CGI Egon was a step too far for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
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00:00It's extremely important for any movie to get the audience's attention in its opening moments,
00:04and then continually offer up enough entertainment to sustain interest through to the end.
00:09It's certainly much harder said than done though, and there are virtually unlimited number of things
00:14which might cause viewers to start flagging, and ultimately tune out.
00:18With that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are the 10 exact moments recent movies lost us.
00:2510. The Thieves Have Sympathetic Motivations – Home Sweet Home Alone
00:30Now admittedly, Home Sweet Home Alone lost a lot of people the second the direct-to-Disney-plus
00:34reboot of the beloved comedy franchise was announced, but its patent misunderstanding
00:39of the original's appeal was proven beyond any doubt as soon as the film introduced us to the
00:44reboot's new thieving duo. Rather than simply redo the beloved wet-slash-sticky bandits from the
00:50first two Home Alone movies, Home Sweet Home Alone reimagines the thieves as Jeff and Pam McKenzie,
00:56an all-around nice couple who have simply fallen upon hard times. They soon discover though that a
01:01unique doll in their possession is valuable enough to let them keep their home, and when it goes
01:06missing they suspect that a young boy who visited their house, Max, has stolen it. Now while it
01:11obviously transpires that Max didn't steal the doll, it's incredibly easy to accept their suspicions
01:17and thus sympathize with their desperate attempts to pay him a visit and get the doll back.
01:22Was trying to break into Max's home wrong? Sure, but it's certainly not an act worthy of the
01:27violence that they're ultimately subjected to by Max's traps throughout the film. While there was
01:32definitely potential in flipping the original concept on its head, that clearly wasn't the
01:37filmmaker's intent, and so this is ultimately just a case of a remake that probably should have stuck
01:42to rehashing the original. Given that audiences are far more likely to cringe than laugh at these
01:47basically good people being repeatedly injured, it just doesn't work conceptually or tonally.
01:539. Evil Dies Tonight – Halloween Kills
01:57Like for real, take a shot every time someone says Evil Dies Tonight in the most recent
02:02Halloween movie. Halloween Kills may boast some of the most brilliantly gnarly violence of the
02:07entire series, but it's also got a rotten core that clumsily attempts to make genuine commentary
02:12about the dangers of mob mentality. Much of the film is focused on Haddonfield's residents,
02:18led by Tommy Doyle, forming a mob to try and kill Michael Myers once and for all.
02:23Unsurprisingly, the mob is an unorganized fleet of local morons who, in the film's very worst scene,
02:29end up mistaking an escaped mental patient for Michael Myers. Despite the protests of Karen,
02:34the mob rabidly chases the man onto the hospital roof where he jumps to his death,
02:39before Sheriff Brackett hilariously ponders who the real monsters actually are. Yeah, subtle.
02:45And that's not even the end of it. When the mob's plan to ensnare Michael finally plays out,
02:49he responds by simply slaughtering the lot of them.
02:528. Deepfake – Catherine Keener – The Adam Project
02:56For the first two-thirds of its runtime, Netflix's The Adam Project is a pretty fun
03:00time travel movie focused on the giddy joy of Ryan Reynolds hanging out with his 12-year-old
03:04self and also their late father. Things go spectacularly off the rails in Act 3 though,
03:10when villain Mare, played by Catherine Keener, makes contact with her much younger self,
03:1532 years younger in fact. As stunning as digital de-aging tech has become over the last few years,
03:21especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the CGI work to make Catherine Keener look
03:26effectively half her age isn't even remotely convincing. Rather than smooth out the wrinkles
03:32it appears that the VFX team has effectively deepfaked footage from Keener's old movies
03:38onto a body double, and the result just tumbles immediately into the uncanny valley.
03:44Given that young Mare is present for a huge chunk of the third act as well,
03:48it becomes extremely difficult to focus on what's actually happening for the rest of the movie.
03:53This creepy, off-putting and very distracting CGI abomination was a huge mistake.
03:597. Morpheus Is Dead – The Matrix Resurrections
04:02The Matrix Resurrections is admittedly a massively divisive movie, though one of the
04:07chief complaints from fans was the absence of two of the series' most prominent actors,
04:13those being Hugo Weaving and especially Laurence Fishburne. Even so, many fans did hope that
04:18Fishburne would appear for a surprise cameo as Morpheus, or in the very least,
04:23that the door might be left open for him to return in a possible sequel.
04:27Well, Lana Wachowski unfortunately bummed everyone out by revealing midway through the film
04:32that Morpheus died many years prior during a conflict with the Machines,
04:36and a statue has since been erected in his honour in the new human city of Isle.
04:41For fans who were already on the fence about the movie at this point, this might have been
04:45the punch in the gut that caused them to turn against the flick for its equally baffling remainder.
04:50Morpheus is such a fantastic character, and considering that the story found ways to
04:54conveniently resurrect Neo and Trinity despite 60 years passing since the events of Revolutions,
05:01it did feel like a cop-out to just kill Morpheus offscreen and replace him
05:05with a new Machine counterpart.
05:076. Mark Wahlberg as Sully, Uncharted
05:10The Uncharted movie may not be completely terrible for the subterranean standards of
05:14most video game adaptations, but it's also...not really a great movie. And a big part of the
05:20problem is in the casting, as while Tom Holland did feel like a strange casting choice for Nathan
05:26Drake, it still makes a lot more sense than hiring Mark Wahlberg to portray his mentor Sully.
05:32There's not a moment in this film where Mark Wahlberg feels like he's doing anything but
05:36playing Mark Wahlberg, not even when a fake moustache is slapped on his lips during the
05:41post-credits scene. From his very first scene it's clear that Wahlberg isn't making any effort at all
05:46to inhabit the video game Sully, but instead bending the character to the same generic action
05:52hero archetype that he plays every damn time. It's clear that Wahlberg was cast for cynical
05:58commercial reasons, being a box office draw and all, rather than because he was remotely
06:02well-suited to play a younger version of this character. And given the many capable actors
06:07who could have surely embodied Sully with real gusto, I mean hell, Nathan Fillion anyone,
06:12his phoned-in presence throughout helps sink the entire enterprise.
06:16Number 5, Leon is a total loser. Resident Evil, Welcome to Raccoon City. When it comes to video
06:22game adaptations butchering characters from the source material though, Uncharted is thoroughly
06:27one-upped by the wretched Resident Evil, Welcome to Raccoon City. Now this is admittedly a film
06:32with many issues coming out the wazoo in pretty much every direction, but it's true cardinal sin
06:37was the decision to treat beloved franchise hero Leon S. Kennedy like an absolute chump.
06:42And with this one it's like, where do I even begin? The first time we see him he's boozed up,
06:48hungover and a complete mess of a rookie cop, and throughout the film pretty much just serves as the
06:53butt of everyone's jokes in the Raccoon City Police Department. Falling asleep at the RPD
06:58front desk is one thing, but it's also mentioned that he accidentally shot his partner prior to
07:03the events of the film, yet was spared a firing due to his father's connections on the force.
07:08Leon then ends up doing almost nothing useful throughout the entire film except for firing a
07:14rocket at a mutated William Birkin in the finale. While Leon was certainly a wet around the ears
07:19rookie in the Resident Evil 2 video game, this is just something else entirely. Something bordering
07:24on character assassination, which sucks because the actor playing Leon is clearly very good and
07:30could have done the original version of this character justice. Ugh, it's just, in a movie,
07:35skating on thin ice with fans already, this was the last straw for many.
07:384. Leatherface Kills Sally – Texas Chainsaw Massacre
07:43Netflix's recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel was basically fashioned as a shameless rip-off
07:47of 2018's Halloween, to the extent that it similarly reintroduced its franchise heroine
07:52as a battle-hardened badass ready for one last fight with the murderous villain.
07:57The survivor of the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre is Sally Hardesty. Sally,
08:02now in her late 60s or early 70s, works as a Texas Ranger and heads out to do battle with
08:07Leatherface once more after apparently spending almost 50 years looking for him. Yet, this movie
08:14is no Halloween 2018, and beyond the fact that Sally has a rather meagre supporting role in the
08:20flick, her showdown with Leatherface doesn't go how anyone expected, and in a totally bad way.
08:26Hilariously, it ends with Sally wasting a blatant opportunity to just kill Leatherface,
08:31and then being abruptly run through by his chainsaw. As a result, the younger heroes
08:36are left to fend for themselves, and surprise, they don't fare much better either. As an attempt
08:40to circle back to the original movie, this was an absolute, absolute failure, simply serving
08:46a beloved heroine up to Leatherface like she's any other hapless victim.
08:503. That Totally Insane Car Chase – Deepwater
08:54Adrian Lyne's new film Deepwater is truly one of the most deranged,
08:58head-scratching works of cinema released over the last year. The story basically revolves around a
09:03man, Vic, played by Ben Affleck, who agrees to let his wife Melinda, played by Ana de Armas,
09:08have affairs in their marriage, though the men she consorts with have a habit of going missing
09:13or turning up dead. There's a single scene near the end of the film that's basically the tipping
09:17point at which Deepwater becomes impossible to take even remotely seriously. After Vic murders
09:24Melinda's former college flame Tony, Vic and Melinda's friend Don catches Vic attempting to
09:29submerge Tony's body underwater. Are you still with me? Well after this, a chase ensues with Don
09:35getting into his car and Vic pursuing on a bike, like a push bike. Somehow Vic is able to keep up
09:42with Don throughout the car chase, all the while Don's attempts to text his wife and inform her
09:47of Vic's guilt are ruined by his phone's damn autocorrect feature. Ultimately, Don ends up
09:52accidentally driving his car off a cliff, killing him instantly and conveniently offering the only
09:57witness to Vic's act. It's at this point the audience is just left to consider how anyone was
10:02supposed to watch Deepwater as a serious erotic thriller, rather than an absolute farce. I mean,
10:08no wonder it festered on a studio shelf for two years before being sent straight to streaming.
10:132. CGI Egon – Ghostbusters Afterlife
10:17Now this one might ruffle some feathers, but Ghostbusters Afterlife's bombardment of
10:21nostalgia touchstones reached an unbearable crescendo during its saccharine finale,
10:26where director Jason Reitman made one wildly misjudged creative choice. Though the film
10:31begins with Egon Spengler's death, we never clearly see his face, and a body double has
10:36evidently been used to respectably impress his presence in the story, with Egon actor Harold
10:42Ramis passing away back in 2014. Many observers pre-release suggested that the most obvious
10:48manipulative thing that a Ghostbusters sequel could do was resurrect Egon as a ghost with
10:54state-of-the-art VFX, and that's precisely what this movie does. And while the CGI visage of Egon
11:00does look totally fine from a technical standpoint, it does rather feel like one step too far in a
11:06movie that shamelessly regurgitates almost everything good about the original Ghostbusters
11:11film. Even beyond the ethics of bringing a dead actor back to life without their permission,
11:15his estate clearly gave the okay in this situation, using Ramis as an emotional anchor to
11:20tug the audience's heartstrings just feels a little bit too much for some part of the audience,
11:26even if the intentions were no doubt sincere and earnest, and it is easy to understand why
11:32this didn't work for everyone. Okay, now before we get to our number one pick, I want to note
11:36that there are major spoilers to follow for Morbius if you haven't seen that, and if you care.
11:42Number one, the nonsensical credits scenes, Morbius. It isn't remotely controversial to say
11:47that Morbius is a bad bad movie, an agonizingly retro piece of work that was clearly chopped to
11:53pieces by Sony during post-production in an attempt to ride the Spider-Man No Way Home
11:58coattails all the way to the bank. At least it's short though, with the end credits rolling at
12:02roughly the 90 minute mark, such that it's tough to get all that worked up about how utterly
12:07pedestrian and forgettable it all is. But then those credits scenes happened. The mid-credits
12:14scene shows the MCU's Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture, played by Michael Keaton, being flung
12:19into the world of Sony's Spider-Man universe, appearing through the same multiversal rift that
12:24we saw in No Way Home. This though, immediately raises a number of inconsistencies with the
12:29established facts. For one, why would Toomes end up in this universe at all? Why doesn't he seem
12:35to care about his family back in his universe? And why are we told that there's no record of
12:40Adrian Toomes in this one? I mean, are variants not a thing here? Things get even stranger in the
12:45post-credits scene though, where Toomes, now inexplicably wearing a full vulture getup,
12:50meets up with Morbius and invites him to join his team, implied to be the Sinister Six.
12:55And again here, for one, how did Toomes manage to build a vulture suit without the Tinkerer,
13:00and in a universe where the Battle of New York never happened? And why would Morbius,
13:05whom the last time we saw him was acting with distinct heroism, even be remotely interested
13:10in what Toomes has to say? It's at this point that Morbius went from being a bad,
13:14but relatively harmless movie, to a generally cynical and mind-boggling piece of work.
13:30Break the movies for you, the same way they did for others.