Movies you adore (and the one thing you'd change in them)

[Darth Rosenberg]

I don't tend to have niggling issues which I want changed, but whilst it's not a film I'd say I adore - it certainly is one I really enjoy, and own - the last moments of Joe Wright's Pride And Prejudice always bugs me to the extent that I'm half tempted to fast forward the moment or just stop the film there and then.

Watching Donald 'I'm a bit of an arse, apparently' Sutherland laughing to himself is a truly bizarre way to end a Jane Austin film... I'd rather he wasn't cast in that film at all, but if he has to be there I'd like a special Donald Sutherland Isn't Laughing To Himself Just Before The Credits Edition.

...oh, just remembered another: Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows Part II: it's either the Harry vs Voldemort scene - because it's an utterly terrible and mundane final showdown. Or if not that, axe the mind numbingly daft epilogue scene showing all the characters who shouldn't have married each other in terrible age prosthetics/make-up. Great series [from 3 to most of DH P2], but a cringingly bad final reel.

-Blade Runner: Alter Bryant's lines so that there isn't hypothetically another Replicant running around by the end of the film. Minor point, I know.

I've seen it a ton of times in my life, have it on multiple formats, but can't actually remember what you're specifically referring to. Which lines?

Spider-Man 2: Tone down the scene where Doc Oc kills the doctors. It's a great scene in of itself, but it tonally jars with the rest of the film.

Doc Ock's 'awakening'? C'mon, that's the most quintessentially Raimi-esque scene in the whole film, and I think with the lack of music it works really well. I think it's a perfect tonal fit; very arch, but still sincere and effective (for whatever certificate it is, it's quite nasty).

 

[MetalDooley]

Dredd (2012) aka the good Judge Dredd movie - Make the vehicles look more futuristic which is something they wanted to do but didn't have the budget I believe. It just looks slightly jarring that in a movie supposedly set over 100 years in the future the vehicles are all current day

Change that fucking soundtrack. Mostly it's fine, but a few key scenes have this beepy boopy digital bullshit that was probably considered cutting edge in 1989 but now sounds painfully cheap and dated.

Oh hey, it's on Youtube.

Skip to 6:50 for beepy boopy bullshit.

Oxygene Part 2 by Jean-Michel Jarre. Classic electronic tune but sounds horribly out of place in that movie. Would have suited a sci-fi movie better

Edit: Escapist doesn't like accents over letters aparently. Kept changing the first e in oxygene to a question mark

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Titanic: I would change some of the dialogue that or take out that scene where that guy hits the propeller.

Spider-Man 2: I would give Mary Jane something to do, it's already hard to overlook the damsel she is, but at least I would put her into charity or something so we feel something is at stake when she's in danger.

Pok?mon the first movie: I would exhibit the real version of that movie in cinemas, the one with the backstory and better dialogue, not the cookie cutter version America got and I would add that little "This is the Pok?mon world" that is present in all of the movies except this one.

Frozen: A closing arc for the Count that wanted to overthrow Elsa.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Donnie Darko - Going back in time doesn't prove that everything would have been bette. Swayze is still out there so that's bad...

Maybe make the ending longer to show that would have been a better world.

Spoiler

The directors cut makes things a lot more clear in this regard.

Going back in time was never supposed to make things better, it was supposed to prevent the primary universe being destroyed by the collapse of the tangent universe in which the movie takes place. The primary universe probably was worse, in the primary universe Donnie was an ordinary teenager rather than having superpowers and being guided by improbable events set up by a time travelling ghost to meet hot girls and burn down the houses of paedophiles, but there isn't really a choice. The tangent universe is unstable and doomed.

A bigger problem I have with the film is that there's no real explanation as to why Donnie chooses to die at the end. We know it isn't necessary to close the tangent universe, so it kind of comes out of nowhere (at least, in terms of the film's own rules - thematically it's set up pretty perfectly).

 

[McElroy]

Wall-E - the human couple's antics in the climax. The Captain should've been the only human character of importance.

 

[thenewguy512739]

OT: Phantom Menace, remove the medichlorians. They served no explanatory function in the story, and ultimately made no sense.

I say keep the midichlorians but give Yoda (the embodiment of being one with the Force) a midichlorian count of 0. The Jedi in the prequels weren't the brightest lightsabers on the belt so they should've drove the point home with that.

 

[Worgen]

Captain America: Winter Solder. Don't make Hydra be responsible for all the worlds ills, plus have Captain and Falcon makeout. That last one is important.

 

[Imre Csete]

Back to the Future trillogy is probably the only thing I watch almost on a yearly basis, but the second part has issues.

The future and the messed up present segments are okay (although the recasts stick out), but the revisitng of the first movie's climax is jarring, especially when you binge the movies in one sitting.

I would have loved to see more about the 55 timeline, but not the last few days again.

 

[Hawki]

I've seen it a ton of times in my life, have it on multiple formats, but can't actually remember what you're specifically referring to. Which lines?

http://bladerunner.wikia.com/wiki/The_Six_Renegade_Replicants

That can explain it better than I can.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

- Spirited Away: Don't have the ending run at mach 2 into a brick wall. Draw it out a little. Instead of Haku and Chihiro just running to the tunnel, have them walk hand in hand. Make their separation more bittersweet. It wouldn't affect the plot in any way since at that point the film's essentially over, but it would tug at the heartstrings way more effectively. Also, give us more hints about the connection between them. There are brief hints and glimpses, but the actual revelation still comes almost out of nowhere.

- Kingsman: The Secret Service. Give Roxy a more active role in the climax. Make it a three-way fight between her, Eggsy and Gazelle. Also, add more blood. The film's awesome, but for all the action and violence in it, it still feels a bit clean and dry.

- The Raid 2. Remove the Prakoso character entirely. He serves literally no point in the story. His mini-arc gives some great fight scenes, but little else. Replace his running time with more of the inner workings of the mob. Maybe have Uco take Rama along for some meeting. Or give us a reminder about who exactly we see getting killed in the very beginning, since if you haven't watched the first one days prior to the second, you're bound to have zero clue who he is and why we should care.

- I wouldn't say I adore Princess Mononoke, but it does come close enough, and has one specific thing I've wanted to see in perhaps no other film ever: I wanted to see just a bit of romance between San and Ashitaka. The ending complaint applies here as well, but IMO seeing just a morsel of deeper affection between them would have alleviated that. It's clearly hinted at in the movie, so you can't really think of them as comrades in arms or allies: their caring for each other is genuinely deeper. As it stands the ending leaves both of them feeling a bit cold and detached.

- There is a very minute one in Logan. Without spoiling anything, after what is essentially the movie's emotional low point it very swiftly develops into borderline comedy, albeit briefly. I say borderline, because it's clearly framed and presented in a way that's mean to convey frustration and desperation, but what's actually happening in the scene could be taken straight out of a silly road trip comedy. I didn't think it was funny, but rather emotionally powerful and fitting of the Logan character, but many people in the audience laughed at it, which ruined the atmosphere a bit. If you had Logan do something else than what he does, or toned down Jackman's performance in the scene just a teensy bit, I think the result would be a less tonally jarring sequence.

 

[Kyrian007]

"Event Horizon" I would not have ended it with the "happy" ending that it had. I wanted to see everyone die, Weir win, a "portal" to remain stable... or even everyone dies, but Miller thwarts Weir by blowing everything up. There wasn't any real need for anyone to escape. Maybe it was done to set up a sequel... but even so, why couldn't a sequel just start with a crew sent to investigate what happened?

I actually don't mind the ending. But I think it would have hit just a little harder with a harsher ending.

Also, "Stir of Echoes." The one change I would have made... maybe wait another month or so to release it. Sept. 10th 1999. Maybe it would have done better with a closer to Halloween release. It certainly would have done better not running directly against "The 6th Sense" which opened in the previous month. I still believe that Stir of Echoes is the far superior movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit, while I thought that 6th Sense was seriously disappointing and completely overrated. Yup I hated M. Night Shyamalan movies before it was "cool." Although if scuttlebutt is right... I have to give "Split" a chance.

 

[Queen Michael]

- There is a very minute one in Logan. Without spoiling anything, after what is essentially the movie's emotional low point it very swiftly develops into borderline comedy, albeit briefly. I say borderline, because it's clearly framed and presented in a way that's mean to convey frustration and desperation, but what's actually happening in the scene could be taken straight out of a silly road trip comedy. I didn't think it was funny, but rather emotionally powerful and fitting of the Logan character, but many people in the audience laughed at it, which ruined the atmosphere a bit. If you had Logan do something else than what he does, or toned down Jackman's performance in the scene just a teensy bit, I think the result would be a less tonally jarring sequence.

I know the part you're talking about. I didn't have an actual problem with it, but I'll concede I wouldn't mind a change either.

The original Star Wars. Change the "twelve parsec" line to "twelve minutes." I don't care that it's explained in a now-non-canonical EU novel.

 

[persephone]

Captain America, Civil War: Add a scene, a proper, quiet scene, fleshing out Cap and Sharon Carter's relationship. I kinda felt like their arc got left on the cutting room floor somehow, even though they don't have any real deleted material together. I'm cool with Steve moving on from Peggy, you mourn and go on with your life, but I kinda was left with no sense of who Sharon was beyond "pretty spy that Steve likes, because."

It wouldn't get in the way of the plot to add some character development there, show us how and why they're attracted and who she is as a character. As it is ... I've seen the movie more than once, and Winter Soldier too, and I've no idea who this woman is other than "Love Interest #2." And after how well they fleshed out Love Interest #1 (and that's BEFORE she got her own show), it just seems a shame.

Hmm. Now that I am thinking on it, here's another change: Make Sharon Carter not be related to Peggy Carter. Sure, she's her great-niece, it's not a super close relationship, but it's still a bit ... incestuous, a smidge. The connection could still be there, no problem, but it doesn't have to be via a biological relationship. Say that it turns out Peggy mentored Sharon in her final years at SHIELD, and they remained close until the end of Peggy's life. Give Sharon a different last name, even, or at least turn the same last name into a funny coincidence that was shared as a joke between them. Again, no change to the plot, but gets rid of that slight shade of creepy that's in there.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Dark Knight Rises: Several things about the second half I'd change, but most importantly the pacing of the battle to retake Gotham. I'd like to see more actions by the citizens after they see the Bat symbol working in small, yet significant ways to help reclaim their home, such as the chalk bat marks being used by the children to show the truck routes. Bruce's quest to inspire people to fight back against evil bearing fruit, shades of a memorable (for me) page in the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel where a mugger steals from an old lady... and about two dozen Gothamites surround and beat the crap out of him.

It just felt like everything was so rushed in part 2. Drawing out Bat vs. Bane round 2 and adding a bit more dialogue to it would have also helped convey the difficulty of the struggle.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The Punisher: War Zone is my all-time favorite Marvel film. That film is damn-near perfect so I'm going to just stop talking about it now and tell you what I'd change about Deadpool, my second favorite Marvel Movie at the moment. There's a deleted scene that I'm sure you've seen or heard of wherein Wade is trying to find a legitimate place to treat his cancer. He winds up in Mexico(?) where he finds a phoney doctor who's essentially just taking money in exchange for a short "poke, prod, by the power of God you're cured!" kind of thing. Wade walks in on a "treatment" and beats the 'Doctor' to death in front of his girlfriend and a bunch of the people in the waiting room. It's a huge tonal shift but I do like the context it gives in explaining why Wade eventually chooses to sign up for Weapon X or whatever it was in the movie.

One more thing: I recently saw the currently in-theaters remake of Beauty and the Beast and if there's one thing that I would have liked to have seen (or maybe I just missed it) it's a reference to Maestro Forte. Forte was the antagonist of one of the crappy direct-to-video sequels to BatB but as an antagonist I remember liking it. It would have been cool to have seen Forte if only for a moment or to see it get smashed into rampaging townsfolk.