"That Choice Ruined The Rest Of The Movie For Me": 23 Movies That Started Strong Before Fizzling Out
Sometimes, seeing a good movie slowly devolve into a bad one is a more painful experience than simply watching a bad movie. All that potential wasted! So there were plenty of responses when redditor r/CatholicCockney asked the film lovers of r/movies, "What's the worst final act to an otherwise good film that that you've ever seen?" Here are 23 of their suggestions.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
1."Hancock totally fell apart. It might even be fair to say only the first act was good."
2."Recently, Don't Worry Darling. Enjoyable, beautifully shot movie until it goes off the rails in a confusing final act. Nothing was explained, or maybe I'm just not smart enough to get it. It felt unfinished and rushed at the end."
3."Downsizing. Starts off with a great idea that could possibly turn into a quirky fun movie, and totally goes off the rails and loses everyone with its craptacular ending."
4."The ending of Law Abiding Citizen turned a 10/10 movie into a 3/10."
5."Unpopular one, but Spider-Man: No Way Home. They completely removed everything that made MCU’s Spider-Man different from other interpretations just to make it another generic 'poor, lonely Peter' story, which we have seen over and over again."
6."Tomorrowland (2015). The movie itself had many flaws throughout, but the first two-thirds of the film were enjoyable. Then the climax just felt so underwhelming."
7."Black Widow. The last CGI fight ruined a lot."
8."Frozen. It goes from a great movie into a movie where trolls sing about breaking up couples for no reason, unnecessary reversals happen that do not make sense, and the idea that you can't fall in love in a day is abandoned by having the leads fall in love in two days instead. Although Anna saving Elsa to break the spell at the very end does bring things back up again."
9."Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. They could’ve had a great father-son conflict, but instead they had to bring a monster in so they can have some last-minute 'action.'"
10."I really enjoyed Lightyear until the big Zurg reveal at the end of Act 2. That choice ruined the rest of the movie for me."
11."The Dark Knight Rises. In a short time span: A weak fight between Bane and Batman (the sewer one, at least, was good), Bane is revealed to not actually be the main villain and is just killed off by Catwoman, and then Talia's laughable death scene. Prior to Bruce getting to the courthouse or city hall, whatever that was, it was a pretty great movie."
12."Prometheus. Very interesting setup and atmosphere, and then they just didn't know what to do with it."
13."A Cure for Wellness. Now, to be clear, it's not a 10/10 even before the last act, but I think it's decent. But the final act is straight out of a different movie. Absolutely baffling how that was the ending."
14."The Wolverine. Everything up until he gets captured and taken to the castle is great. After that, it just turns into a CGI robot fight."
15."It's not a GOOD film, but I was having a really fun time with Next, which is a stupid but entertaining Nicolas Cage film. Fun premise, good action, and I was really enjoying it. Then the ending happens, and it ruins the whole damn thing. Totally off the rails, and makes it one of his worst films. What a shame."
16."To be honest, I really enjoyed Glass until the final fight and ending."
17."I'm an avid horror fan, writer, and hunter, so Antlers appealed to all those aspects of my life. I only saw it once when it came out a year ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details now, but I can't remember a time when I was more engaged in a theater than I was on the night I went to see it. I thought the first two acts were paced well, the acting was great, and it did a phenomenal job of slowly building the terror of the wendigo... until we have like two or three people all walk into the same shed and get attacked in the same manner. It killed the suspense after the second person got killed in almost the same manner as the first. I thought the whole sequence was lazy and cheap."
"After that, the pacing felt extremely rushed, and I thought the final confrontation with the wendigo was vastly underwhelming. It sucks, too, because the design of the wendigo monster was excellent and almost exactly how I imagined it would look like. Before that shed sequence, it was like a 9/10 for me. When the credits rolled, it was a 6/10."
18."The cheap-looking war-scene parts at the end of Stripes are not that great. I much prefer all the boot camp stuff."
19."The House on Haunted Hill (1999) remake. Absolutely fantastic until what is quite possibly one of the worst endings I've ever seen in a movie. It is thematically all over the place, garish visually, and completely gives up on being a horror movie and shifts to action."
20."Wonder Woman, which had an otherwise strong two-thirds of a movie. The final act just didn't do it for me."
21."Passengers was pretty good until they turned it into a generic save-the-world flick and swept all the psychological tension under the rug. Moon is a much better alternative."
22."Spectre. The Daniel Craig era really dropped the ball on the depiction and backstory of Blofeld, and the final chase is really bad and silly. And I love the Craig James Bond movies."
23."Ugh, Interstellar. The science and special effects already had me stoked to see this movie; then they announced Anne Hathaway as a scientist? I was sold. The first two-thirds of the movie are visually and narratively amazing. I absolutely love the fallout of their actions on the high-gravity planet, and how all of the characters grow and react to the situation. Then comes the third act. The only two female characters with any screentime end up using the Power of Love and Friendship, with the help of a black hole, to give the main character the epiphany he needs to save the day. I legit almost walked out of the theater, I was so pissed. Interstellar should have been our generation’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead, it was basically the series finale of a lost 'magical girl' anime."
What are some other movies where you loved the beginning and middle, then hated the ending? Tell us about them in the comments!
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