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15 Movie Opening Scenes That Should Never Have Made the Final Cut

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Ignacio Weil

Galleries - November 12th 2026, 02:00 GMT+1

Justice League 2017 opening scene — 15. Justice League (2017)

Kids film Superman answering their questions on a phone, a sweet idea ruined by the suspicious activity on Henry Cavill’s upper lip. The actor had grown a mustache for *Mission: Impossible – Fallout*, so the facial hair was digitally removed for reshoots, leaving his mouth visibly distorted. It’s hard to get sentimental about the Man of Steel when the first thing you notice is that his face appears to be trying to escape. | © Warner Bros.

The Room 2003 opening scene — 14. The Room (2003)

Tommy Wiseau’s Johnny gives Lisa a red dress, and their conversation has the relaxed rhythm of two people reading cue cards through a window. Their young neighbor Denny follows them upstairs and joins a pillow fight before Johnny and Lisa settle in for an excruciatingly long love scene. The camera insists this is a passionate couple, while the dialogue and staging suggest they’ve only just been introduced to the concept of romance. | © TPW Films

Batman Robin 1997 opening scene 1 — 13. Batman & Robin (1997)

Joel Schumacher has the camera examine the molded backsides and armor of Batman and Robin as they suit up. Then Mr. Freeze attacks a museum, and our heroes counter his ice-skating henchmen with blades that pop out of their boots. The barrage of puns, gadgetry and toy-commercial energy drains the danger from the scene. Even the emergency seems designed to sell the accessories. | © Warner Bros.

The Last Airbender 2010 — 12. The Last Airbender (2010)

The animated series introduces its world before throwing Katara and Sokka into a sibling squabble. M. Night Shyamalan’s film opts for an opening text crawl with narration, then has the pair discover Aang in the ice with a fraction of the original’s warmth and personality. The basic plot survives the journey to live action; the sense that these characters have lives and relationships beyond explaining the story largely gets left behind. | © Paramount Pictures

Alien 3 1992 opening scene — 11. Alien 3 (1992)

Ripley, Newt and Hicks survived the nightmare of *Aliens*, only for the sequel’s opening credits to send their escape craft crashing onto a prison planet. Ripley lives; Newt and Hicks die off-screen before they can do anything. The decision gives the film a bleak foundation, but it also throws away the emotional victory that made the previous ending so satisfying. Starting a sequel by undoing its predecessor’s rescue mission is a grim invitation to come along. | © 20th Century Fox

Cats 2019 opening scene — 10. Cats (2019)

Victoria is abandoned in an alley, only to be surrounded by a chorus of digitally furred performers singing about Jellicle cats. The movie has barely started before the rubbery faces, human hands and impossible-to-ignore proportions demand more attention than the song. Instead of inviting audiences into Andrew Lloyd Webber’s peculiar world, the opening turns a simple introduction into a staring contest with a visual effects experiment gone horribly wrong. | © Universal Pictures

Mortal Kombat Annihilation 1997 opening scene — 9. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

A newly recast Johnny Cage barely has time to introduce his new face before Shao Kahn snaps his neck. The sequel picks up where the first *Mortal Kombat* ended, but the recasting, dodgy effects and frantic invasion immediately make it feel like a cheaper imitation of the film you’ve just watched. Killing a popular character should be shocking; here, the moment is so rushed that it barely has time to register. | © New Line Cinema

The Snowman 2017 — 8. The Snowman (2017)

A young boy watches his mother suffer abuse, then sees her drive onto a frozen lake and drown. The prologue ought to be devastating, but its abrupt editing makes the events feel strangely disconnected. There’s barely time to understand the people involved before the film moves on. Meanwhile, the snowman the boy builds looks suspiciously like the ones the killer leaves behind, offering an early clue with all the subtlety of a police siren. | © Universal Pictures

Super Mario Bros 1993 — 7. Super Mario Bros. (1993)

A video game about two plumbers jumping on turtles inspires a film that opens by explaining how a meteor created a parallel dimension where dinosaurs evolved into intelligent creatures. An animated prologue walks us through the theory, as if anyone bought a ticket hoping for a prehistoric science lesson. It’s an awful lot of setup for a world that still bears little resemblance to the game that inspired it. | © Hollywood Pictures

Birdemic Shock and Terror opening scene — 6. Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

Before a single bird attacks, *Birdemic* asks us to watch Rod drive along a road, pull into a parking lot and walk into a café. The camera lingers on his commute while a repetitive soundtrack does its best to make it feel eventful. It doesn’t. For a movie promising shock and terror, the opening plays more like footage from a driving instructor who forgot to turn off the camera. | © Moviehead Pictures

Halloween Resurrection 2002 opening scene — 5. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

The final scene of *Halloween H20* saw Laurie Strode decapitate Michael Myers. This sequel opens by explaining that she actually killed a paramedic dressed in his clothes, then has the real Michael track her down in a psychiatric hospital and kill her. It’s a spectacularly clumsy reversal: Laurie’s hard-won victory disappears, and Jamie Lee Curtis is dispatched before the film has earned the right to move on without her. | © Dimension Films

Madame Web 2024 opening scene — 4. Madame Web (2024)

Constance Webb heads into the Peruvian Amazon heavily pregnant, hunting a rare spider with a supposed ally who shoots her and steals it. The scene is meant to establish a tragic origin, but the stiff dialogue, clumsy betrayal and rushed attempt at mythology make it feel like several explanations have been crammed into a single jungle excursion. Even a mysterious group of spider-people can’t give this convoluted beginning much urgency. | © Sony Pictures

Disaster Movie 2008 opening scene — 3. Disaster Movie (2008)

A caveman encounters a saber-toothed Amy Winehouse impersonator who pulls a crystal skull out of her hair. That’s the opening gag, and it tells you everything about *Disaster Movie’s* approach to parody: pile in references to things people recognize and hope the laughter follows. The Winehouse caricature, built around her public struggles with addiction, adds a mean streak to a prehistoric sequence that can barely be bothered to tell an actual joke. | © Lionsgate

Postal 2007 opening scene — 2. Postal (2007)

Two hijackers are about to fly into the World Trade Center, but first they telephone Osama bin Laden to argue about how many virgins they’ll receive in paradise. Uwe Boll plays the setup for laughs, ending with a plane hurtling toward a skyscraper. Provocation can have a point; here the punch line feels like the film mistook choosing a shocking subject for actually having something sharp to say about it. | © Brightlight Pictures

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker 2019 — 1. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The opening crawl announces that Emperor Palpatine has returned, then sends Kylo Ren racing to Exegol after cutting his way across Mustafar. Their meeting should be a momentous reveal, yet the film has already delivered the news in scrolling text and moves on at hyperspeed. The Emperor’s supposed galaxy-wide broadcast was even played during a *Fortnite* event, though it isn’t heard in the film itself. That’s one way to start the saga’s grand finale. | © Lucasfilm

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The actors look like they’ve just met the script, the dramatic reveal gets an unintended laugh, and you’re already wondering how much longer this scene can possibly go on. That’s quite an achievement for a movie you’ve just started. The worst opening scenes in movie history can make even a good film feel like a bad decision for the first few minutes. At least the ones that never improve were honest about what was coming.

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The actors look like they’ve just met the script, the dramatic reveal gets an unintended laugh, and you’re already wondering how much longer this scene can possibly go on. That’s quite an achievement for a movie you’ve just started. The worst opening scenes in movie history can make even a good film feel like a bad decision for the first few minutes. At least the ones that never improve were honest about what was coming.