- 2 years ago
The feedback loop is alive and well in this list of films changed due to feedback from the fans.
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00:00 The use of studio test audiences can be really, really helpful when it comes to fine-tuning
00:04 your movie. You can find out what your audiences want to see, what they don't want to see,
00:08 and hopefully, in the end, put out a film that will be better reviewed, better enjoyed,
00:12 and make more money. I'm sure there will be plenty of films out there that we don't
00:15 even know looked totally different before the test audiences got their eyes on them.
00:19 But here I have to present to you 10 films that, for better or worse, were definitely
00:23 influenced by the audience's feedback. I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 movie
00:28 changes influenced by the fans' feedback.
00:30 10. The Genie - Aladdin
00:32 The early reactions for the teaser trailer for Aladdin were, to say the least, not flattering.
00:38 Whilst Will Smith seemed as good a choice as any to take over the role made famous by
00:41 Robin Williams, for someone that's meant to have blue skin, people said that he was
00:45 too blue. And for some reason, because nobody has any perception of what bodies are actually
00:48 meant to look like these days, people also said that he looked overweight and fat. And
00:52 they really didn't like that.
00:54 The negative reactions to the look of the Genie had a two-fold effect, with changes
00:58 made to both the marketing for the film and the aesthetics of the Genie himself. Subsequent
01:02 trailers placed a greater emphasis on moments in the film when the Genie resembled Will
01:06 Smith's normal, human form, hoping that you'd focus more on the Genie's character traits
01:11 than his look. There was also some definite tweaking of the look, though. The CGI fine-tuning
01:15 made him actually look a little less blue, and whilst he still looked like a very much
01:18 out-of-this-world character, the more human look they gave him was less of an eyesore.
01:23 The end result was a product that was much better received than what was expected, and
01:27 the box office returns managed to top the $1 billion mark. The film was also a great
01:31 reminder to Hollywood execs that, given the right role, Will Smith is still one of the
01:35 world's biggest and best draw cards going around.
01:38 9. Suicide Squad
01:40 Snappier editing
01:42 The first of two entries featuring Margot Robbie's interpretation of Harley Quinn,
01:46 this is one example where the influence of the fans' feedback was not used for the
01:49 greater good. In fact, in this case, it was the filmmakers' attempts to utilize the
01:53 positive trailer reactions that proved to be the film's fatal flaw. The first two
01:57 trailers for the film were snappily edited, highly stylized, and energetic, and it served
02:02 as an excellent advertisement for the upcoming feature. But that's exactly the problem.
02:06 It's an advertisement. The choice was made by the creative team to make the final product
02:11 feel like one big, long trailer, and unsurprisingly to any of us that have more than two brain
02:16 cells to rub together, this proved to be an unmitigated disaster.
02:20 Rather than keeping audiences engaged throughout the film, the final product proved to be extremely
02:25 choppy, with far too many characters and a distinct lack of heart. No heart in advertising,
02:30 ugh, who would have seen that one coming? It was impossible to find any genuine connection
02:34 with any of the characters, which is really a shame because a lot of the performances
02:37 were solid. Will Smith and Margot Robbie were particularly strong as Deadshot and Harley,
02:42 but there's so little backstory and character development due to the chaotic pacing that
02:46 those performances were largely wasted. At the end of the day, the test audiences aren't
02:50 really to blame for this, but I hope that Hollywood learned a very valuable lesson.
02:53 An advert is an advert, and it's short and snappy for a reason. If you hadn't figured
02:57 it out already, no one wants to watch a 90-minute advert.
03:02 8. Toning Down the Violence - Slender Man
03:05 The feedback that caused alterations for this film hit a little closer to home than usual,
03:09 with the main critic being an outraged father of a child involved in a hideous crime. The
03:14 real-life stabbing of a 12-year-old girl linked to the Slender Man legend left a dark stain
03:18 on the character, and this meant that any future products addressing the character were
03:22 always going to be controversial. While members of the press and the general public voiced
03:26 their concerns, it was the criticism leveled by the father of one of the perpetrators of
03:30 the stabbing that really made the impact. Bill Ware, whose daughter Anissa was sentenced
03:35 to 25 years to life in various institutions for her involvement in the stabbing crime,
03:39 described the film as distasteful, and campaigned for local theatres not to show it. The filmmakers'
03:45 reaction to these comments was to tone down the violence and gore, so much so that the
03:48 final product came out with a PG-13 rating. The film was critically panned, but managed
03:54 to make a small profit. It's hard to make a final judgement as to how Sony Pictures
03:58 would judge the effectiveness of the changes, but at least they were made in the interest
04:01 of good taste.
04:02 7. Digital Re-Asianing - Ghost in the Shell
04:06 Oh, Hollywood, when will you ever learn? The choice to have the whitest of American actors
04:12 - MCU poster girl Scarlett Johansson - play the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi was the
04:17 kind of mind-bogglingly stupid and insensitive decision that only Hollywood producers could
04:21 make. Considering the wealth of amazing Asian-American actors that were literally at their fingertips,
04:27 choosing Johansson was incredibly lazy and just beyond insane. With accusations of whitewashing
04:32 flooding in from the very fans of the anime the producers were targeting, the decision
04:36 was made to - and I sh*t you not - make Scarlett Johansson look more Asian. Yes, that is correct,
04:42 the producers chose to address the issue of whitewashing by making a white woman look
04:46 slightly less white instead of, you know, hiring an Asian actress.
04:51 Unsurprisingly, the changes did nothing to quell the concerns of the fans of the anime,
04:55 the final product proving particularly mediocre. Considering the film had strong visuals and
04:59 great source material to fall back on, one can only ponder if the choice of a young,
05:04 talented Japanese actress in the lead role could have allowed for a better film product.
05:08 Actually, you know what, not much pondering is necessary, we all know the answer.
05:13 6. Patching the Cats - Cats There isn't a lot more that can be said
05:18 about the catastrophic disaster that was this 2019 bomb. The idea of translating the unfilmable
05:24 stage musical to the big screen was in itself a significant misjudgment, and the horrifying
05:29 visual design for the titular Cats was just a final nail in the coffin. Director Tom Hooper
05:34 and his creative team made the poor decision to largely ignore the torrid audience feedback
05:39 to begin with, maintaining the overall hybrid half-cat, half-human look that we were all
05:44 having nightmares about for months. Hooper did, however, pick up on the criticisms of
05:48 the patchy CGI for the Cats, most notably the human hands popping out from the felines'
05:53 bodies. In a sign of just how rushed the final product was, freshly edited final products
05:58 were rushed to cinemas with added fur. The problem was that the new changes were added
06:02 ridiculously late, and meant that audiences viewed different products depending on where
06:07 they were and when they watched the film. In hindsight, the Cats producers needed to
06:10 either take on board the initial negative feedback and make adjustments, or just ignore
06:15 it completely. Trying to make last-second changes felt like reorganizing the chairs
06:18 on the Titanic after the boat had already sunk.
06:22 5. Changing Alita's Appearance - Alita Battle Angel
06:26 The key to being a learned critic is to be able to have a good eye for picking up on
06:30 things. And when the trailer for this James Cameron passion project was released, many
06:34 viewers had a significant issue with one aspect of Alita's looks - her eyes. The common
06:39 theme among viewer criticism was that the eyes were just too big. But, as was noted
06:43 by the visual effects supervisor for the film, Eric Saindon, the issue wasn't that the
06:47 eyes were too big at all. If anything, they were too small. As Saindon explained in an
06:51 article for The Insider, after consulting with his creative team, including Cameron,
06:56 the decision was made to enlarge the eyes' iris. The idea of making the eyes bigger was
07:00 strongly considered, but the changes to the overall look of the eyes did the trick. There
07:04 were subtle lighting changes that also added to the effect, but it was the changed size
07:07 of the iris that proved the most effective. The final product was definitely enhanced
07:11 from this modification. And, whilst it was slightly more subtle than the changes made
07:14 for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, not having the audience consumed by the lead character's
07:18 weird eyes proved a major benefit.
07:21 4. Making the movie - Deadpool
07:24 It's hard to fathom now, but the idea of an R-rated Deadpool movie didn't exactly
07:29 have Hollywood excited when the idea was first brought up. R-rated movies regularly struggled
07:33 to become box office successes, whilst the idea of having Ryan Reynolds resuming his
07:37 role after the mediocre X-Men Origins Wolverine seemed a poor one. That was all turned on
07:42 its head when prospective director Tim Miller secretly released test footage for a possible
07:46 Reynolds-starring Deadpool. The three-minute scene was a massive smash, viewed by millions
07:51 and universally loved. In fact, it was loved in particular by fans still reeling from the
07:55 character's woeful previous interpretation. The positive fan feedback for this mini-scene
08:00 not only led to the film being made, but many doubts about producing a high-budget R-rated
08:04 film were largely quashed. To say the film was a success would be a massive understatement,
08:09 with the original film and sequel taking in over $750 million each. The film has also
08:14 left a significant legacy, with its fourth-wall-breaking style and R-rated violence being replicated
08:19 in many a future blockbuster. Yeah, and that's all thanks to one cheeky director who leaked
08:23 some footage, and the fans who let him know that they liked what they saw.
08:27 3. Bringing the Horror When movie historians reflect back on the
08:31 early 21st century cinema, The New Mutants will no doubt top the list for most troubled
08:36 productions. The film is one of the most unlucky in history, with an abundance of issues unrelated
08:41 to the product itself causing no end of problems. What makes it all the more frustrating for
08:46 those involved was that the trailers were actually well-received. People were quite
08:49 excited about the horror aspects of the film, which was something new. In fact, it was the
08:53 audience excitement at the trailer, and also their dislike of the apocalypse movie, that
08:58 caused the filmmakers to make some changes. Reshoots for the new film were made that eliminated
09:02 any references to the 80s or the wider X-Men universe, whilst also amping up the horror
09:06 aspects that were received so well. Of course, just how effective these changes were is up
09:11 for debate, but at least it's nice to know that we were listened to.
09:15 2. A Change in Title Harley Quinn - Birds of Prey
09:19 This entry is a little bit different because it actually refers to something that's not
09:23 materially in the film. Despite the film being well-received by critics, and having a rising
09:27 star in Margot Robbie promote the film, there was a lot of confusion as to what the film
09:31 was actually about, an issue largely caused by its very convoluted title. Initially called
09:37 Birds of Prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn, the small paragraph of
09:41 a title caused more confusion than anything else. Whilst meant to be a clever reference
09:46 to the comics, the title instead made the film look like it was too far up its own arse.
09:50 The title was also in contrast to the advertising, which had all but promoted the film as a Harley
09:54 Quinn solo act. Realising that the title was holding back the film's hopes of success,
09:58 the producers made a belated but sensible decision to change its name. The film was
10:02 rebranded with the far more comprehensible name of Birds of Prey. It was unfortunately
10:07 a case of too little, too late, because the box office, uh, wasn't great. But I think
10:12 we can all agree that Harley Quinn Birds of Prey was clearly a much better choice for
10:16 a title than what it had at the start.
10:18 1. Changing the Lines
10:20 Snakes on a Plane
10:22 Never has a fan's feedback been so well-utilised as it was for this 2006 action caper. The choice
10:27 by Samuel L. Jackson to sign up to the film caught everyone by surprise, including the
10:32 film's director, Ronnie Yu, and it ended up proving to be the film's biggest strength.
10:36 The hype for the movie hit a crescendo when a blog entry from screenwriter Josh Friedman
10:40 was released with the details of the plot. Bloggers around the world followed up by creating
10:44 parodies, original artwork, songs, and a variety of fan fiction related to the film's premise.
10:49 And in response to this insane hype, the production even scheduled in five additional days of
10:54 filming to make sure they got everything in. Reshoots were made to add more gore and gruesome
10:58 deaths, whilst also adding some memorably uncouth dialogue.
11:02 The addition of the line that is now synonymous with the film was the best example of the
11:06 film embracing its campy fun. "I've had enough of these motherf***ing snakes on this
11:10 motherf***ing plane." Now, we all know it's not exactly Shakespeare, but my god, it's
11:15 pretty f***ing quotable. In addition to more gruesome deaths and more profanities, they
11:19 also decided to revert back to the name Snakes on a Plane, because, you know, that's what
11:24 everyone wants to see. At one point, the proposed title was Pacific Air Flight 123. So really,
11:30 everyone came out of this better.
11:32 And with that, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Movie Changes Influenced by Fans'
11:36 Feedback. If you know of any more, let us know in the comments down below. And remember
11:39 to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day. As
11:44 always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.
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