10 Movies That Should've Scrapped Their Opening Scene
5. Skyline
2010's sci-fi disaster film Skyline isn't very good, but at least it's short at just 94 minutes, right? Well, it could've been even shorter if the filmmakers cleaved away that utter nothingburger of an opening scene.
It's not uncommon for movies to open "in medias res," by showing a brief snippet from a scene much later in the movie, serving as a teaser for what's to come and possibly presenting it in a totally different context.
But Skyline offers a rather silly take on this idea, by showing the beginnings of the alien invasion, as Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his pregnant wife Elaine (Scottie Thompson) are woken up by bright lights flashing into their apartment, causing Jarrod to become hypnotised.
The next scene then goes back 15 hours earlier and the rest of the movie appears to play out, presumably leading back to this moment.
Except... we circle back to this scene just 10 minutes later without much in the way of new context, making the whole in medias res opening feel totally unnecessary.
Perhaps the filmmakers were contractually obliged to deliver a movie over 90 minutes long, and this was their "genius" way to make it happen. Either way, it should've been cut.