw this first the first time about a week ago, its from 1980. Premise of the movie is a modern aircraft carrier gets pulled through some kind of time vortex that transports the ship and its crew back in time to December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. The crew must decide whether or not to intervene with the attack and risk messing with such a major historical event. It was fun watching scenes of F14's making Japanese Zero pilots shit their pants, but at the end of the film another freak time-storm-vortex sucks them back to the future before they can decimate the entire Japanese feet. Seemed like a major cop-out and I can only guess that they did it because they simply didn't have the technology and special effects to properly pull off such a climactic battle scene and do it justice

 

[Redfraggle]

no he isnt ... he is very consistent. all of his movies are total shit.

I was thinking about that post later on, and you're actually completely right. The Sixth Sense was great and all, but then pretty much everything else he's done sucks ass. So, previous statement retracted.

When I saw The Village, I saw "the twist" coming a mile away, and it was pretty lame.

The Happening, as somebody pointed out, was equally lame.

I was spared ever seeing The Lady in the Water because everyone told me it was shit.

I saw Signs, and thought he'd seen The Wizard of Oz one too many times while trying to think of a way to take down the aliens.

 

[PowerEngineer]

So you must never want to watch any movie based on a book. They're hardly even close to the books.

QFT

People who were disappointed by the "lame" ending for Contact obviously hadn't read the book. The whole point that Sagan was trying to make about the limits and linkages between science and faith was not (and probably could not) be translated into a movie with an ending that movie-goers would appreciate. IMHO the most thought provoking idea in the book was the suggestion (by the alien) that an intelligence behind creation of the universe could have left a message deep in the digits of pi, and the book ends with Ellie finding such a message. That's all missing from the movie.

As a nearly inviolate rule, movie are never as good as the books they originate from. The only possible exception to the rule is 2001 Space Odyssey. Both the movie and the book were actually expanded out of a short story by Clarke, so in fact the movie did not originate from the book.

 

[FallenHero]

The Final Countdown

Spoiler

Saw this first the first time about a week ago, its from 1980. Premise of the movie is a modern aircraft carrier gets pulled through some kind of time vortex that transports the ship and its crew back in time to December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. The crew must decide whether or not to intervene with the attack and risk messing with such a major historical event. It was fun watching scenes of F14's making Japanese Zero pilots shit their pants, but at the end of the film another freak time-storm-vortex sucks them back to the future before they can decimate the entire Japanese feet. Seemed like a major cop-out and I can only guess that they did it because they simply didn't have the technology and special effects to properly pull off such a climactic battle scene and do it justice

AGREED! I wanted to see them just destroy the jap navy then give their tech to the US. THEN suddenly be transported back to the present and see what has played out.

 

[JohnnyGage]

Just need to reiterate that The Happening was the biggest piece of SHITE this side of Wild, Wild, West and that's saying a lot. M Night has really lost it, no one has taken a nose dive that deep since riding Collosus at Magic Mountain. There have been 'movies' on Cinemax late at night that look like Citizen Kane compared to the Happening.

Couple of good movies that just ended like No Country For Old Men great movie that just ended. A Serious Man did that too, good movie that was starting.

I Am Legend had some of the worst CGI characters ever. Just not believable.