Movies you wished to had stopped watching after a specific point?

[Chanticoblues]

it's a film with a good plot that's told with excruciating tedium

I think it's such a fun film on a shot-by-shot level; there's so much going on. I don't imagine you have many good things to say about Antonioni, Tarr, Alonso, Akerman, Benning, etc.

 

[Ye Bobbum Man]

Avatar, specifically, after the first femtosecond.

 

[Squilookle]

Good thread idea!

First thing that comes to mind is No Country For Old Men. It was fantastic until it

Spoiler

abandoned that suspenseful chase movie structure and wen't all existential and pointless on itself

And I'm gonna surprise everyone by saying Wall-E. First 20 minutes were pure gold, but after that it just got worse and worse and worse.

Yeah, I never really found 2001 tedious at all. If that's tedious, I wonder what you'd think of Solaris. That I found hard to sit through. Gonna have to try again sometime I have nothing else to do.

2001 was only slightly tedious for me. The inexplicable ending is what peeved me off with that one. Solaris though... that was torture. You're talking about the Russian one, right? I haven't seen the Clooney version yet but man did the original drag. That excruciating highway driving bit was so pointless until I found out they only shot that to justify a trip over to Japan. I stuck with the film till the end and I'm sort of glad I did... but it really didn't need to be that long.

 

[Random Encounter]

Sunshine may be the only movie that actually worked better as a thriller BEFORE the monster showed up and it just became a corny Alien knock-off.

 

[Hawki]

Surprised no one has said this already but The Dark Knight rises is the obvious pick for me. Pretty sure I don't need to explain why/ where it fell apart for people who've seen it.

Um...where? I thought that the film had its problems rooted at the start, in that we have a frantically paced first half, and a slow paced second half, to the extent that it feels like two movies compressed together. Course you can point to other problems as well, but I can't think of any one single point, except maybe when Bruce and Talia make out (because, reasons).

it's a film with a good plot that's told with excruciating tedium

I think it's such a fun film on a shot-by-shot level; there's so much going on. I don't imagine you have many good things to say about Antonioni, Tarr, Alonso, Akerman, Benning, etc.

Can't comment on those directors. If you want to discuss things 'happening per shot,' then I think a lot of acclaim can go to films like Blade Runner, RGB, Apocalypse Now, The Revenant, and maybe Citizen Kane (though I'd say its strengths are more based on the style of shot rather than material per shot). Thing is, for me, 2001 has things happening to various extents, but not enough to prevent tedium setting in.

Yeah, I never really found 2001 tedious at all. If that's tedious, I wonder what you'd think of Solaris. That I found hard to sit through. Gonna have to try again sometime I have nothing else to do.

I've only seen the 2002 film, and I loathed it. We have an interesting concept (an intelligent planet, whose manner of thought is so different from humanity's that it conveys how futile it is for one to try to understand the other), and boils it down to relationship melodrama.

And I'm gonna surprise everyone by saying Wall-E. First 20 minutes were pure gold, but after that it just got worse and worse and worse.

You monster! ;p

2001 was only slightly tedious for me. The inexplicable ending is what peeved me off with that one.

Funnily enough, I feel the ending is perhaps the one area that the film surpasses the novel (maybe the second, as book!HAL doesn't quite reach the level of menace as film!HAL). Problem with the novel is that the ending is very abrupt. The film's ending, with Dave as the Star Child, conveys far more granduer. It also ties in better with the film's theme(s) (evolution, journey of mankind, etc.), then the book's ending does with the book's themes (evolution, loneliness/aspiration/desire, etc.)

 

[crimsonspear4D]

The last airbender, christ, that was a shit show. I mean I knew it was gonna be a bad live-action movie, but it was like no one even watched the cartoon and only read the cliff notes. I could forgive the all the cg and terrible pacing if the actors and the story WEREN'T. SO. BORING. But as odd as this sounds, I wouldn't mind seeing a live action Korra movie NOT DONE BY SHAYAMALAN. Maybe then we could see a Korrasami romance as the creators intended.

Dawn of the Dead is also a movie I wished I skipped completely, not because it was bad or anything, more so after the scene where they finally decided to leave the mall. I mean, I get it they had to leave sooner or later but if it wasn't for that dumbass girl trying to rescue that dog they might of been able to stay around a little longer and hatched a better plan.

 

[Chanticoblues]

Can't comment on those directors. If you want to discuss things 'happening per shot,' then I think a lot of acclaim can go to films like Blade Runner, RGB, Apocalypse Now, The Revenant, and maybe Citizen Kane (though I'd say its strengths are more based on the style of shot rather than material per shot). Thing is, for me, 2001 has things happening to various extents, but not enough to prevent tedium setting in.

Not really 'things happening per shot', because I think that puts emphasis on the length and content of a shot rather than the form of it---how it communicates with the shots before and after and provides new information through its craft. But that's cool if 2001 isn't your thing. I was just wondering if you had an opinion of movies that would be considered even slower and more contemplative. I like those sort of films.

On topic, I think The Tree of Life should have ended somewhere during its middle suburbia story. The final chunk felt like an effort in bookending or symmetry as opposed to capping off the story. I get Malick started in the cosmic and wanted to end there, but I didn't think a lot of new ground was covered with that last act. I don't wish I stopped watching, but rather that the movie stopped being at a certain point.

 

[FalloutJack]

Snip

I've read the book as well. I can understand if the more-descriptive text, rather than the visuals coupled with minimalist film style, did not appeal to you. A case of liking the book better is always understandable.

 

[Ben Halstead]

Mean Girls. I remember watching it with a group of friends and laughingly pointed out that it could have been one of the best films ever made if it ended at the bus scene.

It follows the transformation of a sheltered girl into a mean girl playing all the high school popularity games as a result of a load of peer pressure. If it had ended at the key point, with this drastic result and everything just cut to black and end-credits, it would have been a rather powerful film about its central themes of peer pressure and responsibility. Instead it goes into the quick revert to form but with more confidence and all is forgiven ending that is so prevalent in these kind of films - no consequences, no weight, no value.

 

[Vigormortis]

Almost every Tarantino film. And I'd wish I'd stopped watching the moment the opening credits displayed "Written/Directed by..."

Don't get me wrong. A few of his films are good. Most, however, are so pretentiously stuck up their own asses it's a wonder any of the cast and crew hadn't suffocated.

I can safely say the same about a number of other directors, but Tarantino was the first to spring to mind.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

The Hobbit Trilogy. I just... didn't care. I think I left the movie at some point while Gandalf was talking to some elf from the first trilogy and then Sauraman was there being 'I'm totes not evil guys' and then the ogres, or something? Fuck, I don't even know, it was such a slow movie that somehow didn't explain things and was weirdly paced that despite having so much time on their hands it still felt like the script-writers were rushing desperately to fit everything in.

Just ended up leaving to get dinner and not coming back. Thank god I didn't spend any money on the series (just borrowed my brother's set, poor bastard).

Starship Troopers 3 should have stopped after they first sang the song.


Or alternatively: Just loop the song for 90 minutes.

Honestly, as corny and low-quality as Marauder was, I kinda enjoyed it in a 'this thing is really not taking itself seriously, so neither will I' way.

The second one though... listen, the less said about that the better.

 

[Queen Michael]

Jupiter Ascending, after the first... hmm, maybe 20 minutes. It went from interesting sci-fi premise to utterly predictable CGI action save-the-special flick. I demand a reboot, by Ridley Scott!

Agreed. I kept getting more and more fed up with Mila Kunis constantly talking in an overly breathy voice because she/the Wachowskis thinks that's "acting" for some reason.

Spoiler

(Also, if I'd stopped watching then, I would have missed the ending, where the heroine decides not to bother stopping the Royal family's practice of killing innocents to give themselves eternal life, even though she looked so upset about it earlier in the movie.

 

[anthony87]

The Specialist.

Not for any particular reason, it's just that the sex scene drags on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long and it's very uncomfortable to watch with your parents.

 

[Recusant]

Wing Commander. I played the games. I loved the games. I knew it was a video game movie, and video game movies always suck, but this was being made by the creator! Chris Roberts himself! How badly could he mess up his own universe? Badly enough to spell his own characters' names wrong, as it turns out.

How bad was the movie? I'll put it this way: the theater was packed when I arrived, because the movie had the first showing of the preview for The Phantom Menace- which was the best part of the movie. And mind you, I say that having seen The Phantom Menace. After the preview aired, a third of the theater got up and left. I was baffled. I've never walked out of a movie in my life, but even I think they had a point.

 

[kris40k]

Not a single movie, but I will say that your life will be much happier if you skip the last DVD in the 1997 Beserk series.

 

[BrawlMan]

Not a single movie, but I will say that your life will be much happier if you skip the last DVD in the 1997 Beserk series.

I saw that version of Berserk in 2007, and I never want to deal with the show again nor bother with the manga. The soundtrack was awesome though, I and might play the upcoming game by Koei-Tecmo if it's good. Otherwise, I'll steer clear.

P.S - Griffith, you are a bastard with a capital B.

 

[sky14kemea]

The Bee Movie...

I wish I'd stopped a lot sooner than I did. I can sit through a lot of bad movies but that one was just surreal...

Like, just stop watching before he even meets the human lady. Save yourselves.