Hollywood studios get a lot of flack for splitting big-screen book adaptations into multiple parts. But what about the Hollywood blockbusters that really should have been split into more than one film, but were not?
I’m talking about the movies that try to do too much within the confines of one film. Sometimes, they have too much plot. Other times, they have two parallel stories that could have easily sustained their own films. Always, you come out of these cinematic experiences imagining the better movie or movies that existed inside of the movie that was inevitably made. (Or at least I do.)
Need some examples? Here are five Hollywood films that should have been split into two movies…
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The much-anticipated prequel to theHarry Potterbook/film series,Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themhas some great ideas in it, but, as a film, is a bit of a mess. First-time screenwriterJ.K. Rowlingseems torn between two stories: a movie about Newt Scamander capturing and nurturing magical creatures and a movie about the rise of magical fascism in mid-century America.
It’s the latter story where Rowling’s interests truly seem to lie, making the Obscurus/Grindelwald plot far better developed than the magizoologist plot. The two plots are also tonally at odds, with one featuring child abuse, murder, and corruption, and the other featuring an adorable creature who steals shiny things. The two parallel plots don’t mesh very well and could have each sustained their own film.
This overstuffed plot problem is even more unforgivable given the resources that Warner Bros. have to develop multipleHarry Potter-based franchises, should they choose, and the fact that theFantastic Beastsfranchisehas four more planned installmentsin the series.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Oh,X-Men: Apocalypse, how I wanted to love you. While I think I enjoyed this film more than the average moviegoer, there’s no arguing that it was confused about what it wanted to be.
By trying to balance theFirst Classcrew (i.e. Charles, Erik, Mystique, etc.) with the new kids on the block (i.e. Jean, Scott, Quicksilver, etc.), the movie didn’t succeed at telling either of those groups’ stories well. The poorly-developed Apocalypse plot didn’t help either, leading to a pretty poor characterization of Erik who, while often extreme and violent in his methodology, was seen killing humans and mutants alike indiscriminately in the climactic massacre of this film.
Ultimately, this would have been a much better film if it had been split into two, perhaps with one focusing more on the story and character development of the olderFirst Classcrew and a second film focusing on the introduction of this younger class of mutants. Or, conversely, one film could have focused on introducing the new class, while giving theFirst Classcrew plenty to do and a second film could have focused on the rise of Apocalypse.
Unfortunately, we will never know if this would have made for more successful storytelling, though the X-Men film franchise is expanding its reach with aNew Mutantsinstallment in addition to its upcomingDark Phoenixfilm. However,Dark Phoenixdoes include much of the same crew asApocalypse. Hopefully, the characters and story will have more room to breathe than they did inApocalypse.
Captain America: Civil War
As anAvengersfilm,Civil Waris arguably the best. As aCaptain Americafilm,Civil Warfalls short of the high mark set byThe Winter Soldier. Its an ambitious, enjoyable film, but one where Steve Roger’s characterization doesn’t get as much time as it deserves because of the film’s focus on explaining why each member of the Avengers has chosen their respective sides.
Because of this split focus, the ideology of the comic book source material from whichCivil Wardraws is mostly lost in translation. The film only ostensibly makes the Avengers’ disagreement about the Sokovia Accords themselves. Really, the crux of the division is personal, with the climactic battle between Steve, Bucky, and Tony about the murders of Tony’s parents rather than any political ideology.
If the story ofCivil Warhad been split into two films — one exploring the political implications of the Avengers initiative and the subsequent Sokovia Accords and one exploring the personal drama between Tony, Steve, and Bucky, a story that spans generations — then these stories would have been the stronger for it.
Spider-Man 3
The black sheep of the originalSpider-Manfilm franchise,Spider-Man 3is a movie burdened by far too much plot. Who knows if this movie could have been saved, but streamlining its plot into more than one movie definitely would have helped. Let’s start with the divvying up of Sandman and Venom into two separate films. You can pick your poison on which of those two films will use their respective supervillain as a decoy for the true villain of the film: Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin.
Whichever film includes the Harry transformation should also include the romantic angst that comes from introducing Gwen Stacy into the plot, yetanotherplot exploration thatSpider-Man 3tried to pull off. Yeah, I’m not picky about howSpider-Man 3would have tried to split all of this plot into two films, it’s just obvious that it should have.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The first film in theHarry Potterfranchise to attempt to adapt one of the more serialized, tome-like volumes of the book series,Goblet of Firehas a lot to do and not enough time to do it. Because of the simple structure of the Triwizard Tournament, the film relies heavily on that aspect of the book without delving into what are arguably the more interesting parts of the book, i.e. SPEW, Winky, Weasley Wizard Wheezes, and a more thorough explanation of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.
It’s not hard to understand why Warner Bros. chose to keep this as one movie. It wasn’t very common, at this point, to split one book into two movies. These teen actors were aging. And there isn’t a point in the book’s plot that would have made for a good stopping point. Still, I would have liked to see Warner Bros. go for it. As much fun as this movie is, it leaves out a lot of the stakes-raising, world-building stuff that makes reading theHarry Potterbooks so great.
