Just One Little Thing

[addiesin]

Movies that could have been extremely improved if only for one little single structural thing was different, that seems extremely obvious in retrospect but is impractical or impossible to actually change now that it's filmed. This thread is not for hating on a movie that you dislike for several reasons; it should be one and done. These problems should also not be things that can be simply or traditionally fan-edited away.

What one problem "ruined" what movie (or if not ruined then at least took it down a peg), and what one change would have "fixed" it?

...

For me, I've said this elsewhere before, but I think Jurassic World was fine but not great. One thing I think didn't make as much sense as the filmmakers hoped, that I would have changed given the opportunity and knowing the plot is based around people being too familiar with dinosaurs in a theme park and being bored, is instead of making the new hybrid creation another dinosaur, I would have had them make something they call a "dragon".

I think it would drive home the intended point, that people are bored with dinosaurs and feel like they have them under control now, for the company to attempt to surpass that scope.

...

What's one that bugs and seems obvious to you?

 

[asterixsmeagol]

This is driving me crazy. I feel like I walk out of most movies with one or two little quibbles but now that I'm on the spot I can think of a single one.

 

[Gaith]

Spider-Man 3: don't do the Sandman story; the two preceding movies of sympathetic villains were enough. Just do Spidey vs. Venom.

The Avengers: I like Mark Ruffalo, and I like the comparatively laid-back vibe his Banner brings to the gang, though that's a kind of strange thing to praise a character who's ostensibly "always angry" for. Anyhow, while the movie is great as is, I do wish that Norton had stuck around for at least this initial team-up.

The Legend of Zorro: movie, you had one job, and that one job was to get Zeta-Jones into a Zorro outfit. Fail!


And, the big one...

Star Trek Nemesis: no offense to Tom Hardy, but having Stewart play a Mirror Universe Picard fighting our Picard would have been an automatic big improvement.

 

[daedal]

I'll stretch it to a trilogy instead of a movie. but now that we know 1977 star wars has had sequels, I wish the Rebellion had failed to blow up the original death star. Meaning that the one in Empire and Return would not have been a newer, bigger but also kind of the same Death star.

 

[Gaith]

Star Trek Into Darkness: not sure it would have saved the movie, but John Harrison should absolutely have been a previously un-depicted Augment from the Botany Bay, not Khan, and he either shouldn't have been a villain at all throughout the movie, or our heroes should have been put into an impossible position where they had to betray him during the climax, thereby making him... wrathful. There's no point in ripping off The Wrath of Khan if our heroes didn't even do anything to him.

For The Force Awakens, a two-fer: one, don't have Kylo Ren be part of the Skywalker family. Making the sequel trilogy's main antagonist be Leia/Han's kid and Luke's nephew just about undid all their lifelong/OT accomplishments, and it sucked. Two, if Luke has to have "vanished," and be kept off-screen until the end of Episode VII, make the reason for his quest to the first Jedi Temple be in search of a means of time travel, an anti-Sith weapon, a rumored crypt of dormant Jedi Masters who could perhaps be revived... anything at all, no matter how ridiculous, as long as it's something proactive, and not him going into self-imposed exile. This MacGuffin search could even be a trap set by the baddies, and Luke could later admit that even when he set off, he knew in his heart he wouldn't find any magic fix to the destruction of his new Jedi Temple/Order, but thought he had to go anyway, on the wildest off-chance that he was wrong. This failed search could also have left him permanently weakened/injured, so he wouldn't be an overpowered superhero in the next two movies, allowing Rey and Co. to still take center stage despite him being around, if that was the major concern. Of course, I'd rather the ST as a whole wasn't just a rehash of the OT, but if I had to make only two minor, tangible changes, those would be the ones.

 

[asterixsmeagol]

Star Trek Into Darkness: not sure it would have saved the movie, but John Harrison should absolutely have been a previously un-depicted Augment from the Botany Bay, not Khan, and he either shouldn't have been a villain at all throughout the movie, or our heroes should have been put into an impossible position where they had to betray him during the climax, thereby making him... wrathful. There's no point in ripping off The Wrath of Khan if our heroes didn't even do anything to him.

100% agree here

 

[bionicbob]

Star Trek Into Darkness: not sure it would have saved the movie, but John Harrison should absolutely have been a previously un-depicted Augment from the Botany Bay, not Khan, and he either shouldn't have been a villain at all throughout the movie, or our heroes should have been put into an impossible position where they had to betray him during the climax, thereby making him... wrathful. There's no point in ripping off The Wrath of Khan if our heroes didn't even do anything to him.

The list of things wrong with this movie is almost endless.
But how about, if you are going to rip-off TWOK, actually cast an Indian actor instead of a white guy?

 

[Gaith]

The Temple of Doom: two potential paths. Path One is to age up Short Round to a guy in his 20s, remove Willie Scott, and age up+gender-swap the palace's prince to a 20-something princess that both Indy and his sidekick can vie for. Path Two is to remove Short Round, and make Wille a capable and badass Chinese woman adventurer/spy. Doing the princess swap is optional here, though it could be fun to see Indy in an attraction triangle with two ladies.

The Mummy Returns: the problem is right there in the title - the heroes should return, not the mummy. I'll always wish that this sequel had featured Evelyn and Jonathan bringing Rick back to England, where his fish-out-of-water antics would almost torpedoe his and Evy's nascent romance. After a good deal of culture clash rom-comedy, an old childhood flame/rival for Evy's hand turns out to be a werewolf, or something, there's a fight, and Rick wins the day and Evy's heart for good.

The Matrix Resurrections: the final battle is Neo and Seraph and Smith all doing martial arts against The Architect, who is rewriting Matrix code all around them. Or maybe Smith has merged with/corrupted The Architect, but, same idea. And most of the second half takes place within the Matrix, with only brief cutaways to the Zion siege.

Warcraft: good grief, makes the invading orcs antagonists! Maybe hint a sympathetic orc or two for a sequel, if you earn one, but when you're doing a movie that's introducing a whole new fantasy world, and not a TV series, you need a straightforward story with clear good/bad sides, not political nuance and conflicted characters all around.

The Hobbit: thirteen dwarves is too many; pick five. Yes, I'm serious. (No, I'm not a Tolkien purist, why do you ask?) Also, make the movie in grayscale, to make it both visually distinct from and less spectacular (from a certain point of view) than LotR. Better yet, make it grayscale and claymation (from Aardman Studios), for the same reason.

Muppets from Space: instead of this lame original story, continue with the literary adaptations. Story candidates: 1) Dracula, 2) Hercules and his seven labors, or 3) the life of Jesus, including the Book of Revelation, with all its monsters and world wars and pyrotechnics. Of course, Revelation could be its own movie, granted, but how wild would it be if a Muppets New Testament movie's first hour was a fairly gentle Jesus story, with the whole cruxifiction stuff downplayed in favor of his heartwarming return three days later... only to then suddenly jump ahead to modern times and turns into an apocalyptic extravaganza, a Meat Loaf album cover with puppets?!

Tomb Raider: look, I've never played a Tomb Raider game, watched a Tomb Raider movie in full, or read a novel/comic/whatever. All I know is, teenage boy appeal has always been a key part of the franchise in the minds of the general public, even if the more recent games may have backed away from that a bit. So, why not lean into that, and make Lara a woman who just happens to be into women? No need to be crass, leering, exploitative, or winking; just include a romantic angle of Lara saving and falling for a damsel in distress, and treat it as seriously and matter-of-factly as any other given action movie treats their stories of guys saving and falling damsels of their own. (As I understand it, none of the three movies so far have featured Lara in a stable relationship with a guy, and the first and third movies' main emotional stories have been about her relationship with her father, so, unless that's sheer coincidence, the filmmakers themselves seem reluctant to pair her with a guy, so, why not go in a whole other direction?)

 

[Gaith]

X-Men 3: in X2, Magneto hijacked Xavier and tried to kill all humans, resulting in a worldwide psychic attack that was ultimately stopped... but how many humans died from crashed cars and other mishaps during that time? So, make X3 about the fallout from that global catastrophe: the X-men are under house arrest, with Xavier forced to wear a powers-dampening helmet. The mutant registration act has become law, and Trask Industries is developing a mutant cure that Congress is debating making mandatory once it passes safety checks. Some nations are already forcibly administering prototype cures with significant fatality rates, leading to increasing uprisings and violence. The X-Men are divided on whether to lend their expertise to help perfect a cure, in hopes of making it optional, or ride out the political storm, in hopes it will end peacefully. Meanwhile, a relentlessly hunted Magneto and his compatriots are racing to find the one wild card that could turn the mutant struggle in their favor: En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse. A small team of X-Men set out to find his tomb first, and foil Magneto's plan. After a battle in his buried temple, however, En Sabah Nur does awaken, and immediately pledges to aid the cause of mutant supremacy. End credits, roll on X4!

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Star Trek Into Darkness: not sure it would have saved the movie, but John Harrison should absolutely have been a previously un-depicted Augment from the Botany Bay, not Khan, and he either shouldn't have been a villain at all throughout the movie, or our heroes should have been put into an impossible position where they had to betray him during the climax, thereby making him... wrathful. There's no point in ripping off The Wrath of Khan if our heroes didn't even do anything to him.

His beef was clearly outlined in the movie. Star Fleet found him in space and extorted his genius and used his crew as leverage. They were loaded onto the Enterprise, part of the Federation, so he mercilessly betrayed them. I do wish it was more original, a theme with JJ Abrams franchise productions, but it honestly seems like a plausible plot to me .

 

[addiesin]

X-Men 3: in X2, Magneto hijacked Xavier and tried to kill all humans, resulting in a worldwide psychic attack that was ultimately stopped... but how many humans died from crashed cars and other mishaps during that time? So, make X3 about the fallout from that global catastrophe: the X-men are under house arrest, with Xavier forced to wear a powers-dampening helmet. The mutant registration act has become law, and Trask Industries is developing a mutant cure that Congress is debating making mandatory once it passes safety checks. Some nations are already forcibly administering prototype cures with significant fatality rates, leading to increasing uprisings and violence. The X-Men are divided on whether to lend their expertise to help perfect a cure, in hopes of making it optional, or ride out the political storm, in hopes it will end peacefully. Meanwhile, a relentlessly hunted Magneto and his compatriots are racing to find the one wild card that could turn the mutant struggle in their favor: En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse. A small team of X-Men set out to find his tomb first, and foil Magneto's plan. After a battle in his buried temple, however, En Sabah Nur does awaken, and immediately pledges to aid the cause of mutant supremacy. End credits, roll on X4!

In theatrical X-Men 3, you have overpowered Jean and a cure that takes away powers, and their answer is she has to die. Cure her!

 

[Gaith]

His beef was clearly outlined in the movie. Star Fleet found him in space and extorted his genius and used his crew as leverage. They were loaded onto the Enterprise, part of the Federation, so he mercilessly betrayed them. I do wish it was more original, a theme with JJ Abrams franchise productions, but it honestly seems like a plausible plot to me .

Okay, but why did any of that have to be Khan? IIRC, the original timeline Khan, while smart enough to be a jack of all trades, was not primarily an engineer. So, why didn't Admiral RoboCop unthaw an engineer augment?

 

[Eyepainter]

In theatrical X-Men 3, you have overpowered Jean and a cure that takes away powers, and their answer is she has to die. Cure her!

Honestly, there was so much wrong with X-Men 3, but if I have to find one thing that could've saved the movie, it would be not to kill Cyclops, make him the lead, and give him a character arc revolving around losing Jean Grey from X2.

 

[WilliamRedRobin]

One of the things that annoyed me in James Gunn's Suicide Squad was that throughout the movie there's one member of the support staff who becomes increasingly sympathetic towards the Squad and disturbed by Waller's actions, but then the one who actually turns on Waller and takes control of the operation is a completely different person who didn't have any of that character progression.
I have a bit of a "conspiracy theory" that there was a version of the scene where the guy who had all the buildup was the one to take over, but it was decided that a white man physically assaulting a black woman because she couldn't be trusted in a position of authority might be relieved poorly, so they reshot it with another black woman character. If that is the case they really should have gone back and reshot the other scenes with that character instead of just leaving them with the white guy.
It was really strange to me that he had all of that setup and then just passively watched someone else pay it off.

Honestly this change alone wouldn't dramatically improve the movie, but it is something I'd change if I could.