9 Disappointing Films With Great Deleted Scenes

3) The Golden Compass

To give you an idea of how bad the movie is, not even Golden Compass director Chris Weitz likes The Golden Compass. That would be because studio New Line Cinema heavily trimmed Weitz’s version of the film in post-production, critically disrupting the flow and taking it from a likely three hours to a more marketable 113 minutes. No cut to the film was more significant, though, than the one New Line made to the ending, which was something the theatrical cut was roundly criticized for.

Essentially what happened was this: Weitz adapted the Golden Compass book rather closely, but New Line for some reason wanted to hold the entire original ending over for never-materialized sequel, The Subtle Knife.

Audiences were baffled by the theatrical finale, which seems to cut to credits before the big event comes, while critics were just as exasperated. Helpfully, a fan of the book and the film made a version of the ending out of existing clips, set photos, and storyboards – giving an idea of what a satisfyingly-concluded Golden Compass movie might look like.