There's nothing quite as frustrating as a bad movie ending.
"No!"
Failure to stick that landing in the final act can totally ruin an otherwise great movie,
or give us one more reason to hate one that was already a dud.
Here's a look at some of the most annoying movie endings in recent memory.
And it should go without saying, but...spoilers ahead…
Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix trilogy always tried to be more of a thinking person's action flick than your
average kung fu kick-fest, so it didn't exactly come as a surprise when the second and third
installments took a deeper look at the complex ideas behind all the action.
Still, it was pretty disappointing when the series was capped off by a confusing blur
that went from hand-to-hand combat directly into...poorly explained Eastern mysticism.
"Look look!"
"Just look at that"
When you end up needing fan sites and message boards to try to explain the ending of your
trilogy, you've clearly done something wrong.
X-Men: The Last Stand
For the third film in the successful X-Men franchise, screenwriters Simon Kinberg and
Zak Penn tried to bring the force that consumed and killed Jean Grey, the Dark Phoenix, to
the big screen.
Unfortunately, budget and studio limitations prevented the filmmakers from adapting the
comic story properly and fans were left with a lackluster version of the tale.
The restrictions made the deaths of crucial characters virtually meaningless — and the
movie's big emotional moment was completely undercut by a confusing post-credits scene.
"Charles?"
Sure, the movie made money, but The Last Stand was so widely disliked that it sent the entire
X-Men franchise into limbo for years.
Signs
There is no shortage of movies depicting hostile aliens invading our planet.
But somehow it's a story that needs constant retelling.
This is likely because it's been quite effective — and it seems that you've got to really
go off the rails in order to screw it up.
"There's a monster that's outside my room can I have a glass of water?"
Sadly, that's just what M. Night Shyamalan did with Signs.
The film is very well cast and for the most part tells an effective story.
But unfortunately all of that goes out the window when this alien thriller revealed that
the aliens' one big weakness is… friendship and cuddles.
I'm just kidding.
It was actually just water.
Earth is over seventy percent water.
So isn’t it a little strange that an alien species advanced enough to travel across the
galaxy and try take over a planet would pick a destination covered mostly by a substance
than can destroy them?
Perhaps Shyamalan will one day reveal that real twist of Signs was that the aliens were
on a self destructive intergalactic mission.
That would make a lot more sense.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
What do you get when you try to depict one of the most emotional moments in a comic book
character's history while also setting up a slew of studio-mandated spin-offs?
If you guessed "The Cancellation Of The Third Movie In The Trilogy," you’re right!
The last act of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a mess as it tried to squeeze in killing off
Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy right before rushing into a climax that dealt with the twin dangers
of Electro and the Green Goblin.
As if that wasn’t enough, the movie also tried to fit in a tease for Sony's then planned
Sinister Six standalone feature.
Like a lot of subpar superhero movies, it all ended up being a lot of noise with not
much emotional impact, and the negative reaction killed the franchise and sent the quippy webslinger
swinging right back into Marvel’s welcoming arms.
Now You See Me
There's nothing quite as frustrating as a dumb movie that thinks it's smart.
And Now You See Me is a perfect example of a confident idiot.
"I am so smart.
I am so smart.
S-M-R-…
I mean S-M-A-R-T!"
Films that rely heavily on sleight of hand and double-crossing are a lot of fun.
But while they're busy with their tricks, they often forget to tell an actual story
— and that’s exactly what happened here.
"This is all for show, correct?"
The final act, in which Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent character reveals himself to be the
shadowy figure behind a secret order of magicians, is as absurd as it is boring.
The most infuriating part of all this is that the movie has a fantastic cast behind it — and
it's hard not to imagine the angry people sitting in the theater feeling like the the
movie had played a trick on them.
I Am Legend
They say the third time's the charm, but that sadly proved not to be the case for Richard
Matheson's classic novella I Am Legend.
After a pair of poorly made adaptations, Hollywood had a chance to finally get it right with
I Am Legend in 2007.
Unfortunately, even after more than 40 years, Matheson's tale of a scientist living as the
last man on Earth still turned out to be too dark for studio execs.
The biggest problem: the movie's third act, in which the main character comes to understand
that instead of being humanity's final hope, he's actually a monster in the eyes of the
planet's new civilization.
"Let me save you!
Let me save you!"
After test screening audiences rejected the original ending — you know, the one that
was in the actual book it was based on — director Francis Lawrence had to reshoot it, thus turning
a potentially thought-provoking picture into just another forgettable CGI Editor’s demo
reel.
Man of Steel
Some people hate it, some people love it.
But regardless of where you stand, there's no denying that Man of Steel has one of the
most hotly debated movie endings in recent memory.
Some fans were on board with director Zack Snyder's over-the-top climactic battle, which
ends with Superman snapping General Zod's neck.
But many moviegoers who grew up with Superman felt that his decision to execute the movie's
villain was unnecessary — and even downright offensive.
Man Of Steel’s ending also received serious backlash for the amount of destruction and
death it brought flying through the core of Metropolis.
The giant box office numbers might suggest that fans loved this movie...but just about
any film about Superman is going to make money, so maybe that’s not the best measuring stick.
Although it wasn’t as critically panned as Batman V Superman,
"Hello darkness my old friend."
Man Of Steel definitely presented an ending that had many fans up in arms.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Generally speaking, there's nothing wrong with the way the Lord of the Rings saga concludes.
Frodo completes his quest, the ring gets all melted, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Yet, it seemed like director Peter Jackson really didn’t want the movie to end, as
the conclusion seems to drag on and on before finally cutting to the end credits.
When you look at the series of scenes that slowly plays out over the last act of The
Return of the King, it seems like the movie just doesn’t want to, like, go away.
And just when you think the movie is finally over, you find yourself sitting through yet
another leisurely look at life after the fall of Sauron.
Instead of feeling satisfied at the end of a story well-told, lots of fans found themselves
getting bored while a bunch of Hobbits jumped around on a bed in slow motion.
Damn those slow motion hobbits!
"Haha."
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