MovieChat Forums > Edward Scissorhands (1990) Discussion > Very good movie but not GREAT, one flaw ...

Very good movie but not GREAT, one flaw I cannot forgive.


I could not give this movie a perfect ten for ONE reason. That total jerk portrayed by Michael G Hall died a horrible death at the hands of Edward. I have a BIG problem with this. Yes he was an A hole BUT I do not think death was appropriate. Some people DO deserve to die. The joker in BATMAN check, the villains of ROBOCOP check, Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi check. However this guy did NOT rise up to that level, he was just a jerk and in my opinion a non fatal defeat would have been more appropriate. I am fine with him being publicly shamed and humiliated, disowned by his father, even ending up in jail but not actual DEATH.

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1) *Anthony Micheal Hall
2) I respectfully disagree. I was just itching for Edward to kill him at the end.

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If I'm too complicated, leave now. 'Cause I could easily be without you.

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And I suppose you would have rather seen Daniel LaRusso kill Johnny Laurence at the end of KARATE KID?? or maybe Rocky kill Ivan Drago in Rocky 4? If that had happened neither of those 2 villains would have had the chance to learn humility and become better people.

That guy was NOT a monster like the Die Hard movie villains or Adolph Hitler. In fact when he attacked Edward ordering him to stay away from Kim (was that her name?) he in his mind believed Edward to be dangerous he believed he was protecting her. As far as I could tell this guy was an abusive boyfriend and possibly a burglar though that was his own father's house. This guy was a low level villain and did not rise to the level of deserving death.

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Wow. Calm down. I see your point but I just have a different opinion.

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If I'm too complicated, leave now. 'Cause I could easily be without you.

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Ok I guess your "opinion" is that any jerk you do not like deserves to die a horrible death? Do I qualify for that? Maybe the principal in Ferris Buellers Day Off should have been stabbed to death by Ferris? I DO believe some people deserve to die, I actually agree with THE PUNISHER on that and disagree with Batman, Batman SHOULD kill really bad criminals like the joker and Bane. I was glad when Robocop killed Clarance Boddicker and his gang. And I think all the villains in the HOSTEL movies deserve to die very slow painful deaths, same goes for the Die Hard movies but compared to so many of the monstrously evil people I have mentioned this guy was a featherweight, THAT is my problem.

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I just based my opinion on how I felt while watching the movie the first time. After reading your first post I saw things a little differently but I was just telling you how I felt during the movie.

So sad that one can't post a different opinion on the internet without being attacked for it.

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If I'm too complicated, leave now. 'Cause I could easily be without you.

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Just wanted to say I share your dismay, Kibbles. You have a perfectly valid opinion and rather than engage you the OP just wants to get angry that you disagree. Sad indeed.

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Ok I guess your "opinion" is that any jerk you do not like deserves to die a horrible death?


One that comes in and points a revolver at me and fires? Absolutely.

You can't be this dumb



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A post that perfectly encapsulates the temper tantrums from IMDb.

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HaHa...I couldn't agree more!

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Dude, Johnny Laurence wasn't a bad guy, he was being manipulated by his sensei all the time.

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I remember wishing that there was a happy ending for Jim such as him making amends with his father and his father being nice and generous enough to buy Jim a vehicle and have Jim find a new girlfriend so he could move on from his relationship with Kim, I didn't think Jim deserved to get killed either and did feel bad that he got killed in the end, I didn't think Jim was that hateful of a person that deserved to die.

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Believe it or not I really like it when the VILLAIN in the story has a happy ending, REALLY BAD villains like the ones I mentioned at the start of this thread no but villains who are just jerky, I like it when they have an epiphany and become better people. I think him becoming a better person and helping Edward in some way (not sure how) would have been sweet. Other movies HAVE given the villain a happy ending. For example in KARATE KID the villain learned humility and showed good sportsmanship. Darth Vader died but saved his soul and went to whatever is equivalent to "heaven" in the STAR WARS universe. A great example of a happy ending for a villain is the older villain in the 2nd Karate Kid movie.

In the old cartoon STAR BLAZERS the main villain in the first season DESSLOCK ends up becoming a good guy.

I think AVATAR might have been better if STEVEN LANG had had a change of heart and ended up helping the Navi.

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Like you I sometimes like it when some villains in the story has a happy ending, I know the villain from Wayne's World also had a happy ending because he became a better person at the end of the movie, Jim was one of the villains who I've felt deserved a chance to redeem himself and become a better person, I would have liked to see Jim apologize to Edward for his wrongdoing and help him out in ways to where he can save Edward from harm and to inspire the neighbors to know that he is a good man, I also would have liked to see Jim move on from his relationship with Kim and find a new girlfriend and make amends with his father

I've seen worse villains than Jim who didn't die when I thought they were more deserving of death than Jim such as the Korean gang members in the movie Gran Torino

I still haven't seen Karate Kid but I'm glad to know that the villain learned humility and showed good sportsmanship

I noticed that many villains who are jerks in the movies never get killed but usually get their commuppences

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Jim was arrogant, selfish, careless, and greedy jerk with no remorse. Jim may have been young teen jock, but he had all the makings of being a terrible adult who would make other peoples' lives a miserable hell. Jim was a high school senior, which would make him about 17 or 18 yrs old, he knew what he was doing when he planned on robbing his father. Usually kids who around that age who would steal from their parents have some serious issues. Hell, when I was 6 yrs. old I knew it was bad to steal and especially from a parent.

Jim on the other hand tried to rob his old man and involved his girlfriend, Edward, & friends in it. Jim exploited Edward using Kim to ask Edward to help them break in because Jim knew Edward liked her and would do anything for her. Poor Edward didn't snitch to the police and took the rap, which destroyed his reputation amongst the community and in the local media. Not to mention hurt Edward's business ventures. Kim's family also became ostracized because they adopted Edward. However, all Jim cared about was still having Kim as his girlfriend (mainly for sex, which is why he wanted his own van, so they could have privacy). Kim was no longer a independent person with feelings and values, but she became a possession to Jim.

In the beginning, Jim viewed Edward as some sub-human freak who was no threat in taking Kim from him, because at the time Edward scared Kim. Once Kim saw Edward's humanity, and saw Jim's selfishness, then decided she no longer loved him, Jim had an obsessive hatred for Edward because what he once thought as a non-threatening freak became a threat to him and his egotistical manhood. Even Jim's friend realized what type of person Jim when he made him drive while drunk after he protested. Once again, Jim's bad decisions resulted in more problems for Edward and the Bogg family. Kevin nearly was hit by a Jim's friend driving drunk, and Edward who rescued Kevin, accidentally cut him and made it appear to the neighbors that he was attacking Kevin, which confirmed to them that he was dangerous. However, Jim wasn't satisfied with now Edward being completely rejected from society, he had to go to Edward's mansion to attempt to kill him. And Edward had no choice but to skewer Jim and push him out the window.

Jim totally ruin Edward's life amongst people just at the age of 17 or 18. This guy was destined to be life long jerk. I known many people who were sociopaths as kids and still are sociopaths as adults. Jim was headed on a bad path in life, lucky Edward cut it short (pun intended).

Had Jim lived he was destined to be a tyrannical Home Depot store manager who makes his employees lives a miserable hell and cheats on his wife with escorts. Pick on his fat daughter and humiliates his gay son with homophobic slurs. Edward would still be ostracized because of all Jim's past doings against him.

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Had Jim lived he was destined to be a tyrannical Home Depot store manager who makes his employees lives a miserable hell and cheats on his wife with escorts. Pick on his fat daughter and humiliates his gay son with homophobic slurs.
This just made me laugh ... I completely agree with your post.




I'm reaching for the life within me. How can one man stop his ending. ~ Blue October

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*applauds Cheaper*
Yes! True! XD

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[deleted]

Well Kim is just telling a story, meaning we are just seeing a story she made up to tell her granddaughter.

Burton killing Jim off was his way of sticking his fingers up at people he knew like that at school.

Jim walked into Edwards blades, out of self defense Edward just pushes him out of the window.

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I see what you're saying, but Jim was attacking Edward, trying to kill HIM. Edward stabbed him out of self defense. It was justified. Did you not see the scenes where Jim was smacking Edward with a fire poker and shooting at him?

It's Tim Burton, what do you expect?

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Edward probably would've died if he hadn't killed him. Yes, it's sad and everything but it had to happen at that moment in time for Edward to save himself and of course Kim. To be honest, an "apology" from Jim is something I couldn't see happening in a million years. He hated Edward from the start...

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I agree with you. Once Edward gets emotional over his being locked in Jim's house, the movie goes haywire. They really don't have a satisfactory ending to this movie.

Watching it last night, I thought, 'oops, tone change here' and the script goes suddenly dark for no reason, except they can't end their nice fantasy. Well this isn't forgivable because how much time did they have to work on the script...years?

The Kim/Edward relationship starts from nothing, goes nowhere, and reaches no climax literally or figuratively, and you're right: the loose ends they create by murdering Jim just falls down a hole somewhere, an ethical hole that we the audience notice, especially during times when our children are just slaughtered like last week.

Morals and ethics matter all the time.

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OP...self defense dip sh!t. And as someone else mentioned, it's a fairy tale. Read the original Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White for chrissakes. After that, keep your pansy @ss in front of G-Rated movies and stop flaming people who have a different opinion than you do.

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Well said, Cheaper!!!!!

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One thing that bothered me about Jim's death is that neither the police or even his parents dealt with the situation. A teen was killed and they're just going to leave the body and pretend that it never happened? But that's probably getting too nit-picky, this movie, if you really get a little analytical about it, is hugely flawed which is why it works best as a modern fairy tale.

My ignore list is quite large.

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Jim was a nasty piece of work. I'm glad the police and public didn't express more grief. Besides, Kim held one of Edwards hands to suggest he'd also been killed and thus the locals believed that there was no longer any need to punish his 'killer'.

Surely it's more important that Batman was brought to account over his apparent murder of the 'Ice Princess' in Burton's next film 'Batman Returns'. Who cares about Jim the mean-spirited jock?

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its just so they can end the story clean. there is no way edward is coming back after he killed a guy. and it stops winona staying with him also. sad ending :(

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