10 Movies That Should Have Deleted Their Opening Scene
Since editing is the most important part of the filmmaking process, filmmakers sometimes fail to strike the perfect balance. Each frame of the movie is close to them so it is understandable that they hesitate to cut the scenes. However, there are times when this opening scene eventually bring down the whole experience of watching that movie. Having said all this, we admit that editing is a very challenging process and not even the extremely talented filmmaker gets it right every time.
We bring to you 10 such movies, including Avengers and Justice League, that would have been far more interesting if only they had deleted their opening scene!
1. Scream 3
Among the four films in the series, Scream 3 is the worst. The movie starts with a painfully long opening where Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is taunted over the phone by Ghostface. Ghostface is secretly listening to the conversation that his girlfriend, Christine (Kelly Rutherford), is having at his home. Cotton rushes through the traffic and reaches home. Meantime, Ghostface trifles with Christine by putting on a Creed song over Cotton’s stereo. The entire first 5 minutes of the movie seemed like a long drag.
2. Wonder Woman 1984
The movie’s prologue stars a younger version of Diana who participates in an athletic contest in Themyscira. She competes with other older Amazons and tries to win the contest by taking a shortcut. However, her aunt Antiope (Robin Wright) scolds her for using the shortcut and finding an easy way out. The scene drags for 11 minutes long. Had the opening started with Diana racing the other Amazons for reasons untold to us, it would have made the entry even more mysterious.
3. Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity starts with a filler probably to make it to its 86 minutes without spending much more of its scant $15,000 budget. The opening scene is quite boring. The main leads Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are introduced and their banter is shown. We might as well skip the scene since we don’t learn much about the couple either.
4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The movie starts with a flashback to the night Peter Parker‘s (Andrew Garfield) parents died. Their plane was hijacked and eventually crashed during the struggle with the hijackers. The scene’s purpose was probably to show us what Peter’s parents were doing that made them put their family’s life in danger. However, the sequence is quite generic and lacks any drama that would engage the audience.
5. Captain Phillips
Captain Phillips is an amazing survival thriller. However, the opening scene seemed unnecessary and completely unrelated to the high standards of the movie. The sequence stars Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks), who is preparing to leave his Vermont home with his wife Andrea (Catherine Keener). He is shown having a very elaborate talk with his wife about the future their son is growing up in.
6. Skyline
We admit that not much can be done to the mediocre sci-fi movie, Skyline, to turn it into a masterpiece. However, in contrast to this movie, its two sequels are quite okay. Although deleting the opening scene could have done this movie good. The movie begins with a scene that is actually the mid part of the story. We return to this part later on. The sequence starts off with the alien invasion. Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his pregnant wife Elaine (Scottie Thompson) wake up to the bright lights flashing into their apartment. This hypnotizes Jarrod into a strange trance. His body reacts to this physically. The whole medias res seemed pointless.
7. Justice League
There’s already so many speculations and criticism on Justice League that whatever we say now might not sound new to you. However, deleting the first five minutes of the movie could have slightly improved it. The sequence begins with phone footage of Superman (Henry Cavill) speaking with a child. We are then shown an offputting CGI-heavy scene. Batman (Ben Affleck) catches a criminal (Holt McCallany). He then fights a Parademon.
8. Halloween (2007)
The movie might have many flaws but it’s a well known fact that the opening scene of this movie is a drag. The scene opens with a yooung Micheal (Daeg Faerch). Even though it might be interesting but it drawn-out so long that it feels unnecessary. The scene is stretched long where Michael’s family argues over breakfast. The argument between Michael’s mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) and her boyfriend (William Forsythe) is more irritating than entertaining. It would have done us all good if this part would have been skipped.
9. The Avengers
Even though, this movie is one of the best films in the MCU, The Avengers also has one of the most underwhelming openings in the entire franchise. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) appears at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to rob the Tesseract. However, before Loki comes we have to go through the opening scene. The scene is all about the importance of Tesseract. It might have been added to make the viewers catch up with the background story. However, it felt quite unnecessary and the movie would have been even more exciting if we would have directly started with Loki’s entrance.
10. Dark City
The opening scene of this underrated classic is again quite a drag. Even if we love the gravelly voice of Sutherland, the movie is tripped of its mystery when it’s revealed who the Strangers are. We also come to know about their reasons and how Schreber is drawn in with them. Now when everything is revealed in the beginning itself then where is the real fun?
