Love on ScreenWhat do we talk about when we talk about love? Perfect, sickeningly sweet, often unhealthy couples in film, TV, and other media who set up impossible standards to which our real-world flesh & blood relationships will never live up. Let's dissect 'em.
Over 200 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Great Movies Held Back By Unnecessary Romantic Subplots
Voting Rules
Vote up the movies held back by an unnecessary romantic plot.
Screenwriting is hard. This means you shouldn't judge the most unnecessary romance in movies too harshly. Great films can be brought down by various aspects, from forgettable villains to cringeworthy comic relief. Besides, the writing process is merely one aspect of the complicated film production process. Sometimes a truly fantastic love story can be lost in translation. And, sometimes, an utterly mediocre love story can be tacked on to a great movie.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no stranger to lackluster love stories, unless there are a ton of fans of the Cap-Sharon or Hulk-Black Widow romances out there. Batman Begins proves bland romance isn't merely a Marvel problem, and everything from The Departed to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom showcases that some of the best directors to ever walk the Earth succumb to lifeless romanticism from time to time.
There's a lot going on in Captain America: Civil War. So many characters are featured in the third Captain America film that it has been dubbed “Avengers 2.5” by the MCU fan base. This 2016 threequel is the precursor to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame when it comes to overstuffed cast lists, and most of the A-list actors are given plenty to do. You've got the airport entanglement. You've got the Cap-versus-Tony fight (with a little Bucky thrown in for good measure). You've got the introductions of Black Panther and Spider-Man. You've got Zemo doing Zemo things. It's impressive that the run time is under 2.5 hours.
Marvel Studios could've trimmed that run time a bit by eliminating the Steve and Sharon romantic subplot. Honestly, you might've even forgotten these two shared a kiss in this movie. That's how much their romance didn't work. A few MCU projects later, Steve is back in time with his true love Peggy - Sharon's great-aunt - and Sharon is, well, out there being this villainous Power Broker. And everyone else has moved on, too!
Avengers: Age of Ultron might contain the most reviled scene in the entire MCU. Black Widow calling herself a “monster” for being made infertile by Red Room surgeons caused a serious uproar in 2015, and in response, Marvel Studios seemingly eliminated the Bruce-Natasha romance from the MCU before it ever truly began. Outside of a few quick moments in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War, you wouldn't know the two were romantically linked.
Though the flirtation scene in Stark Tower between the two is pretty enjoyable, Age of Ultron is already overstuffed as it is. Throwing a random Black Widow-Hulk romance into the middle of it was never going to be a smart choice. It's almost like Marvel Studios didn't know what to do with its female characters for a while there or something!
Is Transformers: Dark of the Moon a “great” movie? Um, well, no. Is Transformers: Dark of the Moon a fun movie with mind-blowing special effects? Absolutely! As far as Michael Bay-directed Transformers movies go, Dark of the Moon is up there with the 2007 original as one of the two you could easily recommend. It may not reach the heights of 2018's Bumblebee, but it is bombastically loud, and proud of it.
Still, in one area Dark of the Moon is a significant step down from the first two Transformers movies. Unlike Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which feature Megan Fox showcasing her star talent, this third movie has Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in her acting debut as Sam Witwicky's love interest. Do Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf have any kind of palpable chemistry? Not really. Does the film go to any great lengths to explain how LaBeouf's Witwicky has managed to capture the heart of yet another supermodel-esque beauty? Of course not. Oh well.
Edge of Tomorrow was so close to having a perfect nonromantic relationship. Seriously… so close. It would've been incredible: an entire Hollywood blockbuster in which the two leads don't end up together or share even one physical moment of traditional affection. Instead, Emily Blunt had to improvise a kiss between her and Tom Cruise during the film's climax.
The kiss is more of a “thank you” than anything else, but still. Blunt's Rita Vrataski doesn't actually know Cruise's William Cage, who is going through a Groundhog Day situation where he relives the same day over and over to help fight against an alien threat. He gets to know Rita better each day, but she doesn't have the same opportunity with him. So the kiss is like a recognition of the work he put in or something… We were so close!
When you're seeing a film in the Jurassic Park franchise, what are you in the mood for? A little dinosaurs-rampaging action, perhaps? Maybe some light rumination on the dangers of humankind's curiosity running amok? Some incredible music by industry legends like John Williams and Michael Giacchino? Congratulations! The film series is known for all of this and more!
One thing the Jurassic Park franchise isn't known for, however, is memorable romances. Even the relationship between Sam Neill and Laura Dern from the original movie isn't exactly the stuff of legend. The lackluster romantic link between Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World, however, makes Neill and Dern seem like Romeo and Juliet. Howard and Pratt will surely continue making goo-goo eyes at each other in Jurassic World Dominion - but will anyone care?
Hollywood can't help itself when it comes to remakes. From Tinseltown's genesis, film remakes and/or reboots have been a staple of the movie theater release schedule. Directors of the Golden Era, such as Sidney Franklin and D. W. Griffith, would even go back and remake their own movies. Remaking an older film isn't always something to deride, however, as films like True Grit, Ocean's Eleven, and A Star Is Born have proven time and again. One flick on the “solid remake” list has to be 2003's The Italian Job.
Buoyed by a cast that features Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Mark Wahlberg, Mos Def, and Jason Statham, The Italian Job shouldn't work on paper. Remaking a 1960s Michael Caine movie with a focus on using Mini Coopers as heist vehicles? Okay, sure. Alas, it totally does - if you can ignore Norton's mediocre villain and the nonexistent chemistry between Theron and Wahlberg as leads, that is. Also, Wally Pfister's cinematography is as great as ever.
