Films that start well and end terribly

J

jamewages

I've been rewatching the Bond films recently, and I realised that a fairly common theme is that many of them have a really strong first hour or so then suddenly decline in quality and go out with a whimper - sometimes they go completely off the rails, sometimes they go nowhere, sometimes they jump the shark massively. Examples:

Thunderball - great first hour with an intriguing plot and genuinely engaging characters - then it descends into endless underwater sequences and nothing much else, and by the end is intensely boring.

Moonraker - it does not need the space sections at all. I wouldn't say the first hour is great, to be honest, but it's a hell of a lot better than what follows, which is basically a poor man's Star Wars.

Quantum of Solace - in the second half of the film, all the most interesting characters disappear to varying degrees, the film rushes into a half-baked conclusion, and the final scenes are a mess.

And it got me thinking about other films that do this - I would say Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spider-Man 3, and The Island all go completely insane in their second half after relatively enjoyable first halves. What other films would you suggest and why?
 
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Moonraker? Quantum of Solace? I'll have you know sir that those movies are actually incredibly good. There's a wonderful thing called a storyline.
Anyway,
Meet the Robinsons - This movie was by far a waste of money. You're promised a comedy and get the entire family love story from Disney. It ruined itself. Yes, the possessed Tyrannosaurus was funny, but that's about it!
 
Meet the Robinsons is a strange movie, probably because over half of the movie was redone once the merger of Pixar and Disney was complete. Thats why if you ever saw early previews of the movie then saw the actual movie, you would see the plot synopsis from the previews didn't match at all. Who knows if it was for the better or worse?
 
It wasn't the best movie ever but it certainly wasn't the worst. I was expecting so much by the end of the movie after hearing the premise and the beginning, but good God, it really stank at the end. The story is just completely non-existent in the second half.

dmaster out.
 
Zenith said:
Hancock will hold this title until the end of time.

Actually, it was a really good movie with a lot of good comedy until you found out what Hancock was. Then it turned into an utter waste of film.
 
Prometheus. At the end, I was wondering just what the entire point of the movie was, other than to make Alien fans wish they were watching a prequel.

You know, in hindsight, I think that it was a prequel to a new bit of Alien movies to come... I mean, think about it. The Xenomorphs were wiped out, but there is one left who is hanging out on this one planet and making all sorts of eggs 'n stuff and jump-starting a new Xenomorph subspecies. Maybe. Maybe. But I have yet to see one outsmart bullet
 
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