Top 10 Bad Movies With Amazing Intros
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Top 10 Movies That Went Downhill After The Opening
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Things were looking so good, what happened?! Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Movies That Went Downhill After the Opening. For this list, we looked at films that had promising starts, but ultimately failed to live up to their potential, spiraling further and further down with each passing minute.
#10: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008)
It had been nineteen years since the last time Indy graced the silver screen and expectations were understandably sky high. The moment Doctor Jones dusts off his iconic fedora and starts cracking his whip at the bad guys, it feels just like the classic trilogy everyone knew. And then the CG prairie dogs popped up... setting the stage for the ridiculous “fridge-nuke” scene and Shia LaBeouf pretending to be Tarzan. The film is a decent adventure romp overall, but comes nowhere close to the quality of its predecessors, leaving us to believe Indy’s last crusade should have been…well, “The Last Crusade”.
#9: “Zoom” (2006)
With the superhero genre on the rise in the mid 2000s, “Zoom” looked to have its piece of the proverbial pie with a flashy, fun, family-oriented spin on the X-Men series. After a genuinely cool intro that emulates the look and feel of reading a comic book, the only place this movie ‘zooms’ towards is flat on its face. The writing is incredibly subpar with a bland and generic storyline filled with cringe worthy dialogue. If you think you can just enjoy the super-powered action instead, think again and watch as the effects range from painfully bad to incredible laughable. “Zoom” is its own archenemy.
#8: “The Cloverfield Paradox” (2018)
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As a prequel to the prior films – kinda – “Paradox” had the opportunity to fill in the gaps and explain what prompted the aliens to visit Earth. What is ultimately revealed is certainly surprising, just not in a very good way. The plot quickly becomes highly convoluted, with dozens of plot holes and needlessly confusing science jibba-jabba. In fact, as things become more and more absurd – and boring – you’ll be wondering how this even connects to the Cloverfield franchise at all. With nothing adding up by the end, it at least lives up to its title.
#7: “Tomorrowland” (2015)
With a script from the showrunner of “Lost” and Brad Bird in the director’s chair, “Tomorrowland” should have been a sure-fire hit. Credit where credit is due, the ideas in the movie are creative and there are some dazzling special effects, but as the story progresses the film’s most fatal flaw unfortunately becomes apparent: “Tomorrowland” is a snooze fest. From the abundance of pacing issues, dull tone and incredibly rushed climax, it’s not difficult to see why this film failed to live up to the anticipation it had built leading up to release, bombing critically and financially.
#6: “Spectre” (2015)
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After the disappointing “Quantum of Solace”, Bond was brought back to full form in “Skyfall”. With director Sam Mendes returning its follow-up, how could things go wrong… right? The opening ‘Day of the Dead’ and helicopter action sequence are absolutely jaw dropping… but the only thing that drops post opening credits is the quality of the film. What follows is a paint-by-numbers Bond adventure, punctuated by the usual, predictable story beats. This is only bogged down even further by a lifeless atmosphere and completely wasting Christopher Waltz as the film’s villain. “The writing is on the wall” alright, and it says “Spectre” was a letdown.
#5: “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016)
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This long anticipated DC crossover was ripped to shreds by critics. In the beginning, which featured a dramatic retelling of Batman’s origin and the Superman vs Zod battle from Bruce Wayne’s perspective, you may have been scratching your head as to what critics hated so much. Well, it soon becomes apparent that the film’s kryptonite was its muddled script, overly depressing tone and overload of CGI fueled action scenes. Whether the violent interpretation of Batman or cartoony performance from Jesse Eisenberg ruined it for you, this one had problems to spare. At least “Suicide Squad” turned things around... oh... right.
#4: “Ghost Ship” (2002)
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Who doesn’t love a solid ghost story? “Ghost Ship” set sail with a bone chilling introduction, setting itself up to be one of the all-time greats. Seeing dozens of people sliced in half by a razor-sharp cable sets the stage for a haunting experience but nothing comes close to the high-bar the opening sets. Instead of building off that foundation and building palpable suspense, “Ghost Ship” unfortunately relies heavily on cheap gore effects to scare audiences, the results of which are tiresome and stupid rather than scary. So, why not turn it off after the first few minutes and pretend it’s a short film?
#3: “Prometheus” (2012)
For the first time since “Alien”, director Ridley Scott returned to the franchise to help expand its universe and deepen the lore. Technically speaking he succeeded… but maybe a little too well. With a setup revolving around the human race trying to find its creators, things got off to a great start but the story very quickly becomes an incomprehensible mish-mash of different ideas, that all somehow end up connecting to the creation of the Xenomorph. The special effects are undoubtedly superb and it provides a few creepy moments, but this intergalactic expedition just amounts to being more of a headache than anything else.
#2: “Swordfish” (2001)
This crime thriller opens with a truly unique and fascinating monologue from John Travolta’s character, offering an alternate version of a scene from the film “Dog Day Afternoon”. His speech goes on about the clichés of Hollywood films, resulting in a shocking explosion that starts the narrative off with a bang. How ironic then that the movie deviates from Travolta’s introduction and opts for a film made up of nothing but pointless, boring banter between characters mixed up between mindless action scenes. It all amounts to an unexciting watch, that is nowhere near as creative or intense as its introduction. Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions… “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (2014) “Happy Death Day 2U” (2019)
#1: “The Happening” (2008)
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Oh M. Night Shyamalan… where did you lose your stride? After a string of films declining in quality, this Mark Wahlberg thriller looked to be a promising return to form for the briefly critically revered director. The film begins on a highly unsettling note, with large masses of people committing suicide for no apparent reason. Seeing citizens so carelessly throw away their lives is a chilling one indeed, it’s too bad that “The Happening” very quickly deteriorates into an unintentional comedy. At least we get to watch Wahlberg talk to plants, how many movies have that going for them?
