Movie Opening Scene Reviews

Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc


This intro is an amazing, historic one. Not only in it's cinematic presence (opening the world to the realm of the awesome archaeologist), but also in the many way it forces the audience to root, admire and praise Indiana in a wonderful few minutes the entire mircocsisum of the film plays out.


To ensure it catches viewers attention an element of mystery is played with, who are these people? What are they doing? Indiana is them introduced stopping one of his mates betraying him In a way that makes audiences admire this mystery man.





For the rest of this short intro we view Indi being proactive rather than static (immediately encouraging the audience to like him more). We also see him act as a master of his situation being able to adapt and prevail through upping up the Indi wow factor! This again makes him as a character more attractive due to him being extremely capable rather than useless or untalented.


However, poor Indi can't catch a break and one bad thing after another keeps slamming into his face, but he always managed to adapt and come through. But alas- after being betrayed by his mates several times, unaccounted booby traps doing one over him and even more betrayal, it was to much for our protagonist. He loses the idol and has to run for his life barely escaping with it!

These amazing devices instantly make us love Indiana as he's proactive, well skilled and can adapt to all bad scenarios. Not only this a massive sense of sympathy is caused for him as nothing goes his way- this classic underdog syndrome makes him the centre of our thoughts and likes.

It does a great job setting tone, character and idea of plot arc. It's sets itself as a light hearted family action adventure film, and the rest of the movie doesn't disappoint.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Another great movie with yet again another successful and well devised intro. We just witnessed an extremely emotional scene where in Peter's mother had just tragically died of cancer and he out of a broken heart ran away and was abducted by aliens. The sheer shock of this extremely emotional and disturbing scene (especially in a 'light hearted family space marvel film') would be somewhat of a surprise; then the added mystery of aliens abducting him brings in the genre and suspense.

The time jump continues to prolong the suspense and as this mysterious astronaut figure traverses the abandoned planet our intrigue grows. As we as an audience are wowed by expensive CGI we are able to tell what's in store for us effects-wise for the rest of the movie, but as far as character and story our knowledge is still zero.

As the protagonist unmasks himself we should be intrigued by the appearance of an actor who's mainly known for comic roles and wonder why he's set in such a dark tone scene. But as he reaches for his Walkman he are informed that he is most likely the child who was abducted all grown up and as the music starts to play and he begins to dance to himself we realise that the genre is actually a light hearted sci-fi comedy. This drastic change of mood, layered on the fact a grown man is dancing in an abandoned ruin is funny; highlighting the rest of the film.


A clever trick to subtlety bring up the opening credits some what resembles old classic movies from the 70's/ 80's (the time Star Lord comes from), we have him dancing, sliding and flying around the place with credits appearing behind him.


Having him light-heartedly kick away the pesty aliens and then grab one as he pretends to sing into it like a microphones is another way to make us laugh. And again as scene in the Raiders of the Lost Arc, by making the protagonist proactive rather than reactive in the first few minutes we find him much more interesting and likable.



As an opening scene it does a great job in catching the audiences attention, intrigue and then makes them laugh and enjoy the rest of the great movie as the comical character they are encouraged to like straight from the word go does his stuff.








Dawn of the planets of the Apes


After the sceptical of the global simulation and being shown the virus spreading among the world, inedible causing the near extinction of the human race it then valiantly cuts to an extreme close up to Ceaser's face wearing war paint.


Tension, suspense and mystery builds as the camera slowly zooms out to reveal an entire horde of armed apes. Through subtitles we can identify Ceaser but an air of mystery still looms over what they are preparing to attack on. Audience's expectations are arguably lead to believe that they may be commencing in 'gorilla' warfare against the humans which for the viewers could be tearing them between their own race and the characters they've gotten to love over the past movie.


(Which before moving on is important to state- although its not vital for viewers to have watched the first movie in this Planet of the Apes as the first few minutes explains all you need to know, but for you to have the best understanding of who these intelligent apes and characters are the last movie is an excellent and thrilling teacher)

Continuing, the lack of sound and quick movement of the apes increases the existing tension. Then as Ceaser makes the signal the loud nose kicks in in a blast of action of momentum. The audience then realise that they are actually hunting for food not fighting humans, which realises tension which is immediately replaced as we watch the action scene take place.

Then the including of the wild bear attacking his son adds an extra level of danger to the scene as characters we should care for are in mortal danger. Ceaser's wow factor is also taken to new levels as we watch him in defence of his son take on a bear more than three times his size. This helps us admire and like him even more than we already should (especially if we've seen the first movie)

Ceaser in these first few minutes is very proactive, rather than sitting at home picking banana's we see him hunt for food and square up to a big-a#s bear in protection of his son. Immediately this will make us invested in him as a character and more interested in the movie.