Bonnie's list of badly resolved films
Or more to the point, films/ TV shows/ anything with terrible or disappointing endings! I have a real bugbear towards films and books which don't end properly! (By this, I mean endings that make no sense what-so-ever to the rest of the plot).
*Warning, may contain spoilers* Do not read next paragraph if you do not want to know about Inception.
There is a difference between open endings and terrible endings. An open ending is a film which leaves the viewer to make up his or her mind about what happened next. An example of this would be Inception. For those who have not seen it, the idea behind the film, is that you can jump into someone's dream while they sleep (with the right equipment and technology, and an architect to 'design' the world in which the dream takes place so that you know how to escape etc), and that inside the dream, you can plant an idea, so that when the person awakes, they think they have had a brilliant idea, when in actual fact, they have effectively been brainwashed. The only way to leave these dreams are if you die, (i.e you have to die in order to wake up). Also there are different levels to dreaming, i.e you could be dreaming that you are having a dream. In between the levels of dreaming and trying to plant an idea, there are flashbacks to the main character's past (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), in which the film reveals that he and his wife used to share each others dreams. In the flashbacks, we see him and his wife inside these dreams, but also flashbacks to reality. His wife was so convinced that reality was a dream, that she jumped off a building to 'wake up'. There are various hints scattered around the film, such as the fact that each character has a toy or a nick-nack which is unique to themselves, and somehow relates to gravity so that they can tell if they are dreaming (If the object falls to the ground then you are in reality, whereas inside a dream, the rules of gravity wouldn't apply). At the end of the film, Leo spins his little top, which spins and wobbles just as the camera cuts out.
Christopher Nolan (director) therefore leaves us to make our own decisions about the films ending. Is Leo still dreaming, or did he actually wake up after they planted the idea? The film's title gives nothing away, as Nolan is planting the idea into our heads that the film was a dream, without actually making the answer clear. Inception is the perfect example of an open ending, as people still debate over the ending, and everyone has a different interpretation. Open endings are my favourite kind of ending. The writer does not give too much away, and it leaves the audience to decide for themselves, allowing them to engage more with the film/book. A good film/book ending gives the viewer closure, and wraps things up in a nice little package, whereas an open ending leaves you thinking about the mystery for hours afterwards.
A terrible ending on the other hand, is just plain awful. Here is my hitlist of films with terribly written endings, rated on a scale of 1-10 flies. The more flies, the more the ending stinks.
Knowing: 20/10
Knowing, starts with a promising premise. It starts with a class of children 50 years in the past, with each child drawing a picture for another child in the class of 2009 to be given 50 years later. Fast forward to 2009, and Nicolas Cage's son is given a page full of seemingly random numbers. I can't remember what happens next, but somehow Nicolas Cage works out that the numbers correspond to accidents, disasters and death tolls. Every major disaster from the last 50 years has been predicted, including September 11th. More huge disasters are predicted, and as the accidents get to the bottom of the page, Cage wonders what the mysterious 'EE' could possibly mean. With a brilliant premise, and brilliant action sequences, the film builds up to a suspenseful climax. Basically, EE as it turns out, means literally 'Everyone else'. The Death Toll of the next natural disaster, is everyone else left in the world. Great, so Nicolas Cage will save the world right? I mean come on, what's the point in building up to a huge suspenseful climax if he can't save the world? What's that? You mean the writers have written themselves into such a big hole that they can't find their way out of it? and that the film has gone waaaaay over budget that they can't afford to write or film a decent ending? So, you ask, how do they manage to stop the sun from exploding? Well they don't. Instead, they decide to bring in a race of aliens who kidnap (or should I say 'save?') a boy and a girl from each country/town/whatever, Noah's Ark style, and take them to another planet to grow up and in theory re-populate mankind on another planet, strangely enough which looks the way most of us would picture the Garden of Eden. What a cop out! Anything would have been better. Even if it was all a dream it would have been better! The Aliens have very little context in the film at all. Yes the children start to see the Aliens throughout the film, but they don't really interact with the plot until the very end. its like they had an action film, and a science fiction film, and accidentally shredded the film in the cutting room, and spliced the wrong films together.This is the worst ending I have ever seen in a film, ever! and that includes the others, below.
Haywire 8/10
Haywire has a promising cast, and coming from they guy who made Ocean's Eleven, you'd expect it to be brilliant. The posters and trailers looked great, but the actual film itself is disappointing to say the least. The main character, works alone, and there is no sense of suspense, nothing to get you on the edge of your seat, and too many background characters to keep track of their names. The main character Mallory, is some kind of a female version of Jason Bourne, but without the memory issues. She works for Ewan McGregor who sets her up on missions for various contacts. on the latest mission for some random reason he decides to set her up and double cross her. She finds out, and the film is basically her getting even with him. Instead of her working with other people she trusts, she works alone, and as a result, there is nothing much happening with the plot. She makes a few phone calls, finds out what she needs to know, and hunts down the bad guy. No explosions and very little gun fire. Everything is pretty much hand to hand combat, and as she is on her own, it is just her fighting one or two other guys. the pace is slow, and there is very little music or sound in the background, so we just hear them grunting and smashing stuff up, which makes it even more boring. Antonio Bandaras is an old man with a beard and a beer belly. He could have been much more useful and entertaining if he had an active role. Ewan Mcgregor's character is just weedy and annoying, and all he does is hide and cower from Malloy. Channing Tatum is the best thing about the film, and he's only in about 2 scenes.
Skyline: 5/10
Skyline, like Knowing starts off with a good premise. A group of friends are having a party in the penthouse suite of an LA skyscraper. Suddenly they see flashing blue lights out of the windows, and whoever looks directly into the light, disappears into thin air. Ok great, so they will band together to wait the aliens out, and wait for help to arrive, and the earth will be saved right? Right? Wrong. They try to escape to safety, and when this doesn't work (The aliens kill anyone who leaves the building), they decide to go to the roof to wait for helicopters. Only the Helicopters don't come. The aliens come instead. The hero (Played by Eric Balfour) is instead zapped by the blue light only for his brain to be implanted into an aliens body. It turns out that he becomes an alien, just in time to save his pregnant girlfriend from the aliens who want to keep her with the other pregnant women until they give birth (to supply more brains for them). This is more of an open ending than a bad one, as it leaves us with more questions such as: What happens to the rest of humanity? If he is still the same person, then surely the other alien bodies with human brains will be able to save their loved ones, or they could even band together to stop the aliens taking over the earth? The reason that I have classed this as a bad ending, is because it stopped too soon. There was more of the story to be told, and unless they are planning a sequel, the film ends too abruptly, almost as if they couldn't be bothered to finish the script.
The Last Song: 7/10
The Last Song made me cry my eyes out, but why? Was it the sad story? Good acting? Bad acting? Bad ending? Watching Miley Cyrus kissing Liam Hemsworth? Yes it was the sad story. But what is even sadder is that the film was missing the plot. Its your typical clichéd scenario of the troubled and rebellious teenager, who has been sent away for the summer, then meets a boy who as it turns out is not what he seems and has a 'deep' personality, then disaster strikes in the form of a parent who dies from cancer, the couple then have a fight and then after a montage of sad music and memories, they randomly see each other again and kiss and make up. The End. All in the space of 1hour 40 minutes. For me it was just over too quickly, there didn't really seem to be anything happening, and the passing of time didn't really work at all. I only cried because Funerals make everyone cry don't they? even fictional ones? On another note this film is missing something (other than originality). For a 17 year old girl, it seems very strange that you don't see her with a mobile phone, not even once. No laptop or computer either, and the only hint of an mp3 player is at the start when she sulks around the beach wearing headphones. If she has been sent to spend the summer with her father, wouldn't she miss her friends, and want to email/ facebook or text her friends back home? It is totally unrealistic and doesn't make sense at all.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 2/10
To be completely honest, I don't have a problem with this film. I just thought I would give it a mention because it received a lot of criticism over the ending. I actually like the Indiana Jones series. And the ending is no more ridiculous than the ending of any of the previous Jones films. I mean come on, is it really so hard to believe that aliens exist in a world where the holy grail can give life to the dead or a metallic box can cause people to evaporate unless they close their eyes and do not look into the light? No, the ending is not the main issue I have with this film. The main issue I have is this:
Surviving a nuclear explosion by hiding inside a fridge??? really??
Lost: 7/10
Ok ,so technically Lost isn't a film, but come on, the end totally sucked!! Ever since the pilot, we've been watching and waiting patiently for answers. We've watched them kill each other, time travel, and even watched them escape from the island, only for them to all end up back where they started. But do they? They meet up again in the afterlife, which still doesn't give anyone any answers! Like why do the lottery numbers have such an important part to play, and where did the horse and the polar bear come from, and if Jack died to take the place of Jacob, then how did he manage to die, in order to meet them all in the afterlife? While I'm all for open endings, this ending doesn't give us any facts upon which to decide any answers for ourselves.
The Godfather Part 3: 9/10
The Godfather Part 3. Need I say more? If you haven't already seen it, please don't bother. It is 3 hours of your life that you will never be able to get back. I can't even remember how the film ended, but I'm pretty sure everyone dies. I have not included this because of its ending, but because it is the ending to the trilogy. Why couldn't they leave it at 2 films? Contrary to popular belief, the best things do not always come in threes, and if they do, then this is not the way to prove it.
Lord of the rings: Return of the King: 11/10
Wow. This film was epic, and so was the ending. I was unfortunate enough to sit through this for 3 hours in the cinema. The ring was destroyed after only 2 hours. Every time I thought it was the end, they cut to another scene. Why for the love of God, did it take an entire hour to wrap it up and have all the characters go their separate ways?! Maybe the better question should be: Why did I not just leave the cinema after the ring was destroyed?!
More to come soon.
*Warning, may contain spoilers* Do not read next paragraph if you do not want to know about Inception.
There is a difference between open endings and terrible endings. An open ending is a film which leaves the viewer to make up his or her mind about what happened next. An example of this would be Inception. For those who have not seen it, the idea behind the film, is that you can jump into someone's dream while they sleep (with the right equipment and technology, and an architect to 'design' the world in which the dream takes place so that you know how to escape etc), and that inside the dream, you can plant an idea, so that when the person awakes, they think they have had a brilliant idea, when in actual fact, they have effectively been brainwashed. The only way to leave these dreams are if you die, (i.e you have to die in order to wake up). Also there are different levels to dreaming, i.e you could be dreaming that you are having a dream. In between the levels of dreaming and trying to plant an idea, there are flashbacks to the main character's past (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), in which the film reveals that he and his wife used to share each others dreams. In the flashbacks, we see him and his wife inside these dreams, but also flashbacks to reality. His wife was so convinced that reality was a dream, that she jumped off a building to 'wake up'. There are various hints scattered around the film, such as the fact that each character has a toy or a nick-nack which is unique to themselves, and somehow relates to gravity so that they can tell if they are dreaming (If the object falls to the ground then you are in reality, whereas inside a dream, the rules of gravity wouldn't apply). At the end of the film, Leo spins his little top, which spins and wobbles just as the camera cuts out.
Christopher Nolan (director) therefore leaves us to make our own decisions about the films ending. Is Leo still dreaming, or did he actually wake up after they planted the idea? The film's title gives nothing away, as Nolan is planting the idea into our heads that the film was a dream, without actually making the answer clear. Inception is the perfect example of an open ending, as people still debate over the ending, and everyone has a different interpretation. Open endings are my favourite kind of ending. The writer does not give too much away, and it leaves the audience to decide for themselves, allowing them to engage more with the film/book. A good film/book ending gives the viewer closure, and wraps things up in a nice little package, whereas an open ending leaves you thinking about the mystery for hours afterwards.
A terrible ending on the other hand, is just plain awful. Here is my hitlist of films with terribly written endings, rated on a scale of 1-10 flies. The more flies, the more the ending stinks.
Knowing: 20/10
Knowing, starts with a promising premise. It starts with a class of children 50 years in the past, with each child drawing a picture for another child in the class of 2009 to be given 50 years later. Fast forward to 2009, and Nicolas Cage's son is given a page full of seemingly random numbers. I can't remember what happens next, but somehow Nicolas Cage works out that the numbers correspond to accidents, disasters and death tolls. Every major disaster from the last 50 years has been predicted, including September 11th. More huge disasters are predicted, and as the accidents get to the bottom of the page, Cage wonders what the mysterious 'EE' could possibly mean. With a brilliant premise, and brilliant action sequences, the film builds up to a suspenseful climax. Basically, EE as it turns out, means literally 'Everyone else'. The Death Toll of the next natural disaster, is everyone else left in the world. Great, so Nicolas Cage will save the world right? I mean come on, what's the point in building up to a huge suspenseful climax if he can't save the world? What's that? You mean the writers have written themselves into such a big hole that they can't find their way out of it? and that the film has gone waaaaay over budget that they can't afford to write or film a decent ending? So, you ask, how do they manage to stop the sun from exploding? Well they don't. Instead, they decide to bring in a race of aliens who kidnap (or should I say 'save?') a boy and a girl from each country/town/whatever, Noah's Ark style, and take them to another planet to grow up and in theory re-populate mankind on another planet, strangely enough which looks the way most of us would picture the Garden of Eden. What a cop out! Anything would have been better. Even if it was all a dream it would have been better! The Aliens have very little context in the film at all. Yes the children start to see the Aliens throughout the film, but they don't really interact with the plot until the very end. its like they had an action film, and a science fiction film, and accidentally shredded the film in the cutting room, and spliced the wrong films together.This is the worst ending I have ever seen in a film, ever! and that includes the others, below.
Haywire 8/10
Haywire has a promising cast, and coming from they guy who made Ocean's Eleven, you'd expect it to be brilliant. The posters and trailers looked great, but the actual film itself is disappointing to say the least. The main character, works alone, and there is no sense of suspense, nothing to get you on the edge of your seat, and too many background characters to keep track of their names. The main character Mallory, is some kind of a female version of Jason Bourne, but without the memory issues. She works for Ewan McGregor who sets her up on missions for various contacts. on the latest mission for some random reason he decides to set her up and double cross her. She finds out, and the film is basically her getting even with him. Instead of her working with other people she trusts, she works alone, and as a result, there is nothing much happening with the plot. She makes a few phone calls, finds out what she needs to know, and hunts down the bad guy. No explosions and very little gun fire. Everything is pretty much hand to hand combat, and as she is on her own, it is just her fighting one or two other guys. the pace is slow, and there is very little music or sound in the background, so we just hear them grunting and smashing stuff up, which makes it even more boring. Antonio Bandaras is an old man with a beard and a beer belly. He could have been much more useful and entertaining if he had an active role. Ewan Mcgregor's character is just weedy and annoying, and all he does is hide and cower from Malloy. Channing Tatum is the best thing about the film, and he's only in about 2 scenes.
Skyline: 5/10
Skyline, like Knowing starts off with a good premise. A group of friends are having a party in the penthouse suite of an LA skyscraper. Suddenly they see flashing blue lights out of the windows, and whoever looks directly into the light, disappears into thin air. Ok great, so they will band together to wait the aliens out, and wait for help to arrive, and the earth will be saved right? Right? Wrong. They try to escape to safety, and when this doesn't work (The aliens kill anyone who leaves the building), they decide to go to the roof to wait for helicopters. Only the Helicopters don't come. The aliens come instead. The hero (Played by Eric Balfour) is instead zapped by the blue light only for his brain to be implanted into an aliens body. It turns out that he becomes an alien, just in time to save his pregnant girlfriend from the aliens who want to keep her with the other pregnant women until they give birth (to supply more brains for them). This is more of an open ending than a bad one, as it leaves us with more questions such as: What happens to the rest of humanity? If he is still the same person, then surely the other alien bodies with human brains will be able to save their loved ones, or they could even band together to stop the aliens taking over the earth? The reason that I have classed this as a bad ending, is because it stopped too soon. There was more of the story to be told, and unless they are planning a sequel, the film ends too abruptly, almost as if they couldn't be bothered to finish the script.
The Last Song: 7/10
The Last Song made me cry my eyes out, but why? Was it the sad story? Good acting? Bad acting? Bad ending? Watching Miley Cyrus kissing Liam Hemsworth? Yes it was the sad story. But what is even sadder is that the film was missing the plot. Its your typical clichéd scenario of the troubled and rebellious teenager, who has been sent away for the summer, then meets a boy who as it turns out is not what he seems and has a 'deep' personality, then disaster strikes in the form of a parent who dies from cancer, the couple then have a fight and then after a montage of sad music and memories, they randomly see each other again and kiss and make up. The End. All in the space of 1hour 40 minutes. For me it was just over too quickly, there didn't really seem to be anything happening, and the passing of time didn't really work at all. I only cried because Funerals make everyone cry don't they? even fictional ones? On another note this film is missing something (other than originality). For a 17 year old girl, it seems very strange that you don't see her with a mobile phone, not even once. No laptop or computer either, and the only hint of an mp3 player is at the start when she sulks around the beach wearing headphones. If she has been sent to spend the summer with her father, wouldn't she miss her friends, and want to email/ facebook or text her friends back home? It is totally unrealistic and doesn't make sense at all.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 2/10
To be completely honest, I don't have a problem with this film. I just thought I would give it a mention because it received a lot of criticism over the ending. I actually like the Indiana Jones series. And the ending is no more ridiculous than the ending of any of the previous Jones films. I mean come on, is it really so hard to believe that aliens exist in a world where the holy grail can give life to the dead or a metallic box can cause people to evaporate unless they close their eyes and do not look into the light? No, the ending is not the main issue I have with this film. The main issue I have is this:
Surviving a nuclear explosion by hiding inside a fridge??? really??
Lost: 7/10
Ok ,so technically Lost isn't a film, but come on, the end totally sucked!! Ever since the pilot, we've been watching and waiting patiently for answers. We've watched them kill each other, time travel, and even watched them escape from the island, only for them to all end up back where they started. But do they? They meet up again in the afterlife, which still doesn't give anyone any answers! Like why do the lottery numbers have such an important part to play, and where did the horse and the polar bear come from, and if Jack died to take the place of Jacob, then how did he manage to die, in order to meet them all in the afterlife? While I'm all for open endings, this ending doesn't give us any facts upon which to decide any answers for ourselves.
The Godfather Part 3: 9/10
The Godfather Part 3. Need I say more? If you haven't already seen it, please don't bother. It is 3 hours of your life that you will never be able to get back. I can't even remember how the film ended, but I'm pretty sure everyone dies. I have not included this because of its ending, but because it is the ending to the trilogy. Why couldn't they leave it at 2 films? Contrary to popular belief, the best things do not always come in threes, and if they do, then this is not the way to prove it.
Lord of the rings: Return of the King: 11/10
Wow. This film was epic, and so was the ending. I was unfortunate enough to sit through this for 3 hours in the cinema. The ring was destroyed after only 2 hours. Every time I thought it was the end, they cut to another scene. Why for the love of God, did it take an entire hour to wrap it up and have all the characters go their separate ways?! Maybe the better question should be: Why did I not just leave the cinema after the ring was destroyed?!
More to come soon.