There is such a thing as an overly complicated movie no matter if it makes perfect sense to those that can somehow follow the logic and reasoning of one story or another. A movie tends to become complicated through many different methods, but one of the most annoying is when the director attempts to entertain the audience by outwitting them using tactics that involve tricking them with things hidden in plain sight or with needless minutiae that might have something to do with the main story but are thrust into the spotlight at the strangest of moments. Then there are movies that could be solved and even enhanced by simple fixes that some folks don’t want to make simply because they don’t want their vision messed with. The thing about making an overly complicated movie is that there are plenty of times when the audience will be less than receptive since not everyone watches a movie to think, as many simply want to turn their brain off and be entertained. It’s kind of a ‘to each their own’ type of thing, but there are still movies that become hopelessly tangled in their own intrigues.
Here are a few movies that were a little too complicated for their own good.
5. The Prestige
To be certain, some people managed to figure this out at some point, but that number was very low since despite having everything a person needed to figure out the story, a lot of folks were too dazzled by the finger-waving and grandstanding that took place, and as a result, they missed the details that were revealed in the story that could have helped them out. But on the other hand, the showmanship of this movie really masked the main point that had to do with the intense rivalry between the two illusionists and the utter ruination that was foisted upon them as one action demanded another reaction.
4. Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice
There was just so much to this movie that it felt as though it should have been divided into two different features in order to get in everything that might have been needed to get the full idea o what was going on. Batman’s vendetta against Superman was the main point of the story after all, while Doomsday felt like an afterthought, but was meant to be the unifying factor that pulled the two heroes together. Plus, the whole “Martha” episode within the movie was enough to inspire memes, GIFs, and many other forms of mockery that Zack Snyder probably should have seen coming from a mile off.
3. Cloud Atlas
The movie was supposed to be a stunning blend of many different lives spread across many different timeframes in which the existence of various figures was meant to further the tale. In the process though, a lot of that was lost and it started to look more like an anthology than a seamless movie that was being told by a narrator that was actually part of the story at one point. Sometimes being ambitious is a good thing since it can create vast and impressive stories that are easy to follow and are still impressive in their complexities. As interesting as this movie was it felt like too many other tales chopped up and tossed into a single container.
2. The Fountain
The unifying theme in this movie is easy enough to follow, but bouncing back and forth as it did from future to present to past and back and forth was beyond confusing since it didn’t do much to inspire the audience, though it was definitely a sad story that a lot of people might have shed a tear over. Sometimes when a tale is told the whole idea of it kind of gets lost in a powerful set of emotions, which as many know are messy, sloppy things at times that don’t really allow for a sense of order and reason that will allow logic to take hold. If anything, this movie wasn’t terrible, but it definitely outsmarted itself at some point since it wasn’t really considered that big of a hit by a lot of people.
1. Inception
Almost anything that has to do with the human brain and how it functions is bound to be somewhat complicated, but Inception took this to depths that a lot of movies don’t bother touching upon. Some people might want to argue over how this kind of thing really happens and what the inner workings of our minds are actually like, but considering that a lot of people still argue over what we know about the human brain vs. what we don’t, it’s fair to say that Inception took a deep dive into the human psyche with a bungee cord attached. The only trick was to know whether the cord was bound to snap or if it was still in one piece by the end of the movie.
Complicating a movie isn’t a bad thing, but it’s knowing where to stop before it outwits itself.
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