My favorite part of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was when Tom Sawyer used his skills at conning people into doing things. I’m glad the scriptwriter thought to do this, because the most famous part of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was his conning other kids into whitewashing the fence for him.
I’ve often wondered how Avatar: The Last Airbender might have turned out, had M. Night Shyamalan not had his most unfortunate rabid badger encounter and forced Paramount to pull in Guillermo del Toro as a last minute replacement.
The Gor movies: A horrible mechanical rice picker accident kills the director and in his place Sam Raimi is hired. He hires a new scriptwriter and a new cast and suddenly the movie is a monster B movie hit.
The Puppet Masters – You can keep the design of the aliens and all the actors (although Donald Sutherland’s presence reminds me that the actor, although great, will also work in anything, which sorta waters down his value. The presence of conspiracy theory-loving actor Richard Belzer is priceless.) Dropl the opening arrival of the “flying saucer”, which is flashy but vinconsistent with the rest of the movie (not to mention the book). Set the damned thing in the future, where it belongs. The explanations for the creatures and their actions make more sense in Heinlein’s universe than in the existing film’s. Julie Warner’s character must be a secret agent from the start, not a scientist drafted as an agent – her use of sex appeal as a tool is believable in a pra cticed agent, but not in a scientist doing this for the first time before a live audience.
The Last Broadcast was really good up until the filmmaker (David) killed the video specialist (Michelle). Then it just fell apart.
I think it would have gone better if Michelle figures out that David is the killer, and sets it up so that the police are waiting for him when he comes to attack her. David is thrown in jail and Michelle takes over as the narrator/filmmaker. But then another murder takes place …
I liked the part of Return of the King where Pippen saw ships instead of a tree in the Palantir. That obviously explained how Gandalf and Elrond knew to send Aragorn down there rather than Minas Tirith. And him using a ghost army to scare away the pirates seemed a little deux ex machina, but it was thrilling to see all the Gondorians jump off the ships and turn the tide.
I also liked seeing the Easterlings at Pelennor and the Morannon. Their cool uniforms shown in Two Towers made the payoff that much sweeter.
Darth Vader’s first scene in Revenge of the Sith was awesome! After the Emperor told him of Padme’s fate, he looked down started breathing really loudly. Everything in the room started smashing and breaking. Even the Emperor was alarmed at this display of rage and power. Then Vader quieted down, kneeled and said his first words “What is thy bidding my master?”
Gives me goosebumps every time.
I found the first appearances of the droids in The Phantom Menace fitting. Of course C-3PO was a fussy aristocratic protocol droid. After all, he was in the service of the Queen of Naboo. And scrappy R2-D2 was built and programmed by a strong-willed Anakin.
I guess they’ll need a mind-wipe in future prequels, but I liked what they did there.
(Since I’m having fun with this thread, Electric Warrior)
Remember that 1998 movie which featured Godzilla using Hollywood-budget resources and effects? It definitely did not look like a man-in-suit crunching miniatures, we Godzilla fans have been waiting for this treatment. And wow, what about the look on the military’s face when all their artillery and missiles bounced off Godzilla? You know the scene, right before he incinerated them?
Can’t wait for the sequel! The ending seemed to hint King Ghidorah was coming?
I was so sorry to see George Lucas retire from filmmaking immediately after the initial theater release of Return of the Jedi. Sometimes, I’m curious why he started the series with chapter 4, and wonder if there might, one day be more movies to explain the origins of the characters or the biological source of the jedis’ powers. But like Lucas said before he completely disappeared from public life, “These stories now belong to the fans and need never be changed.”
Wasn’t it enough for you when he conned the League into treating him like an equal? 
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the concept of a “Hollywood Ending”.
Frankly, the ending of “The Mist” was the redeeming factor of that movie.
Cowboys and Aliens, I admit, really kind of threw me with the ending—I mean, the actual cavalry showing up at the end, to help fight the aliens (casting Stanley Baker as the colonel was an inspired nod, I’ll admit)? The old-timey photo montage over the credits—with the “boom town” springing up over the downed alien ship, Olivia Wilde’s character meeting with President Grant and Queen Victoria? It seemed like quite a departure…
And then it hit me: why shouldn’t they turn this into an “alternate history”? Nine times out of ten, stories with the super-secret-historical-events never have a followup, anyway, and it’s not like they have to worry about plot threads or the budget for the rest of a TV series. The norm, keeping the fantastic events secret,is practically just saying that the story we just watched was irrelevant to the world, anyway.
This way, the story actually felt like it accomplished something, rather than just thwarted something else.
Instead of the audience thinking, best-case, “gee, that was fun. I wonder how they could do a sequel?” We ask “well? What happened next?!”
I was getting really bored in the Lord of the Rings movies until Sean Astin undressed and said “I don’t know how to quit you, Mr. Frodo” and the Brokeback Mordor theme began to play.
That didn’t happen?