History BrokenAesop / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'':

** Furthermore, the movie's AntiEscapismAesop where Wade shuts down the OASIS a couple days every week because the creator realized too late real life is the greatest adventure, and he wants to pass that along to the rest of the players.

* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'' is about Derek, a reformed neonazi, trying to help his younger brother Danny to not go down the same path as him, which leads to them reflecting on the origin of their prejudices. In the end of the movie, Derek sucessfully convinces Danny to abandon his ideology... only for Danny to be shot dead by a black gang member in the school bathroom. To make things worse, the only thing that Danny did to him previously was [[DisproportionateRetribution puffing cigarette smoke on his face]]. Not only it makes the movie a ShootTheShaggyDog story, but also turns the aesop from "don't let blind hatred consume you" into "be nice to the minorities or they will kill you" in the very last seconds.

%%[what movie are these points even supposed to be from?]** Dr. Adrian gives a rousing speech aboard one of the doomsday-evading-Arks on the importance of humanity looking out for one another and convinces the captain to open the gates, allowing more people in. While well-intentioned, this decision indirectly results in the DiabolusExMachina offings of [[spoiler: Gordon and Tamara via the ship flooding]]. No one even mentions all the Chinese workers they just sent off the boats to die, either.
%%** Adrian also decries the fact the Arks are essentially representations of TheElitesJumpShip (he points out to a group of passengers boarding the Arks (the aforementioned elite) and snarks about if they have anything useful to bring to the future of humanity and looks around his cabin and says "you could have fit ''twenty'' people in here!"). While the first scene has a BothSidesHaveAPoint moment (Anheuser mentions that if the elite had not footed the astronomical bill, the Arks just would not have been made after snarking back "what, life is not fair?"), the second scene has nobody telling Adrian the fact that such arrangements have an increased chance of causing CabinFever -- so you save ten more people and you sentence them to go crazy.

* ''Film/AmericanPie'':
** Near the beginning of the movie a bunch of friends make a pact to get laid before the school year is over. Then near the end of the movie, they decide that was a dumb thing to do, since sex shouldn't be a goal in itself, but something you do with a person who's important to you and when you both want it. That's a nice moral. But ''then'', they all get laid the same night anyway! To make matters worse, when Jim wakes up and finds Michelle (whom he does not particularly care about at this point in his multi-movie arc) has already gone, his response is "I got used. '''Cool!'''" and completely ruins the apparently intended Aesop.
** Alternately, you could read the aesop as "good things will happen if you stop obsessing over them" or even "better things will come if you're patient enough". Oz seems to have grasped the first aesop quite well, as instead of bragging about finally getting laid, he simply states he had an awesome night with his lady. The sequels also rectify the initial lack of character development among the other friends. Kevin eventually comes to terms with his lingering attraction to his ex-girlfriend Vicki and deciding that their relationship can only last if they keep it platonic. Finch likewise realizes his fixation on Stifler's Mom was purely carnal and that he owes it to himself to find true love. And of course Jim rejects a shot at his lust object Nadia because after learning to see Michelle as more than just a desperate fling, he'd genuinely fallen in love with her.

* ''Film/AmericanPie'': Near the beginning of the movie a bunch of friends make a pact to get laid before the school year is over. Then near the end of the movie, they decide that was a dumb thing to do, since sex shouldn't be a goal in itself, but something you do with a person who's important to you and when you both want it. That's a nice moral. But ''then'', they all get laid the same night anyway! Alternately, you could read the aesop as "good things will happen if you stop obsessing over them." To make matters worse, when Jim wakes up and finds Michelle (whom he does not particularly care about at this point in his multi-movie arc) has already gone, his response is "I got used. '''Cool!'''" and completely ruins the apparently intended Aesop. Oz, on the other hand, seems to have grasped the aesop quite well, as instead of bragging about finally getting laid, he simply states he had an awesome night with his lady.

* ''Film/WomanObsessed'': A woman's new husband is built up for the first ¾ of the movie to be abusive towards her and her son. At one point, while what happens next is open for interpretation, he appears to rape her after closing the door (she even mentions that her child with him was conceived out of "fear and hatred," so make of that what you will). She then loses the baby and the husband takes her to the doctor, which is very far away and carried her the last six miles. The last ¼ of the movie contains the doctor chastising her for wanting to leave her, you know, abusive husband and everybody forgiving him. While the problem isn't that he was redeemed, it was that the first ¾ of the movie built up how horrible and abusive he was and how much we should hate him, but the last ¼ [[EasilyForgiven quickly snapped into expecting everybody to forgive him for doing something good]]. The worst part is that not only does everybody forgive him and he ends up being the hero, it actually ends with her begging his forgiveness for wanting to leave him. The Aesop turns out to be "If your husband beats you, stick around if he helps you anyway because his FreudianExcuse makes it OK." Then again, the movie was made in the late 50s, so there is probably some ValuesDissonance here.

** Dr. Adrian gives a rousing speech aboard one of the doomsday-evading-Arks on the importance of humanity looking out for one another and convinces the captain to open the gates, allowing more people in. While well-intentioned, this decision indirectly results in the DiabolusExMachina offings of [[spoiler: Gordon and Tamara via the ship flooding]]. No one even mentions all the Chinese workers they just sent off the boats to die, either.
** Adrian also decries the fact the Arks are essentially representations of TheElitesJumpShip (he points out to a group of passengers boarding the Arks (the aforementioned elite) and snarks about if they have anything useful to bring to the future of humanity and looks around his cabin and says "you could have fit ''twenty'' people in here!"). While the first scene has a BothSidesHaveAPoint moment (Anheuser mentions that if the elite had not footed the astronomical bill, the Arks just would not have been made after snarking back "what, life is not fair?"), the second scene has nobody telling Adrian the fact that such arrangements have an increased chance of causing CabinFever -- so you save ten more people and you sentence them to go crazy.

* ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'': A subplot involves Ned romantically pursuing the school principal. His advances are rebuffed as long as he is presenting himself as a ManOfWealthAndTaste; it's only when he reveals his true nature as a LovableNerd that he is successful -- because it turns out that the principal is also a ClosetGeek. The moral of the story seems to be that you'll have romantic success as long as you BeYourself, ''provided that the object of your affection happens to secretly have the exact same interests as you.''
* ''Film/TwoHundredPoundsBeauty'': The main character begins the movie overweight, providing the singing voice for a backup dancer turned pop star and nursing an unrequited crush. She gets a crazy amount of plastic surgery and remakes herself as Jenny. She has fame, beauty, and the attention of the guy she was in love with. She underwent a great deal of pain but it seems like it was worth it. But then the problems start. She is paranoid about her love interest touching her and either damaging her new body or discovering what's fake. She betrays her family and friends. But then she reveals all and keeps her fans. The movie makes it clear that she still has her detractors but she's also a very successful pop star and her personal life is great. So plastic surgery is bad and you should just be yourself, but you should also go for it anyway because all those fears are just in your head. The movie ends with her plastic surgeon being very successful and her best friend going in to also get a ton of plastic surgery.
* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'':
** The movie seems to want to condemn modern society and technology, implying that it made mankind arrogant while they were unable to predict a global disaster that the Mayans supposedly predicted thousands of years ago, and hinting at the end that the survivors of mankind have been humbled and will now go back to living with the land as their ancestors once did. This all ignores the little details that they only survived because they ''used modern technology'' to build the arks in the first place -- and Jackson and his family use everything from an airplane to an RV to escape all of the disasters that occur...

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfElmoInGrouchland'': Elmo has a blanket, and an argument over whether his friend Zoe should play with it leads to it landing in Grouchland and being stolen by a kleptomaniac hoarder named Huxley. At one point, the Queen of Trash says that Elmo's clinginess over his blanket makes him "sound like Huxley", which ties into the anti-greed moral. However, Elmo's and Huxley's behaviours were fundamentally different -- Huxley was taking ''other people's'' belongings and saying they were his, while Elmo's blanket really ''was'' his.
* Tim Burton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' falls into this a lot.
** There's a prominent moral, especially early on, of ScrewDestiny - everyone keeps telling Alice to follow some arcane prophecy and she keeps turning them down, which is meant to be analogous to her refusing to get married in "the real world." A major moment is when she defies the destiny altogether and decides to run off on her own. Except seconds later, it turns out ''that defiance'' was part of the prophecy. At the end of the movie, Alice fulfills the prophecy and everything is lovely. So was Alice learning the opposite lesson, that sometimes the plans people have for you are good ones? Apparently not, because when she returns to the real world, she still refuses to get married, and this is treated as a good thing.
** The aspects of rebellion, progress, and fighting the power, both in the real world and in Underland, are undermined heavily by the fact that the White Queen had been in power for a long time as a result of her birthright. The Red Queen is the one who is actually a relative outcast (implied to be TheUnFavorite) who represents a new paradigm, and her taking control is treated as horrible in every way. The film's ending isn't so much an advancement of society as it is bringing things back to the good old days.
** There's a strong undercurrent of "girl power" in the film, what with its conversion of Alice from precocious youth to ActionGirl and the [[DeliberateValuesDissonance constant reminders of Victorian-era sexism]], but the film also goes out of its way to depict Alice's questioning nature and knowledge as something unusual (rather than in the book, where they're treated as common even in a girl her age) and credits them to her father. Meanwhile, most of the characters in Wonderland that were jerks, idiots, and {{Know Nothing Know It All}}s that Alice opposed with her genuine wit and wisdom are [[AdaptationalHeroism rewritten to be more heroic]], often accomplishing far more impressive tasks than Alice or doing actually plot-relevant stuff while Alice sits on the sidelines, and almost all of the characters to receive this treatment are male. And while the movie takes a shot at the idea of women being only valued for their appearance, it also has characters insult the Red Queen for having a big head whenever possible.

* The ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' often invokes FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse when it comes to villains with a tragic backstory, with the heroes telling them it doesn't excuse their actions and that others who suffered similarly didn't turn out like them. However, in many cases the villain actually suffered ''worse'' trauma than the heroes did, or the heroes had positive influences or a chance at a normal life that the villain didn't, which can give the impression that they might have gone down the same path themselves had their positions been reversed. The heroes also often condemn the villains for being willing to use violence to achieve their goals, even if they have no issue doing so themselves.