10 scenes so iconic you forgot the rest of the movie was awful

Batman saves Martha Kent – ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)

Zack Snyder butchered the DC Extended Universe before it got the chance to kick off by cramming cameos, parallel universes, and baffling plot twists into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and although Ben Affleck did his best to portray a grizzled, veteran version of Batman, there was only so much he could do with a script that offered him confusing motivations. However, he does have one truly great scene where Batman is sent to rescue Martha Kent, played by Diane Lane, from the henchmen working for Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, and he takes them out in brutal fashion.

It was evident that Affleck had worked to get into the right shape to show Batman’s realistic fighting style, even if he blatantly ignored the character’s no-killing rule, making the scene good enough for it to be extra disappointing that the actor never had the opportunity to have a standalone film in which he could play Batman, and really make a show of his skills.

The Loser’s Club reunites – ‘It: Chapter Two’ (2019)

Stephen King saw his novel It adapted into a cheesy television film in the ‘80s, but then Warner Bros bankrolled an ambitious two-part adaptation directed by Andy Muschietti. However, a longstanding criticism against the project is that the first half of the story, which is focused on the children, is far more interesting than the second part, centring on the adults, which was proven to be true with the new films as well.

The first It was a dark coming-of-age story that featured a terrifying turn from Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, but It: Chapter Two was overstuffed, oversaturated, and unable to fix the rotten ending from King’s original novel. However, the actors cast as the adult version of the Loser’s Club undeniably had great chemistry, and a scene where they first reunite at a restaurant after 27 years captured some of the same magic that the younger cast had in the first film.

Godzilla faces the MUTOs – ‘Godzilla’ (2014)

Godzilla is an icon who has appeared in dozens of Japanese films, and the American attempts to reinvent the character have not lived up to that legacy. Gareth Edwards was tasked with kick-starting the first chapter in the monsterverse with his 2014 Godzilla film, which killed its most interesting character (played by Bryan Cranston) off too early and spent most of its runtime hiding the titular monster.

Edwards’ Godzilla might have been trying to take the Jaws approach that less is more, but it’s much harder to hide a kaiju in a city than it is for a shark to disappear in the water; the 2014 film also didn’t have any characters as memorable as Chief Brody or Quint, but the one moment where Edwards’ version comes alive is an exhilarating final set piece where Godzilla faces off with other monsters, but it’s too little, too late to save the film.

Will Graham baits the Tooth Fairy – ‘Red Dragon’ (2002)

The cinematic history of Thomas Harris’ novels is interesting, wherein his original Red Dragon was first adapted by Michael Mann in 1986 as Manhunter, but a standalone adaptation of the sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, became the first and only horror film to win ‘Best Picture’. In addition to the sequel Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins reprised his role in the second adaptation of Red Dragon, which used the book’s title.

Brett Ratner’s version of Red Dragon is inferior to Mann’s in every way, with the exception of Edward Norton and his incredible performance as Will Graham. Although the final confrontation in which the serial killer known as ‘the Tooth Fairy’, played by Ralph Fiennes, puts Graham’s family in danger is effective, it’s the only moment in which the strong performances are able to elevate Ratner’s lazy direction into something reminiscent of what Jonathan Demme did with The Silence of the Lambs.

Laura is lost at sea – ‘Sleeping With The Enemy’ (1991)

Julia Roberts had helped create one of the biggest box office hits ever with Pretty Woman in 1990, and so anything she worked on in the immediate aftermath was subjected to massive expectations, which carried onto Sleeping With The Enemy, intended to be a gripping psychological thriller about a woman surviving domestic abuse, but the plot is so silly that it doesn’t do justice to the issues that it is trying to tackle.

Sleeping With The Enemy sets up an effective opening in which Roberts’ character, Laura, goes missing while on a boat at night, causing her abusive husband Martin, played by Patrick Bergin, to go into a fit of rage and shock. That she would fake her own death in order to escape her husband signified how dangerous Martin was, but it’s the last moment before the film plummets for good.

‘I Dreamed A Dream’ – ‘Les Misérables’ (2012)

Les Misérables is perhaps the most successful musical of the past 50 years, and Tom Hooper’s 2012 adaptation is a complete abomination, where by choosing to have actors sing on set, he created an uneven editing style that didn’t take advantage of the language of cinema, made worse by the fact that he clearly didn’t understand the intent of the original material.

While not even Hugh Jackman was able to redeem the film with his performance as Jean Valjean, Anne Hathaway had the chance to deliver a powerful rendition of Fantine’s song ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, and even if Hooper didn’t put in the work to explore why Fantine’s death has such a profound impact on Valjean’s life, Hathaway undeniably nails all the notes of the song, and unsurprisingly ended up picking up a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ trophy at the Academy Awards for it, offering the film it’s only silver of grace.

Quicksilver saves the mutant students – ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ (2016)

The X-Men franchise had gone off the rails by the time that X-Men: Apocalypse took the story to the 1980s and introduced younger versions of Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops, and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler. Oscar Isaac’s performance as the ancient mutant Apocalypse reached cartoonish levels of goofiness, but his initial attack on the X-Mansion leads to a fun sequence in which Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, speeds around to save everyone.

A similar scene showing the speed at which Quicksilver could move through time had been shown in the previous film, X-Men: Days of Future Past, but X-Men: Apocalypse used ‘Sweet Dreams’ to make it even more fun and propulsive. It’s the one point in which the film seems to recognise that Peters is by far the most charismatic actor in the cast, which makes it all the more disappointing when the fact that Quicksilver is the son of Magneto is barely brought up later on.

Superman faces his doppelgänger – ‘Superman III’ (1983)

Superman has long been thought of as a cursed role, and there have certainly been a number of bad films starring the character. Superman III may not be as cheaply incompetent as Superman IV: The Quest for Peace or as jarringly cynical as Man of Steel, but it’s a forgettable entry in the franchise that basically turned itself into a Richard Pryor comedy.

The one interesting idea in it, however, is the notion that the character’s essence would be divided into two different people, where there’s the ‘good’ Clark Kent, and the ‘evil’ Superman who has taken over. The hero audiences knew and loved got to battle his doppelgänger in a thrilling junkyard fight that showed how perfectly suited Christopher Reeve was to play both versions of the character, but that level of grittiness is completely absent from the rest of the film.

The ageing montage – ‘Click’ (2006)

Adam Sandler has made so many terrible comedies that it’s almost impossible to tell them apart, but Click at least has an interesting premise, where Sandler plays an overworked father who gains access to a remote that can pause, rewind, and speed through his life, allowing him to choose which memories he wants to savour.

Most of Click uses this intriguing idea for the sake of the toilet humour that Sandler is best known for, but there’s a moment at the end of the film in which his character sees his entire life unfolding before his eyes, revealing the tragedy that awaits him. It’s a surprisingly emotional moment in an otherwise forgettable comedy, and it’s so well utilised that it comes as a complete shock. Using prosthetics to age up actors is not always effective, but Click managed to earn an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Makeup & Hairstyling’, and that’s saying something, for the rest of it doesn’t hold a candle to that recognition.

The Japanese invasion – ‘Pearl Harbor’ (2001)

Michael Bay is an unapologetic showman who makes loud, silly movies that shouldn’t be taken seriously, which is certainly not an issue when he makes something as genuinely entertaining as Bad Boys or The Rock, but he’s not the type of filmmaker who should be given the responsibility of adapting a true story.

Pearl Harbor is a disastrous war epic that uses Bay’s awkward humour, melodramatic style, and banal dialogue to make an overlong and irritating tribute to the veterans of World War II. However, any moments in which the characters are silent, and Bay is allowed to focus on the action, are generally pretty effective, so the initial bombing of Pearl Harbor is a terrific action scene that ranks among the best that Bay has ever made, but it’s unfortunately just a brief section within a film that runs an astounding three hours long.