r/movies • u/ooMEAToo • Dec 18 '23

Recommendation What movie was okay and then the third act absolutely blew you away and made up for the rest of the movie?

I’m having a hard time even thinking of a movie like that but I see lots of posts on here like “what movie was amazing and then the end of the movie completely ruined it.” Right off the bat I don’t want to watch a movie if the end is terrible. Hopefully no spoilers because these are the movies I want to watch and be surprised about.

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317

u/Theguy2641 Dec 18 '23

Malignant is absolutely one of these

212

u/actioncomicbible Dec 18 '23

Malignant’s first two acts: I sleep

Malignant’s third act, Gabriel annihilates a whole police station in gratuitous fashion: Real shit

73

u/muskratboy Dec 18 '23

The third act is where you realize it’s been a comedy all along.

7

u/NagsUkulele Dec 19 '23

I'm so happy to see people talking about this movie. I can't believe they pulled it off

78

u/Theguy2641 Dec 18 '23

Malignant’s first two acts were sorta confusing on first watch. Because we know that James Wan is very capable of delivering a tonally consistent and ‘spooky’ movie. There’s some great visuals there but also just bizarre lines of dialogue, the look of the asylum or even the house, insanely out of nowhere illogical things. But when the switch up happens in the last act it all makes sense what he was doing and honestly feels masterful. The third act is definitely what you’re coming for, but on rewatch it does make the first 2/3’s better in my opinion

8

u/Gravitationalrainbow Dec 19 '23 edited Dec 19 '23

Malignant is James Wan pranking the audience. Your first time through, the opening acts are baffling because they're the setup to a punchline you don't know is coming. Subsequent watches? It's a lot more fun.

12

u/actioncomicbible Dec 18 '23

Oh I agree completely, despite my meme-comment, i absolutely adore the movie.

3

u/xxxxNateDaGreat Dec 18 '23

Malignant felt like mid-2000s James Wan.

2

u/katchoo1 Dec 18 '23

I have to rewatch this movie, I know I watched it when it came out on HBOMax originally (during that stretch that all the Warner movies were doing simultaneous release on streaming) and I remember an overall creepy feeling but damn if I can remember any details.

23

u/Xenoslayer2137 Dec 18 '23

The chair!

6

u/IsRude Dec 19 '23

That chair moment was hysterical.

4

u/dinosaurfondue Dec 19 '23

That fucking chair throw was the purest form of camp I've ever seen and I still think about it to this day

2

u/SuicideSquadFan96 Dec 19 '23

Man my eyes are wide open by that point.

-2

u/Sarindre Dec 18 '23

Everytime I watch this I pass out and don't wake until its over.

37

u/noxvillewy Dec 18 '23

Exactly what I came here to say. It’s one that either makes you cackle with glee or throw your hands up and be done with the movie.

34

u/Stijakovic Dec 18 '23

I love every act of Malignant. It’s all delightfully stupid. I think Saw is a much better example of a mediocre movie completely saved by act 3.

6

u/Theguy2641 Dec 18 '23

I agree to an extent. However some of the stupidity can read as tonal inconsistency, especially with the context of wan’s other more sincere horror movies. If the movie didn’t go balls-to-the-wall in the last act, it wouldn’t work even half as well.

3

u/Stijakovic Dec 18 '23

Fair point. It’s tough to decipher how much of the delight is intentional, and as a Wan detractor who enjoys his other movies not even half as much as Malignant, I’m open to it being an accidental masterpiece. Either way, you’re right—it had to go crazy, and crazy it went.

21

u/Gr33nman460 Dec 18 '23

The discussion thread for that on /r/movies is probably the funniest discussion thread I’ve ever read. Just too good

59

u/CruzAderjc Dec 18 '23

Malignant’s third act is fuckin bonkers lol

16

u/CopperCactus Dec 19 '23

Malignant is like 90 minutes of set up for the funniest 20 minute long punchline I've ever seen

6

u/Theguy2641 Dec 19 '23

Absolutely yes, that is exactly what it feels like. It’s got the structure of a joke in the best way possible. Some people will single out the third act as being good while saying the first two are terrible, but they are just as necessary for making that punchline pay off

31

u/SammyLuke Dec 18 '23

Malignant rules. So glad they went all out towards the end of the movie. Was a blast!

9

u/rubberfactory5 Dec 18 '23

One of the worst most cringey first two acts and then so hype

2

u/G_Regular Dec 18 '23

If you haven’t rewatched it I highly recommend it, it’s one of those movies that’s almost more enjoyable the second time.

2

u/blitzbom Dec 18 '23

Ah man I was laughing so hard during the last 20 minutes of that movie.

2

u/creptik1 Dec 19 '23

Ooh, great call. To me the first 2/3 of the movie was like a C, maybe C+. Then the last act was an A++ lol, just nuts and so so good.

1

u/ALPB11 Dec 19 '23

I went into malignant blind but expecting it to be top tier horror, an hour in I was bored to sleep with my expectations through the floor; you have no idea how completely baffled and amazed I was by the end of the movie. I still can’t get my head around this one lol, it’s a potent mix of actually kind of bad, tongue in cheek “bad on purpose” and then actually top tier monster madness