- 7 weeks ago
The feedback loop is alive and well in this list of films changed due to feedback from the fans.
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00:00The use of studio test audiences can be really, really helpful when it comes to fine-tuning your movie.
00:05You can find out what your audiences want to see, what they don't want to see, and hopefully, in the end, put out a film that will be better reviewed, better enjoyed, and make more money.
00:13I'm sure there will be plenty of films out there that we don't even know looked totally different before the test audiences got their eyes on them.
00:19But here I have to present to you 10 films that, for better or worse, were definitely influenced by the audience's feedback.
00:25I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 movie changes influenced by the fans' feedback.
00:3110. The Genie
00:32The early reactions for the teaser trailer for Aladdin were, to say the least, not flattering.
00:38Whilst Will Smith seemed as good a choice as any to take over the role made famous by Robin Williams, for someone that's meant to have blue skin, people said that he was too blue.
00:46And for some reason, because nobody has any perception of what bodies are actually meant to look like these days, people also said that he looked overweight and fat.
00:53And they really didn't like that.
00:54The negative reactions to the look of the Genie had a twofold effect, with changes made to both the marketing for the film and the aesthetics of the Genie himself.
01:02Subsequent trailers placed a greater emphasis on moments in the film when the Genie resembled Will Smith's normal human form, hoping that you'd focus more on the Genie's character traits than his look.
01:12There was also some definite tweaking of the look, though.
01:14The CGI fine-tuning made him actually look a little less blue, and whilst he still looked like a very much out-of-this-world character, the more human look they gave him was less of an eyesore.
01:23The end result was a product that was much better received than what was expected, and the box office returns managed to top the $1 billion mark.
01:30The film was also a great reminder to Hollywood execs that, given the right role, Will Smith is still one of the world's biggest and best drawcards going around.
01:389. Suicide Squad
01:40Snappier Editing
01:42The first of two entries, featuring Margot Robbie's interpretation of Harley Quinn, this is one example where the influence of the fans' feedback was not used for the greater good.
01:51In fact, in this case, it was the filmmakers' attempts to utilise the positive trailer reactions that proved to be the film's fatal flaw.
01:57The first two trailers for the film were snappily edited, highly stylised and energetic, and it served as an excellent advertisement for the upcoming feature.
02:05But that's exactly the problem, it's an advertisement.
02:08The choice was made by the creative team to make the final product feel like one big, long trailer, and unsurprisingly to any of us that have more than two brain cells to rub together, this proved to be an unmitigated disaster.
02:20Rather than keeping audiences engaged throughout the film, the final product proved to be extremely choppy, with far too many characters and a distinct lack of heart.
02:29No heart in advertising, ugh, who would have seen that one coming?
02:32It was impossible to find any genuine connection with any of the characters, which is really a shame because a lot of the performances were solid.
02:39Will Smith and Margot Robbie were particularly strong as Deadshot and Harley, but there's so little backstory and character development due to the chaotic pacing that those performances were largely wasted.
02:48At the end of the day, the test audiences aren't really to blame for this, but I hope that Hollywood learned a very valuable lesson.
02:54An advert is an advert, and it's short and snappy for a reason.
02:57If you hadn't figured it out already, no one wants to watch a 90-minute advert.
03:028.
03:03Toning down the violence.
03:04Slender Man.
03:05The feedback that caused alterations for this film hit a little closer to home than usual, with the main critic being an outraged father of a child involved in a hideous crime.
03:14The real-life stabbing of a 12-year-old girl linked to the Slender Man legend left a dark stain on the character, and this meant that any future products addressing the character were always going to be controversial.
03:24While members of the press and the general public voiced their concerns, it was the criticism levelled by the father of one of the perpetrators of the stabbing that really made the impact.
03:32Bill Ware, whose daughter Anissa was sentenced to 25 years to life in various institutions for her involvement in the stabbing crime, described the film as distasteful, and campaigned for local theatres not to show it.
03:44The filmmakers' reaction to these comments was to tone down the violence and gore, so much so that the final product came out with a PG-13 rating.
03:52The film was critically panned, but managed to make a small profit.
03:55It's hard to make a final judgement as to how Sony Pictures would judge the effectiveness of the changes, but at least they were made in the interest of good taste.
04:027. Digital Re-Asianing
04:05Ghost in the Shell
04:06Oh, Hollywood, when will you ever learn?
04:09The choice to have the whitest of American actors, MCU poster girl Scarlett Johansson, play the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi was the kind of mind-bogglingly stupid and insensitive decision that only Hollywood producers could make.
04:22Considering the wealth of amazing Asian-American actors that were literally at their fingertips, choosing Johansson was incredibly lazy and just beyond insane.
04:30With accusations of whitewashing flooding in from the very fans of the anime the producers were targeting, the decision was made to, and I s**t you not, make Scarlett Johansson look more Asian.
04:41Yes, that is correct. The producers chose to address the issue of whitewashing by making a white woman look slightly less white, instead of, you know, hiring an Asian actress.
04:51Unsurprisingly, the changes did nothing to quell the concerns of the fans of the anime, the final product proving particularly mediocre.
04:58Considering the film had strong visuals and great source material to fall back on, one can only ponder if the choice of a young, talented Japanese actress in the lead role could have allowed for a better film product.
05:08Actually, you know what? Not much pondering is necessary. We all know the answer.
05:126. Patching the Cats
05:15Cats
05:16There isn't a lot more that can be said about the catastrophic disaster that was this 2019 bomb.
05:22The idea of translating the unfilmable stage musical to the big screen was in itself a significant misjudgment, and the horrifying visual design for the titular Cats was just a final nail in the coffin.
05:33Director Tom Hooper and his creative team made the poor decision to largely ignore the torrid audience feedback to begin with, maintaining the overall hybrid half-cat, half-human look that we were all having nightmares about for months.
05:46Hooper did, however, pick up on the criticisms of the patchy CGI for the Cats, most notably the human hands popping out from the felines' bodies.
05:54In a sign of just how rushed the final product was, freshly edited final products were rushed to cinemas with added fur.
06:00The problem was that the new changes were added ridiculously late, and meant that audiences viewed different products depending on where they were and when they watched the film.
06:09In hindsight, the Cats producers needed to either take on board the initial negative feedback and make adjustments, or just ignore it completely.
06:16Trying to make last-second changes felt like reorganising the chairs on the Titanic after the boat had already sunk.
06:225. Changing Elita's Appearance
06:25Elita Battle Angel
06:26The key to being a learned critic is to be able to have a good eye for picking up on things.
06:31And when the trailer for this James Cameron passion project was released, many viewers had a significant issue with one aspect of Elita's looks.
06:38Her eyes.
06:39The common theme among viewer criticism was that the eyes were just too big.
06:43But, as was noted by the visual effects supervisor for the film, Eric Saindon, the issue wasn't that the eyes were too big at all.
06:49If anything, they were too small.
06:50As Saindon explained in an article for The Insider, after consulting with his creative team, including Cameron, the decision was made to enlarge the eyes' iris.
06:58The idea of making the eyes bigger was strongly considered, but the changes to the overall look of the eyes did the trick.
07:04There were subtle lighting changes that also added to the effect, but it was the changed size of the iris that proved the most effective.
07:09The final product was definitely enhanced from this modification.
07:12And, whilst it was slightly more subtle than the changes made for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, not having the audience consumed by the lead character's weird eyes proved a major benefit.
07:214.
07:22Making the Movie
07:24Deadpool
07:25It's hard to fathom now, but the idea of an R-rated Deadpool movie didn't exactly have Hollywood excited when the idea was first brought up.
07:32R-rated movies regularly struggled to become box office successes, whilst the idea of having Ryan Reynolds resuming his role after the mediocre X-Men Origins Wolverine seemed a poor one.
07:41That was all turned on its head when prospective director Tim Miller secretly released test footage for a possible Reynolds starring Deadpool.
07:48The three-minute scene was a massive smash, viewed by millions and universally loved.
07:52In fact, it was loved in particular by fans still reeling from the character's woeful previous interpretation.
07:58The positive fan feedback for this mini-scene not only led to the film being made, but many doubts about producing a high-budget R-rated film were largely quashed.
08:06To say the film was a success would be a massive understatement, with the original film and sequel taking in over $750 million each.
08:14The film has also left a significant legacy, with its fourth-wall-breaking style and R-rated violence being replicated in many a future blockbuster.
08:21Yeah, and that's all thanks to one cheeky director who leaked some footage, and the fans who let him know that they liked what they saw.
08:27Three, bringing the horror.
08:29When movie historians reflect back on the early 21st century cinema, the New Mutants will no doubt top the list for most troubled productions.
08:37The film is one of the most unlucky in history, with an abundance of issues unrelated to the product itself causing no end of problems.
08:44What makes it all the more frustrating for those involved was that the trailers were actually well received.
08:49People were quite excited about the horror aspect of the film, which was something new.
08:53In fact, it was the audience excitement at the trailer, and also their dislike of the apocalypse movie, that caused the filmmakers to make some changes.
09:00Reshoots for the new film were made that eliminated any references to the 80s or the wider X-Men universe, whilst also amping up the horror aspects that were received so well.
09:08Of course, just how effective these changes were is up for debate, but at least it's nice to know that we were listened to.
09:15Two, a change in title.
09:17Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey.
09:19This entry is a little bit different because it actually refers to something that's not materially in the film.
09:24Despite the film being well received by critics and having a rising star in Margot Robbie promote the film, there was a lot of confusion as to what the film was actually about, an issue largely caused by its very convoluted title.
09:36Initially called Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, the small paragraph of a title caused more confusion than anything else.
09:44Whilst meant to be a clever reference to the comics, the title instead made the film look like it was too far up its own arse.
09:50The title was also in contrast to the advertising, which had all but promoted the film as a Harley Quinn solo act.
09:55Realising that the title was holding back the film's hopes of success, the producers made a belated but sensible decision to change its name.
10:02The film was rebranded with the far more comprehensible name of Birds of Prey.
10:06It was unfortunately a case of too little too late because the box office wasn't great.
10:11But I think we can all agree that Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey was clearly a much better choice for a title than what it had at the start.
10:181. Changing the Lines
10:20Snakes on a Plane
10:22Never has a fan's feedback been so well utilised as it was for this 2006 action caper.
10:27The choice by Samuel L. Jackson to sign up to the film caught everyone by surprise, including the film's director Ronnie Yu, and it ended up proving to be the film's biggest strength.
10:36The hype for the movie hit a crescendo when a blog entry from screenwriter Josh Friedman was released with the details of the plot.
10:42Bloggers around the world followed up by creating parodies, original artwork, songs and a variety of fan fiction related to the film's premise.
10:49And in response to this insane hype, the production even scheduled in five additional days of filming to make sure they got everything in.
10:56Reshoots were made to add more gore and gruesome deaths, whilst also adding some memorably uncouth dialogue.
11:02The addition of the line that is now synonymous with the film was the best example of the film embracing its campy fun.
11:08I've had enough of these motherf***ing snakes on this motherf***ing plane.
11:12Now we all know it's not exactly Shakespeare but my god it's pretty f***ing quotable.
11:16In addition to more gruesome deaths and more profanities, they also decided to revert back to the name Snakes on a Plane because, you know, that's what everyone wants to see.
11:25At one point the proposed title was Pacific Air Flight 123.
11:29So really, everyone came out of this better.
11:32And with that we've reached the end of this list of 10 movie changes influenced by fans' feedback.
11:36If you know of any more, let us know in the comments down below.
11:39And remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
11:44As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture and I'll catch you next time.
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