Movie Endings you hate and why (1 Viewer)

[Simon Massey]

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AI was . . .. for me, too depressing. I went in happy, I came out depressed.
Why? He (they) lived happily ever after, no? If that ending followed Kubrick's intentions, I think he must have become dotty in his final years. Very "un-Kubrick"-like
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Rex,
Without going into too much detail, as this isn't really the thread, I suggest you watch the end of AI again. It is not a happy ending at all
Mother dies ; boy effectively is only able to obtain "artificial" love instead of real love ; assumes its real love anyway, and has no reason to function anymore so "dies" as well ; entire human race dead
Admittedly a bit generalized but this has been discussed at great lengths in other threads
Also I would say the whole of the last 20 minutes is more "Kubrick-like" than "Spielberg-like" (2001 ??)

 

[Nate Anderson]

How are we (well, me actually) supposed to be convinced that they did not have the technology to correct his face (plastic surgery), but they do have the technology to cheat death (remember, he committed suicide. Therefore he is DEAD)

Well, obviously Tom didn't think things through very well...

 

[Ray Gutnick]

The Professional when

Emmanuelle Seigner dies

 

[Rex Bachmann]

HIM[/I]]Quote:

Not EVEN a serious comparison!

 

[MichaelW]

To clue you in, there are 2 more movies coming out...you only saw 1/3 of the story.

Yes Matt, I was joking. That's why I said "In honor of Jonathan Perregaux..." and that the ending of Apollo 13 could never have happened the way they showed it...

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

We're so misunderstood, Michael.

 

[Thomas Reagan]

Eye of the Beholder
Neither my wife nor I understand the ending, even after watching the end 3-4 times, subtitles on. Geez...
She shoots him, but not really (gun had blanks). He only wanted her to think she shot him. Because he's in love with her? So to further prove his love, he causes her to crash her car...only to spew some non-sensical final words to him before she kicks it. Is this the outcome he wanted from his plan? I'm a killer, you're obsessed with me. You killed me, thanks. I knew it was you stalking me. I guess I love you, too." ??????

They spend the whole movie setting up an eventual explanation for both their motives that never comes. Heck, even our dog was howling at the end of this one.
Thos.

 

[JonZ]

The Pledge - I just saw this and also thought the ending was "harsh" Talk about downbeat.

Alien3 - Ripleys suicide is probally one of the stupidest and worst sequences ever put to film.Terrible terrible terrible.

Unbreakable - I also didnt like they way the movie just ended and we were told what happened. I would have preferred to see it.

Vanilla Sky - I also didnt like having everything explained to me by Tech Support, but the NYC skyline scene was beautiful to behold.

AI - I know this is old but after the underwater scene this movie turns into something stupider than Femalien. When the credits rolled I was angry enough to go to the projection room and shred the film.

 

[Simon Massey]

Rex - about AI
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But, even if he does die, the "artificial love" he got from the aliens' "mommy"-facsimile was clearly ALL HE WAS EVER GOING TO GET, and a damned sight more than he ever got from the real humans, even Monica, who was ready to drop 'im like a hot potato when her "real" sonny boy came home
Is that not in itself sad ? I suppose this depends on how you view David, and whether he is entitled to be viewed as more than just an object, but that was one of the interesting questions the film brought up. I agree that David probably doesn't know the difference between the "artificial love" he achieved, and the "real love" he wanted, but we, the audience, do.
Sorry about the comparison. I agree 2001 is a poor example, but regardless of the merits, I felt the ending was in no way a typical Spielbergian ending. It left much open to your own interpretation, and didn't answer many of the questions it raised throughout the film leaving the audience to make up it own mind (though I hate categorising endings in this way. What exactly is a "typical Spielberg ending" ? )

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Mr. Massey:
What this discrepancy of views really seems to turn on, then, is whether the A.I. ending was a "happy" one for the protagonist or for the audience.
I vote for the protagonist!
A more apt comparison here would have been between A.I. and Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove, ... , whose ending is far more similar in terms of the dire fate of the so-called human race. Equally "depressing", no? Yet NOT ONE HINT OF THE WEEPY SENTIMENT---not even an iota---of A.I.'s ending.
Yes, the "ambiguity" of the A.I. ending may be heavily influenced by Kubrick, but the syrup is pure Spielberg.

 

[Simon Massey]

I felt your previous posts implied that your dislike of the ending was down to the fact that the film was intentionally trying to manipulate the audience into accepting a nice "happy ever after" fairytale ending, and not down to the particular feelings of the characters at the end.
If not, I am sorry, but I do think there is more to the ending that simply David finding a perfect moment of happiness. There are all sort of different questions and interpretations raised - our little discussion being a case in point.
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"What this discrepancy of views really seems to turn on, then, is whether the AI ending was a "happy" one for the protagonist or for the audience"
Ignorance is bliss for David then ? Yet we, the audience, know that David hasn't really achieved what he wanted, in fact obtaining the antithesis of what he truly hoped for without even realizing it.
I also recall that the narrator tells us David goes to sleep at the end. Given that we had been shown that he couldn't sleep earlier in the film, and that the narrator was one of the advanced robots from the future, I interpreted this as "a shut-down" or "death" for David.
You can tell I like this film can't you ?

 

[Sam E. Torres]

Unbreakable - I also didnt like they way the movie just ended and we were told what happened. I would have preferred to see it.

theme of the film...and then it made perfect sense to me.

 

[Chris]

OK, here goes:

Manos, Hands of Fate:

OK, who didn't realize that torgo, the limping, multiple kneed goat man was actually also the blood fetcher for his evil master? And why did it end with the people just walking the hell out? If it was that simple, why didn't they do it earlier!!

Pod People



Ok, if the little alien dude really could do all those fancy tricks, then why was he so damn scared of a bunch of drunken red knecks? If he can make toys fly around, why couldn't he push them back or something? The part where he began to hobble toward some sort of ship was about as it gets..

Godzilla (Matthew Broderick Version)

Any movie in which Godzilla doesn't shoot lasers out of his eyes and breath fire while stomping on people is immediately crap, but this version had an ending that was so open it virtually said "there WILL be sequels" yeah, right.. sequels with baby crap godzillas who also don't breath fire or shoot lasers or stomp around screaming. Who wants that?

Forest Gump

Read the book when I was in high school and found it foolish. Watched it in the theater and felt the same. It played to me - the whole movie - as though Forest was one of the most co-dependent suckup/latch ons of any character I've ever seen, and was the virtual doormat of a girlfriend who he knocked up who apparently died of HIV or body damage due to drug use. Every time I heard anyone refer to this film as uplifting I thought: would you want to be abused like this?

Space Camp

If Jinx the robot janitor was so damn bright and he could do that thing where he levitated up and shot out light while making space shuttles launch, and then could figure out a way for them to get back and get the information across, why was he ever left out as a "toy" for space camp kids to play with.. it was obvious he was brighter then any computer they had... talk about bad science and major shortcuts

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Ok, so they just hop on stage and start dancing.. except.. if they can't get the money together to stop the construction, how did they afford this giant stage, production, costumes, press attention, celebrities to show up.. none of it is explained, they just start dancing.

Finding Forrester

Uh, the kid still stole the work. It's still plagarism. Maybe he goes to the Piper School District.. *laugh* (Inside story)

North

So it was all a dream and it happened in a store? A horrible ending for one of the worst movies I've had to sit through.. Bruce Willis in a bunny costume. Enough said.

Independence Day

OK, so a giant ship,that holds inside of it hundreds of ships that are the size of cities and block out the sun when they go over is in our orbit. But amazingly, there is no impact on weather, the tides, anything like that. And when it's destroyed in a cataclysmic event, none of the giant debris that would crash into earth does any damage. And of course, not a single ship that is the size of a city escapes at all, they all get wiped out in some sort of computer virus thing as well. And, with all this going on, it's apparently far enough away that no one notices any of it happening, but Will Smith can get back in time for dinner. Yeah right.

The Little Shop of Horrors

The better ending - and the right ending - was cut which featured the plant running amuck. There is no way after getting chomped on that Audrey comes back to life and is OK enough to run off.. just no way. The ending felt rushed and added on..

My Best Friend's Wedding

It was obvious the film was meant to end with Julia Roberts getting the guy. In scenes earlier, he had expressed his doubt about a planned marriage and whether or not he still loved Julia. Great way to go into a marriage. If you get married the day after you're on a boat with a woman you still think you may love and you're basically settling for a girl, then you're basically offering a sequel guarantee: "My Best Friend's Divorce"

 

[Barry S]

My choice is easy:
Rat Race.
It's not so much the giving-away-the-money-to-charity thing that I didn't like, it was the Smash Mouth concert. What a complete, total sellout ending. The characters just happen to end up on stage with a crappy, commercial Top 40 group that will be forgotten in five years and dance around to a pop song that was old two years ago. I had mostly enjoyed the movie up to this point, but the whole rock concert thing just ruined it.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Basic Instinct yet, so I will, and I quote Ebert:

Consider the last shot of the movie (no, I will not reveal it). This shot allows us to discover whodunit - whether one of the characters is a murderer, or not. The screen has faded to black. Then we get the last shot, and it answers our question. But if the last shot had provided the opposite answer, it still would have been consistent with everything that had happened in the film. Each and every shred of evidence throughout the entire movie supports two different conclusions.

 

[Richard Perris]

Kubrick's "The Killing". Great film (said to be the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs) but for a very weak & silly ending. Fortunately it's only the last 3 min. or so.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I agree with the ending of The Abyss: SE. One that sticks out for me was the ending to Gladiator. I felt like all the talking at the end not only ruined the moment but was just outright silly.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Chris: As long as you're nitpicking about ID4, you can add: How the hell could a mac hook up to an alien computer from lightyears away? Why the hell couldn't they level the whole fucking mountain that Area 51 was under? They blew up an entire skyscraper with one shot. Several of those should clear just about anything away. Bottomline: You can't watch ID4 and expect it to make complete scientific, strategic, or technological sense. You just gotta sit back, and enjoy your popcorn.

 

[Terrell]

Chris, I believe there were a couple of instances in Godzilla where he blew fire from his breat. Still not a good movie.

 

[Bill J]

RobR said:

Apocalypse Now. A masterpiece ruined by its ending. How could Coppola mess it up?

What was wrong with Apocalypse Now's ending? It's a lot better than Coppola's other option, having Willard and Kurtz fighting a huge battle with the VC. Sometimes when people say they dislike the ending of Apocalypse Now it is because they don't really have a good understanding of it.