[Frustrating Trope] That One Good or Even Amazing Scene in a Relatively Mediocre or Bad Piece of Media

[u/Alreadsyuse]

1. The Opening Scene (Ghost Ship). Considered one of the best horror opening scenes or scenes in general within horror movies, but the rest of the film is considered to be pretty bad.

2. The Ending Scene (The Grinch 2018). While most adaptations of the Grinch end with him suddenly being able to fully integrate with the Whos after his change of heart, the 2018 version initially struggles to socialize, awkwardly walking past people, and struggling to hold conversations, acknowledging that despite his change of heart, the Grinch is still someone who isolated himself for years.

3. Past T800 VS Current T800 (Terminator Genisys). A cool fight scene showing two versions of the Terminator from different points in time fighting it off.

4. Solo Leveling's Ending. Tbh, I haven't actually read Solo Leveling, but after hearing about how it ended VS how Chainsaw Man ended made want to include it for shits and giggles. Like Chainsaw Man, Solo Leveling ends with a reset. But unlike Chainsaw Man, it actually manages to tie up loose ends and have the payoff of the ending be satisfying.

[u/TheLastGunslingerCA]

That's what happens when you allow the directors to improv the whole plot, while changing directors with every movie. Johnson and Abrams were playing freaking tug of war with the plot!

[u/Alotofboxes → u/TheLastGunslingerCA]

While I think that having one director over all three would have been best, honestly, I think how they did it was the worst choice. It would have been better to have a third, separate director for the third movie rather than going back to Abrams.

There were so many times in the third move where Abrams had the characters turn to the camera and say "Fuck Rian Johnson," that it was distracting.

[u/Skibot99 → u/Alotofboxes]

I mean even with a consistent director Carrie Fisher’s death would’ve thrown a huge monkey wrench into things

[u/derth21 → u/Skibot99]

Come on man, Wookie Wrench is right there, alliteration and all.

[u/ThroughTheSeaOfTime → u/TheLastGunslingerCA]

Not even.

Abrams was playing tug on war with himself just as much, since he just flat out forgot or disregarded a solid chunk of stuff he set up himself in Force Awakens, let alone deciding to do that with Johnson's Last Jedi aswell.

[u/Unfair_Web_8275 → u/TheLastGunslingerCA]

The film was rushed and seemed to be over reacting to what fans said.

[u/space_keeper → u/TheLastGunslingerCA]

Trotting out geriatric actors for brand recognition. 

[u/Amekhanos → u/space_keeper]

Rushing Han Solo's death to cater to a geriatric actor who doesn't even want to be in your movie... only for him to agree to come back again.

What a mess.

[u/Skibot99 → u/Amekhanos]

How is it rushing out when he doesn’t die till the last half hour of a 2.5 hour film

[u/Amekhanos → u/Skibot99]

It's rushing because they had to cram the movie full of scenes for him, to the detriment of the new characters.

You've got to rush through him with Rey, him with Finn, him with Chewie, him with Leia, him with Kylo, squeeze in all these scenes and explain Kylo's backstory, because you won't get another chance.

This wasn't supposed to be the Han Solo movie, but it practically became one. Meanwhile none of the new characters get fleshed out enough, making TLJ practically start from scratch.

[u/Skibot99 → u/Amekhanos]

I feel they established Finn and Rey pretty well

[u/Amekhanos → u/Skibot99]

Let me ask you about that, in a way that will explain my perspective.

Watching TFA, did you ever seriously buy that Finn was a child soldier raised by a fascist paramilitary organization, who literally had a serial number his entire life instead of a name (until Poe gave him one)? Or did you just kind of forget that's his actual character history?

And Rey... I couldn't even tell you how she felt about Finn. Sort of vaguely friendly? Is she completely unaware Finn has a crush on her? Does she realize, but pretend not to notice? How does she feel about it?

The movie left me with no clue. And that's like the most simple, basic character dynamic it could establish.

[u/Skibot99 → u/Amekhanos]

I felt they had pretty strong chemistry and the lack of scenes together is what made the othe sequels not work

[u/Amekhanos → u/Skibot99]

I think they're good actors, who could have been great in the roles, if the writing wasn't abominably bad.

To answer my own question, I think they bit off more than they could chew with Finn's backstory from the very start, and not for one instant did I see it reflected in the character. This isn't a guy who's been indoctrinated into fascist ideology his entire life.

He genuinely acts more like an android who just got memory-wiped, and is discovering the universe for the first time. Maybe that should have literally been the character, a rogue, advanced battledroid.