10 Movies That Should've Scrapped Their Opening Scene
2. Dark City
In the case of the brilliant sci-fi cult classic Dark City, it's not so much that the entire opening scene should've been cut, but a significant element of it desperately needed to be cleaved away.
The theatrical cut - aka the version that the overwhelming majority of people have seen - opens with a mysterious scene which has all the mystery sucked out of it by a needless expository voiceover narration from Kiefer Sutherland's Dr. Daniel P. Schreber.
Rather than trust audiences to tease out the meaning of the story themselves, it plainly explains who the Strangers are, what they want, and how Schreber relates to them.
As won't shock anyone, this narration was actually added to the film at the behest of New Line Cinema, who were concerned that audiences would be left confused otherwise.
Thankfully director Alex Proyas was eventually able to release a Director's Cut which deleted the narration and let the scene play out as originally intended, as is universally agreed among fans to make for a superior opening.