No more getting hyped, no more great music, no more opening credits? Nostalgia Critic takes a look and sees if movie intros are changing for better or worse.
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I’m a first class loser
Now do the dying art of movie posters.
Don’t stop there. Do “Proper Movie Trailers” too.
Does this mean we’re getting a review of a Series of Unfortunate events soon?
According to Twitter, his next 2 regular reviews before Nostalgia-Ween are on Green Lantern (which I like) and Kangaroo Jack (which I have NOT seen).
You’re dismissing the possibility that he won’t do A Series of Unfortunate Events for Nostalgia-ween
I don’t mind the lack of opening credits in movies these days. I just find it annoying that most movies don’t have opening title sequences any more, but instead save them for the very end of the movie. The Mummy Returns, Star Trek Beyond, TMNT: Out of the Shadows, half the Marvel Cinematic Universe, half the DC Extended Universe, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Wolverine, Deadpool (it opened with a SPOOF credits sequence, and ended with a regular one), the Paranormal Activity series, and more do that crap. It’s like ending a book with the front cover. I just find it really annoying when I sit through the first 5-10 minutes of a movie that has NO opening title sequence.
These also can apply to TV series and Cartoons. Look for example the Marvel cartoons of right now. They give you the title, and PUM. You are in the episode.
And when they are not out of the picture yet, did you noticed they keep getting shorter and shorter?
In the case of television at least they have an excuse. They keep intros short for additional commercials. (It’s a flimsy excuse and I don’t like that they do that but it’s true.)
Not as much excuse as openings lost purpose in case of TV. They original TV goal was to give people time to come one the show in time when it was a event and access to information was hard (plus it was easy way to rehash material). But nowadays people are more organized and streaming literally remove need for those as many people literally skip those. As for cinema.. basically in the past creators believe that people have attention shortage and they need “lead by the hand” them in watching the movie. Yes, some intros were good but they still can be good. They are mostly just shorter.
I agree the “led by the hand” part of movies is getting worse.
Life of Pi’s opening credits is really good! It gives you a look at the setting (the zoo) with Pi’s Lullaby being sung in Tamil as you see the various zoo exhibits and it has to offer. And the very last shot, before the story begins, shows one of the main characters of the film, the tiger; Richard Parker.
“Good title sequences can even lead to great scenes in bad movies. I – like a lot of people – wasn’t a fan of Mars Attacks.” – Why do you always do this, Doug? Trying to justify your opinion by confirming the fact that “a lot of people” agrees with you? No one cares, Doug. Just because a movie you dislikes is disliked by many others doesn’t somehow make it more (or less) okay to state it’s a bad movie.
Seriously? Have you not been following him for the past several years? There have been countless videos where he’s talked about movies he hates but everyone else loves and vice versa. Really think long and hard before you post next time.
as the Critic said, is an homage to what it was in the beginings of the old time movies; movies like Attack of the Killing Tomatoes would be atrocious if not horrible if was taken to serious. And the list keeps growing. It sets both the mood and the pace of the movie we’re about to watch.
Hmm, I never thought of that. Interesting.
Next editorial should be about why nobody claps at the end of movies anymore….what happened?
They’re no longer associated with theater and plays, where you do applaud at the end. It only took a couple generations. That makes sense.
I watched a movie last night (It) and people clapped. (Not many, and they faded, but it happened.)
The opening of Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country had all the actors and the people who worked on the film with a great soundtrack behind it and right at the end as it built up to the peak of the track Praxis exploded sending a shockwave that sent us into the start of the film with the USS Excelsior.
I know you don’t usually do them for the editorials, but it’s a bit ironic that your monologue on opening sequences does not start with your own opening sequence.
Because knowing his viewers, they’d whine that the shorter Editorials have more time taken up by a long credit sequence when they are supposed to be short. Can’t win either way.
At least Guardians of the Galaxy had great opening credits.
Scott Pilgrim, Watchmen, and Napoleon Dynamite have my personal favorite opening credits
Scott Pilgrim had cool imagery hinting to their respective actors and kick-ass music
Watchmen shows us the world this movie takes place
Napoleon Dynamite is very laid-back, but creative
The first one that comes to mind is Spider-Man 2. I barely notice when the title is at the end. I didn’t know that was a sign to applaud. I don’t really have a strong opinion on this. Plus, my family always stayed until the credits were over when I was a young kid even before there was anything to see. It used to annoy me but now it pays off most of the time thanks to Marvel and others.
Unless they;re to a Marvel movie, yes. Yes they do.
I’d rather have the credits at the end. I don’t really need the movie to hype me up for the movie, if I’m in the theater then I’m already hyped. Even if they put awesome credits at the beginning, in the future when I’ll rewatch the movie I know I’ll just skip the credits every time and it becomes an annoyance.
Is that how you retreat foreplay, too?
*Talks about the lack of opening credits. Doesn’t use the opening credit*
There’s never been opening credits for the Editorial. That’s been for the full Nostalgia Review. Thought you knew that.
Ghostbusters 2016 had great credits. It was also a decent movie, despite what soft, weak, insecure men on the internet think.
Don’t @ me. I don’t give a shit about the thoughts and feelings of soft, weak, insecure men.
Might wanna edit that thumbnail. People associate “credits” with end credits much more than opening credits. Might mislead some people.
It was George Lucas who started with the smaller opening credits which caused him to have trouble with the Directors Guild. He just wanted to opening score and crawl without the actors and productive names in the beginning. That’s why he could not get Spielberg in ROTJ.
My favorite is the intro to Disney’s Robin Hood. It had this laid back feeling that also got you excited to watch the rest of the film.
Then there is the rare breed where the opening credits are just annoying like in Superman 2 where it basically retells everything that happened in the last movie.
It’s funny Doug mentions this cause some of my favorite movies didn’t even have opening credits. Like Die Hard 2 and 3 and Ghostbusters 1 and 2. I don’t mind it at all.
In terms of some of the Studio Ghibli films having action going on during the end credits, part of it has to do with how the movie theater experience is different in Japan. In that country, almost all of the members of the audience stay through the closing credits. As such, not only would it be normal to have some scenes happen during the film’s closing credits, but also have an additional scene once the credits end.
I KNEW you’d reference Hurricane Harvey at the end! There’s Hurricane Irma coming up too. I live in Florida, but I shouldn’t be affected. So you’re back to editorials? I seriously don’t think you’ve done one in months. Why was that?
And Hurricane Jose right after Irma on almost the same track… 🙁
The opening to Superman was great. It was the audience’s voyage to Krypton to seen the first act. It’s then mirrored with the ship carrying Kal El travelling to Earth while being taught.
I’m not sure where to put Star Wars. We get the awesome music and only the title, but we have the opening crawl which is homage to old serials. They’re not credits per se, but serve the same purpose.
Bond films are known for the credits, but also do a pre-credit sequence to get the audience hyped for the main character since he’s not usually involved in the early bit that’s usually reserved to set up the villain scheme. Bond then shows up to be assigned the case.
Beverly Hills Cop sort of did the same thing, but combined the pre-credit sequence with the credits for the chase scene.
There are so many different creators out there that no style ever truly dies. I have plenty of ideas for movies. Some of them open more subtly with a sound that’s relevant to the film, but another starts off with a sudden musical note over a black screen, fades in to a planet in space, shows the title, and then the credits appear along with the music as we get close up shots of the planet; the destination of our main characters. Just because you see less of something now doesn’t mean it won’t reappear in the future.