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Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 2:33:01 PM

pauljthomas

Posts: 726
Joined: 15/11/2006
From: a more wretched hive of scum & villainy

##Spoiler warnings##

Law Abiding Citizen really bugged me at the end because all along I was rooting for Butler. His character had been wronged & we wanted revenge on the wrongdoers & the law that let him down. Foxx's character was a charmless, arrogant & ignorant one that I was hoping would get his come-uppance, however he didn't. Would have much prefered Butler to have escaped, never to be heard of again despite his own lawbreakin galong the way-that would have been more satisfying.

Would also add the endings to The Lovely Bones-would have changed the cop-out death of the villain & that the girl could have had a proper burial (which I know can't really happed 'cos of the book) & Funny Games-the family survived.

Anyone else have any endings they would have prefered?

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Post #: 1

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 2:40:47 PM

elab49

Posts: 52031
Joined: 1/10/2005

Godzilla lives! And King Kong. (Are those spoilers?

)

More recently

Source Code (SPOILERS)

I don't think I'm the only one who thought it should have stopped at the freeze - it would have been so much better had it done so.

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Post #: 2

RE: Not the ending you wanted (SPOILER) - 18/7/2011 2:55:14 PM

Whistler

Posts: 2346
Joined: 22/11/2006

30DAYS OF NIGHT SPOILER

I'd have to say 30 Days Of Night. Such a silly ending. Why would he infect himself 10 minutes befoe the sun comes up? It's not like whatsherface's car was going to blow any time soon; the oil was nowhere near her. And the thing is it could've been so easily improved if they just had Eben getting infected by accident. That would've been believable. Anyway, it's a shame
because it's a kick ass movie otherwise.

< Message edited by Whistler -- 18/7/2011 3:21:58 PM >

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Post #: 3

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 2:55:18 PM

MovieAddict247

Posts: 3359
Joined: 5/6/2009

Obviously the third act of Sunshine.

Also - Sex, Lies and Videotape. I'd have prefered it if Ann gets a divorce but Graham leaves the town alone and they don't get together. For some reason, the ending really annoyed me.

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Post #: 4

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:08:00 PM

adambatman82

Posts: 11156
Joined: 15/12/2005
From: Sheffield

SPOILERS FOR HARRY POTTER 7.2!

The epilogue on the end of Harry Potter 7.2 was ridiculous. Not only did it look silly, but it took away any sincerity from the ultimate "journey" of the film.

< Message edited by adambatman82 -- 18/7/2011 5:13:28 PM >

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Post #: 5

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:16:34 PM

shool

Posts: 9640
Joined: 24/3/2006
From: In The Pipe, Five by Five.

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49

Source Code (SPOILERS)

I liked the ending. Spoilers [ I thought the starting of a whole new reality was a nice touch. Although it still means that Colter Stevens would have been turned off eventually. Plus i'm a sucker for happy endings ]
but thats just me.

< Message edited by shool -- 18/7/2011 3:17:10 PM >

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Post #: 6

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:16:38 PM

JIm R

Posts: 9185
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Surrey

Spoliers.....

I will say this to my dying day, AI should have ended when David fell from the ledge into the water.

A dark end which would have been better, instead we got multiple Spielberg 'cuddly' bits and as always the soft option of a re-united son and family.

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Post #: 7

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:18:35 PM

shool

Posts: 9640
Joined: 24/3/2006
From: In The Pipe, Five by Five.

Guys, please can you label your spoilers as to what film they reference. Otherwise we have to actually read the spoiler to find out if its a film we've seen or not.

Ta

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Post #: 8

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:20:48 PM

Deviation

Posts: 26923
Joined: 2/6/2006
From: Enemies of Film HQ

quote:

ORIGINAL: JIm R

Spoliers.....

I will say this to my dying day, AI should have ended when David fell from the ledge into the water.

A dark end which would have been better, instead we got multiple Spielberg 'cuddly' bits and as always the soft option of a re-united son and family.

SPOILERS FOR AI

Mankind being extinct with the future AIs trying to understand humanity is not my definition of cuddly. There is some cruel irony in that ending.

Also, it was Kubrick's idea.

SPOILERS FOR FUNNY GAMES

quote:

Funny Games-the family survived.

It would kinda defeat the point.

SPOILERS END

< Message edited by Deviation -- 18/7/2011 3:26:25 PM >

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There are certainly times where calling a person a cunt is not only reasonable, it is a gross understatement.

quote:

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I really wish I could go down to see Privates

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Post #: 9

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:21:49 PM

Discodez

Posts: 777
Joined: 2/9/2010

quote:

ORIGINAL: adambatman82

SPOILERS.

The epilogue on the end of Harry Potter 7.2 was ridiculous. Not only did it look silly, but it took away any sincerity from the ultimate "journey" of the film.

Considering it's how the book ends, it would have been a bit silly not to include it, no? (although having not seen the film yet I don't know how (dis)simmilar they are)

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Post #: 10

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:23:38 PM

JIm R

Posts: 9185
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Surrey

quote:

ORIGINAL: Deviation

quote:

ORIGINAL: JIm R

Spoliers.....

I will say this to my dying day, AI should have ended when David fell from the ledge into the water.

A dark end which would have been better, instead we got multiple Spielberg 'cuddly' bits and as always the soft option of a re-united son and family.

SPOILERS FOR AI

Mankind being extinct with the future AIs trying to understand humanity is not my definition of cuddly. There is some cruel irony in that ending.

Also, it was Kubrick's idea.

SPOILERS END

Spoliers

Kuberick wrote it but never finished it, Spielberg tagged on the 'everlasting' ending, christ, there were at least two or three options for him to finish the film.

(in reply to Deviation)

Post #: 11

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:33:01 PM

Deviation

Posts: 26923
Joined: 2/6/2006
From: Enemies of Film HQ

Wasn't the final 20 minutes completely Kubrick's work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz7sPiOoU7A

Again, there is nothing cuddly in that ending.

Speaking of terrible endings, Kubrick's Killer's Kiss has woefully happy one.

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Dpp1978
There are certainly times where calling a person a cunt is not only reasonable, it is a gross understatement.

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49
I really wish I could go down to see Privates

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Post #: 12

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:42:45 PM

horribleives

Posts: 4251
Joined: 12/6/2009
From: The North

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

< Message edited by horribleives -- 18/7/2011 3:44:09 PM >

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Post #: 13

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:47:44 PM

Discodez

Posts: 777
Joined: 2/9/2010

I Still think it's a shame that the ship sank in Titanic. Why couldn't Rose and Paddy O'DiCaprio have a happy ending? James Cameron is a mug!

This is a joke by the way....

I would like someone to have given Kubrick a copy of the full version of a Clockwork Orange, see if he'd still chose to end it the way he did.

< Message edited by Discodez -- 18/7/2011 3:48:02 PM >

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Post #: 14

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:50:40 PM

Deviation

Posts: 26923
Joined: 2/6/2006
From: Enemies of Film HQ

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

OH YES

YES YES YES YES

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Dpp1978
There are certainly times where calling a person a cunt is not only reasonable, it is a gross understatement.

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49
I really wish I could go down to see Privates

(in reply to horribleives)

Post #: 15

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:51:12 PM

horribleives

Posts: 4251
Joined: 12/6/2009
From: The North

Is that what happened (with A Clockwork Orange)? I always just assumed it was his choice not to film the final chapter.

< Message edited by horribleives -- 18/7/2011 3:53:56 PM >

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Post #: 16

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 3:59:23 PM

Discodez

Posts: 777
Joined: 2/9/2010

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Is that what happened (with A Clockwork Orange)? I always just assumed it was his choice not to film the final chapter.

I'm pretty sure that's what Tony Parsons said (that he read the edited version) in an article he wrote for Empire about Clockwork, years and years ago while it was still withdrawn from the distribution in the UK.

Or it could have been in a documentary Parsons did called "Forbidden Fruit - A Clockwork Orange" back in 1993, which is on Youtube if you're interested.

< Message edited by Discodez -- 18/7/2011 4:09:31 PM >

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Post #: 17

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 4:20:41 PM

Spaldron

Posts: 10487
Joined: 6/10/2006
From: Chair

SPOILERS Star Wars - ROTJ (do we really need a spoiler for this???)

Luke should'v turned to the dark side, then Vader redeems himself and turns Luke back. Han should'v died.

LOTR - ROTK

The battle of Pelennor should'v gone to Sauron. I know it strays from the book but it makes more sense cinematically.

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Post #: 18

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 5:15:11 PM

adambatman82

Posts: 11156
Joined: 15/12/2005
From: Sheffield

quote:

ORIGINAL: Discodez

quote:

ORIGINAL: adambatman82

SPOILERS.

The epilogue on the end of Harry Potter 7.2 was ridiculous. Not only did it look silly, but it took away any sincerity from the ultimate "journey" of the film.

Considering it's how the book ends, it would have been a bit silly not to include it, no? (although having not seen the film yet I don't know how (dis)simmilar they are)

I don't agree. The ending working in the book doesn't mean it will work on film, and this is something which ought to be addressed when a story is changed from one medium to another. Anyway, regardless of origins it was still a terrible ending.

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Post #: 19

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 5:52:03 PM

jobloffski

Posts: 1847
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: elsewhere

quote:

ORIGINAL: JIm R

Spoliers.....

I will say this to my dying day, AI should have ended when David fell from the ledge into the water.
�
A dark end which would have been better, instead we got multiple Spielberg 'cuddly' bits and as always the soft option of a re-united son and family.

My reading of the end is rather darker than yours: David, having discovered he is not unique or special and destroying the other David lets himself drop into the water to his 'death' with everything that happens after that being wishful thinking while he lies 'dying'. The ending, as I see it is what David wanted/wished for/dreamed of, not what he actually got. Even the look of the 'advanced mecha' has a foreshadow in the film: the blurred outline of David the very first time we see him is the same shape as the advanced mecha, who in my opinion, exist only in david's imagination. According to my reading of the end, David, like many Kubrick characters had a form of breakdown, when reality and what he wanted did not match up. Hal, Private Pyle, Little Alex, Dr Bill Harford, Jack Torrance and others all reach a point where they have been taken beyond what they can reconcile and react by losing it in some way. That may be in the form of violence towards others, towards themselves, or simply breaking down in tears.

Notably, whatever idealistic idea David has of the love his 'mother' has for him, in the film, it is very shortlived as love as he thinks it is, mostly it is a mixture of mistrust, disgust, and finally, when her own real child is endangered, abandonment. David having a yearning to feel loved as he wants to be, and his capacity to blind himself to reality, and simply imagine whatever version of love that suits him, that pointedly excludes his father and brother, is the point, IMO, where the A.I crosses the final threshold between being a programmed device and sentient, because he is able to imagine what he wants for his own happiness. And that makes an ending where he does exactly that, as Kubrickian as it gets (including as it does, as with 2001, a character evolving to a higher level of existence after a harrowing journey beyond what his existence to date prepares him for)

< Message edited by jobloffski -- 18/7/2011 5:54:28 PM >

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Post #: 20

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 6:23:04 PM

monkeyfish

Posts: 1234
Joined: 18/9/2006
From: Under the sea

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

To my mind, that's the only way it plausibly could have ended.

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Post #: 21

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 6:27:41 PM

Biggus

Posts: 7611
Joined: 2/10/2005
From: Not Local

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49

Source Code

That was the first film which came to mind for me.

Also Blade Runner. Just watched the Final Cut and it would have been nice to see Deckard and Rachael escape to the country or something...

< Message edited by Biggus -- 18/7/2011 6:29:04 PM >

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Post #: 22

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 6:43:58 PM

MovieAddict247

Posts: 3359
Joined: 5/6/2009

quote:

ORIGINAL: adambatman82

quote:

ORIGINAL: Discodez

quote:

ORIGINAL: adambatman82

SPOILERS.

The epilogue on the end of Harry Potter 7.2 was ridiculous. Not only did it look silly, but it took away any sincerity from the ultimate "journey" of the film.

Considering it's how the book ends, it would have been a bit silly not to include it, no? (although having not seen the film yet I don't know how (dis)simmilar they are)

I don't agree. The ending working in the book doesn't mean it will work on film, and this is something which ought to be addressed when a story is changed from one medium to another. Anyway, regardless of origins it was still a terrible ending.

Completely agree - also it didn't help that every time we saw an aged actor, everyone in the cinema burst out laughing (especially at Malfoy). It's my least favourite part of the book; aside from being pretty poorly written and really cheesy, who would call their child Albus Severus?!

They have ended it at the ruined Hogwarts. All the other films end at Hogwarts (apart from Deathly Hallows Part 1) so it would have made a nice finish.

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Post #: 23

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 6:45:39 PM

horribleives

Posts: 4251
Joined: 12/6/2009
From: The North

quote:

ORIGINAL: monkeyfish

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

To my mind, that's the only way it plausibly could have ended.

MORE SPOILERS

True, I think I was expecting a few more twists along the way but you're right, I bet most writers would've struggled to come up with anything that didn't stretch things too far. Perhaps if the reveal that the rescuers had found a different coffin had packed more of a punch it might have left me less deflated. Or if that music hadn't been so utterly shit.

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Post #: 24

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 6:52:59 PM

monkeyfish

Posts: 1234
Joined: 18/9/2006
From: Under the sea

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

quote:

ORIGINAL: monkeyfish

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

To my mind, that's the only way it plausibly could have ended.

MORE SPOILERS

True, I think I was expecting a few more twists along the way but you're right, I bet most writers would've struggled to come up with anything that didn't stretch things too far. Perhaps if the reveal that the rescuers had found a different coffin had packed more of a punch it might have left me less deflated. Or if that music hadn't been so utterly shit.

I thought that it worked precisely because you could kind of see it coming. You know that it's a bit of a false hope for him to get rescued and it works because you can see that tragic knowledge dawning on him as well.

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Post #: 25

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 18/7/2011 7:08:13 PM

sanchia

Posts: 16903
Joined: 3/1/2006
From: Norwich

quote:

ORIGINAL: Spaldron

SPOILERS Star Wars - ROTJ (do we really need a spoiler for this???)

Luke should'v turned to the dark side, then Vader redeems himself and turns Luke back. Han should'v died.

One of my flatmates at University thought the Luke should have done the dirty deed with Leia, found out she was his sister and then gone mad and turned to the dark side. That would have been a cheerful film.

< Message edited by sanchia -- 18/7/2011 7:09:34 PM >

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Post #: 26

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 19/7/2011 3:43:42 AM

doubtlesswonder

Posts: 2367
Joined: 21/10/2005
From: Yorkshire

quote:

ORIGINAL: monkeyfish

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

quote:

ORIGINAL: monkeyfish

quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

Buried (SPOILERS)

Not quite sure what ending I wanted but just having him die wasn't it. And the wholly inappropriate music over the credits didn't help.

To my mind, that's the only way it plausibly could have ended.

MORE SPOILERS

True, I think I was expecting a few more twists along the way but you're right, I bet most writers would've struggled to come up with anything that didn't stretch things too far. Perhaps if the reveal that the rescuers had found a different coffin had packed more of a punch it might have left me less deflated. Or if that music hadn't been so utterly shit.

I thought that it worked precisely because you could kind of see it coming. You know that it's a bit of a false hope for him to get rescued and it works because you can see that tragic knowledge dawning on him as well.

I agree that the ending was the best thing for the film, though I felt absolutely sick when I finished watching it because of all the ups and downs. I don't remember what the music at the end was, but I remember thinking it was a bit out of place.

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Post #: 27

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 20/7/2011 8:53:01 PM

Marwood

Posts: 2617
Joined: 1/10/2005
From: Only The Shadow knows

Love it but The Dark Knight should have ended with Joker's defeat and Gordon's coda reworked so that Batman is framed by Joker for something. I appreciate it completed the Harvey Dent arc but the Two Face confrontation would have been better saved for a third film where he's the primary antagonist rampaging throughout the city and legal system while Batman is trying to clear his own name and "save" Harvey's too.

I'm sure TDKR will be great but I think TDK's Two Face stuff was one thing too many and fudged the ending somewhat. Can't argue with the fantastic voiceovers from Batman/Gordon that closes it though.

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Post #: 28

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 20/7/2011 8:57:54 PM

jobloffski

Posts: 1847
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: elsewhere

Must disagree. I thought the Dent story mirrored the situation perfectly. The hope of the city gradually corrupted, then destroyed, and the public support of batman, same progression. All themes and incidents encapsulated perfectly, in the hopeful introduction, then corruption and destruction of Harvey Dent, the whole corruption and destruction of everything down to the actions (and consequences of the actions) of the Joker.

The character journeys of both Batman and Harvey tie in with the line 'You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain'. The structure and ending carried this sentiment through, and any ending but the one we got would have left this undone.

Not the ending some wanted, but definitely the ending the film needed, if the film had to end with Batman on the run with the ending flowing from what was happening in the story rather than some additional plot shenanigans in a film some claimed either had no discernible plot at all and was incmprehensible, or too much plot.

< Message edited by jobloffski -- 20/7/2011 11:14:19 PM >

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Post #: 29

RE: Not the ending you wanted - 21/7/2011 12:21:25 AM

Saltire