10 Worst Opening Scenes In Otherwise Perfect Movies

10. The Dust Bowl - Interstellar

Despite the mixed reviews that met its initial release, I absolutely love Interstellar and think it's one of the most underrated movies of the past decade. I'll defend this movie - loudly, if needs be - despite not even being a huge Christopher Nolan fan.

That established, it must be said that there's one part of this otherwise brilliant film that really bugs me: the opening scene, where a bunch of old folks - including actress Ellen Burstyn, playing an older version of Jessica Chastain's character Murphy - can be seen talking to the camera and recounting their experiences in the wake of the film's then-unnamed natural disaster ("My dad was a farmer back then, like everybody else. Of course, he didn’t start out that way...").

But opting for this "documentary" approach jars quite awkwardly with the established style of the rest of the movie - especially since the talking heads are taken from Ken Burns' 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl (a film which, being a huge Ken Burns fan, I'd seen previously and was confused to find used her in such a capacity).

Interstellar isn't a documentary, after all; the use of talking heads in such a cinematic film feels like both a strange stylistic and narrative choice. It doesn't go on for too long, of course, but it's an odd way to start to an otherwise great film (despite Nolan's noble intentions).