10 Opening Credit Sequences That Were Better Than The Films That Followed

8. The Kingdom (2007)

The Opening Credit Sequence: They may have taken us to a galaxy far, far away but title sequences have always had a love/hate relationship with crawl text and captions. Too little and they're hardly necessary; too much and we may as well have read the book. Which is why The Kingdom, with its opening timeline sequence, applies the Goldilocks Principle to exposition (i.e, it's just right) and grabs our attention from the outset. It explains, through a montage of news reports and sobering statistics, that the discovery of oil in the Middle East has put a significant strain on its dealings with the US. An important history lesson packed into just under four minutes; you don't get many Powerpoint presentations like this. This oil trail encompasses both the Gulf War and the 9/11 terrorist attacks to lead us here: an FBI investigation into the destruction of an American compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Film: Aside from the opening attack, it's mostly forgettable. This is in no small part due to its obligation to provide 'the bigger picture'. For example, as much as the film initially tries to distance itself from the Team America approach to domestic policy, it knows it's playing for the folks back home. And despite such a strong credit sequence, director Peter Berg almost immediately shoos away all that dreary politics stuff with an explosion here and a one-liner there, casting Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper as our agents abroad; each one of 'em no-nonsense, tough-talking and high on freedom. It may show slight hints of a conscience but it'd be difficult to call the film well-intentioned. Given the amount of Middle Eastern stereotyping on show (everyone's a suicide bomber), the film could only rupture international relations further.