8 Utterly Boring Openings That Spoiled Great Movies
8. Pacific Rim
Opening credits have been a mainstay of cinema since the very beginning. Although over time as productions grew in size theyve become less comprehensive (thats what those new fangled end credits are for), some directors are done with them all together. George Lucas famously took a new tact Star Wars 1930s serial-invoking opening crawl, while Christopher Nolan hasnt used them since Insomnia (and has made a trait out of only showing the title card at the very end). Guillermo Del Toros method is a little different. Instead, he uses the first fifteen minutes before the title card of some of his films as a prologue, like a feature length TV episode. The problem with that is immediately obvious; while a viewer can turn off from a TV show at any time, in a cinema your options are severely limited. It's not like you can change the channel you're sat in a dark room with popcorn, after all. You're already plenty hooked. It doesnt really matter though, as long theres something interesting to grab you in that first quarter of an hour. This technique was well used in Hellboy, which managed to pack all the origin story you needed (as well as some plot set-up), but in last years Pacific Rim it felt stretched. Theres insane amounts of exposition (good), followed by a meet-and-greet with our human characters (predictable) and an action sequence that should have your inner child screaming, but instead has you trying to convince yourself it is. It's too aimless for such a risky film.
