Most Anticlimactic Movie Deaths

[Mr Silver]

I'm also reminded of No Country For Old Men, where Josh Brogan's character is killed offscreen by Anton Chigurh after spending the majority of the movie eluding him and even surviving a shootout with him on equal footing! Surely the payoff of a final fight would have made more sense?

 

[Kemaiku]

Dracula, in the original 1931 version. Offscreen, muted, skips ahead to the human characters going their separate ways the next day. Very disappointing but made up for in the ending to the 1958 Hammer version.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I'm also reminded of No Country For Old Men, where Josh Brogan's character is killed offscreen by Anton Chigurh after spending the majority of the movie eluding him and even surviving a shootout with him on equal footing! Surely the payoff of a final fight would have made more sense?

While I agree that a final showdown between Llewelyn and Chigurh would have been a more satisfying ending, having his death be so anticlimactic was supposed to emphasize the pointlessness of it all and play upon Tommy Lee Jones' increasing despair with the way of the world today. So it works from an in-story standpoint while not being the most dramatic and exciting ending for the audience. Still a fantastic film, though.

Some of the offscreen deaths of major or mid-level characters in the final Harry Potter film bugged me a bit. They could have cut some of the exposition in favor of giving at least some of these characters a worthy onscreen send-off.

The stupid death of Darth Maul (not counting recent events in Clone Wars) where he suddenly becomes and idiot and loses all his speed and reflexes was really bad, though, especially after dominating the dojo against two of the Jedi's best the entire fight. It was obvious Obi-Wan was up to something for about twenty seconds before he leapt up, but Maul just stood there with a Scooby Doo look of confusion on his face the whole time.

 

[Hound of UIster]

^ Given that the Sarlacc takes a thousand years to digest its prey, I can only assume it keeps that prey alive for that long. Otherwise the prey would die and rot. And Threepio did specifically say that the victim(s) would remain alive all that time.

So it preserves its victims while also digesting them?

Of course, this makes not the slightest bit of sense if you think about it for two seconds, unless Sarlaccs have some other form of sustenance besides (very, very slowly) digesting preserved victims.

Look at the Venus Fly Trap, its real life analogue it gets its carbohydrates from photosynthesis, but eats protein based life as a source of nitrogen compounds since its soil is usually nitrogen poor. Possibly its the same for the Sarlaac. Energy isn't the only thing an organism needs.

 

[JarodRussell]

Charlize Theron - Snow White & the Huntsman

Wow, thanks for that. Guess I have no reason to see the movie now that you've blown the ending.

Really fucking appreciate it.

Surely you can't be serious!

Despite everything, it's still SNOW WHITE for God's sake.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Some of the offscreen deaths of major or mid-level characters in the final Harry Potter film bugged me a bit. They could have cut some of the exposition in favor of giving at least some of these characters a worthy onscreen send-off.

It was this way in the books as well, though. I think it also just emphasizes the horror and tragedy of the whole thing. It emphasizes that people are dying defending Hogwarts even when you don't see it.

 

[Hound of UIster]

No she was just too half-assed to write their deaths since a few of them weren't part of her plan and added at the last minute due to the changes in the epilogue.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

And you're basing this on?

 

[Hound of UIster]

What she said in the interviews.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Some of the offscreen deaths of major or mid-level characters in the final Harry Potter film bugged me a bit. They could have cut some of the exposition in favor of giving at least some of these characters a worthy onscreen send-off.

It was this way in the books as well, though. I think it also just emphasizes the horror and tragedy of the whole thing. It emphasizes that people are dying defending Hogwarts even when you don't see it.

Nobody told me there'd be book readin' involved in this assignment.

 

[Holdfast]

Count Dukuu in Revenge of the Sith. Yoda couldn't even beat him in AOTC yet Anikin can easily do it in the third. Yeah so he turns into Darth Vader, but still.

Yeah, I'd second being a bit disappointed by the speed of Dooku's death. They crammed a bit too much into RotS IMO. I totally understand the reasons for introducing Greivous as a cyborg character, but I'm not convinced his role had to be so large. Some of what he did could have been given to Dooku instead.

But given the size of his role, you could probably also include Greivous in the topic's list. And maybe even Palpatine.

 

[Mr Silver]

Yeah, I'd second being a bit disappointed by the speed of Dooku's death.

It's a bit sketchy, given that they were trying to show that Anakin had greatly advanced as a Jedi, but at the same time they had Dooku quickly disable Obi Wan. This is something that doesn't quite add up when you consider that Obi Wan equaled Anakin throughout their climatic duel at the end of the movie - not to mention that Obi Wan eventually defeated him.

They crammed a bit too much into RotS IMO. I totally understand the reasons for introducing Greivous as a cyborg character, but I'm not convinced his role had to be so large. Some of what he did could have been given to Dooku instead.

Could there have been some disagreement between Christopher Lee and George Lucas which lead to Dooku's part in the movie being re-written for Greivous?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Spoiler

Charlize Theron - Snow White & the Huntsman[/I]

Spoiler: some film

So she's into anticlimactic deaths this year? A shame, she's the only reason I ever considered watching Snow White & John Huntsman

 

[Holdfast]

Yeah, I'd second being a bit disappointed by the speed of Dooku's death.

It's a bit sketchy, given that they were trying to show that Anakin had greatly advanced as a Jedi, but at the same time they had Dooku quickly disable Obi Wan. This is something that doesn't quite add up when you consider that Obi Wan equaled Anakin throughout their climatic dual at the end of the movie - not to mention that Obi Wan eventually defeated him.

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, I know that the idea was that Anakin won so swiftly because he was channelling hte dark side heavily after seeing Obi-Wan crushed by Dooku's force-move on the platform, but still, it's kind of a shame to shortchange Dooku in this way.

Mind you, I still think GL should have strung out Dooku's reveal as a Sith Lord in AotC a bit longer. I'd have liked the ambiguity around his exact motives and involvement with Palpatine to have extended into the RotS.

They crammed a bit too much into RotS IMO. I totally understand the reasons for introducing Greivous as a cyborg character, but I'm not convinced his role had to be so large. Some of what he did could have been given to Dooku instead.

Could there have been some disagreement between Christopher Lee and George Lucas which lead to Dooku's part in the movie being re-written for Greivous?

Not that I'm aware of, though I don't follow the ins and outs of SW closely. I think it's more likely that GL simply thought that a new movie needed a new baddie and he liked Greivous especially as he sets up the concept of Vader. With a big role for GG, Dooku has to be killed off quickly. Plus, Lee's age meant that lots of fight scenes with him would have needed lots of CGI anyway and it's probably more expensive to make a digital human realistic than to do the same for a digital non-human character. Just guesses though...

 

[IndyJones]

I wonder if there are any other recent movies Gryffindorian wants to spoiler code incorrectly.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

not to mention that Obi Wan eventually defeated him.

*cough*something about a duel on the Death Star*cough*cough*

Thematically, it makes sense for Dooku to die early, especially with Anakin essentially killing him in Cold Blood. It parallels Luke having the opportunity to do the same to Vader. The movie is primarily about Anakin's conversion to the Dark Side and it makes sense not to prolong this necessary step longer than they have to.

 

[MANT!]

Screw anticlimatic, I've the greatest movie death in HISTORY!!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECx-42Wlho[/yt]

bask in it's greatness..

 

[Gryffindorian]

Spoiler

Charlize Theron - Snow White & the Huntsman[/I]

Spoiler: some film

So she's into anticlimactic deaths this year? A shame, she's the only reason I ever considered watching Snow White & John Huntsman

Still a very good movie, imho, regardless of the ending.

Spoiler: Charlize

So have you seen Prometheus yet? You probably know what's gonna happen to some of the characters. All I can say is that the movie ends at least on a positive note.

 

[Kooz]

Here's a couple that spring to mind:

Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III: He dies of old age, no shocking hit or crossfire murder. That's pretty anti-climatic for a genre defining character who made shitloads of enemies and even pissed his own family off.

Scott Summers in X-Men The Last Stand: He more or less dies off screen and very little is said about him for the duration of the movie.

Both good ones--Corleone especially! Excellent call.