YMMV / Film Theory

• Awesome Music: "Phase Shift", the opening theme also made specifically for the show.
• Bizarro Episode:
  • The theory where he tries to prove Deadpool and Ernest Hemingway are the same person is surreal, even compared to some of MatPat's more out-there theories. Although considering the subject matter this may have been intentional.
  • The theory that Jack from Titanic (1997)... is a time traveler. Seriously. It's just as bizarre as the title sounds, as Matt tries to prove that Jack was trying to ensure a Stable Time Loop by making sure the Titanic crashed.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Refers to Arthur Fleck's murder of his mother in Joker (2019) as "a very aggressive pillow fight".
• Even Better Sequel: MatPat's first DHMIS Theory received quite the praise. The second part was widely regarded as a satisfying and well-reinforced theory, possibly even MatPat's best. It helps that he outright said his theory wasn't the only possibility and cites the creators as a reason to watch other theories on the show.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • A straight example of the latter is Mat's theory that the main cast of Rogue One isn't heard of or mentioned in the Original Trilogy as they've turned to the Dark Side, and he takes the time to dismiss the idea of all of them being dead by the end of the movie, because would Disney/Lucasfilms really kill off their new characters in their Star Wars spin-off? Yes. Yes, they would.
  • In the Death Note theory, it says "Ronnie, 4:33am" in the Death Note, a year later, Ronnie "The Oni" Edwards killed himself. Which devastated Matpat as seen in his "Losing The Battle" video.
  • The thumbnail of the video dealing with Article 13 features a graphic of Spongebob Squarepants being ground up. Only three days after the video was uploaded, series creator Stephen Hillenburg died of ALS.
  • In Mat's theory on Avengers: Endgame, Who WON'T Survive Avengers Endgame!, MatPat argues that Steve will sacrifice himself to stop Thanos, and Tony will survive so he can retire from being Iron Man and settle down with Pepper and have a kid, claiming both serve as the culmination of their character arcs. While he got the scenarios right, he got the characters reversed. While Tony and Pepper do have a daughter, Tony pulls a Heroic Sacrifice by using the Infinity Stones to snap Thanos and his forces away, killing himself in the process. Steve survives the final battle but returns to the past to settle down with Peggy Carter, retiring from being Captain America and Passing the Torch to Sam.
  • Mat's Hazbin Hotel theory brings up how Charlie's task is impossible due to the sheer influx of souls coming into hell as well as IMP being direct antagonists to her. It turns out to be much, much simpler yet harsher than that, since it's Heaven that's making it difficult for Charlie by not even knowing the requirements to redeem souls in the first place.
  • Mat's Murder Drones theory posited that Tessa Elliot would be the Big Good of the series, and the one responsible for building an alleged "Serial Designation 'S'", who would reveal that N was the one responsible for killing Uzi's mom Nori, Uzi learning so causing her to briefly succumb to the Absolver Solver again before breaking free, fitting The Hero's Journey Uzi had made for herself in "Pilot". Episode 7, "Mass Destruction", showed Mat couldn't have been any farther from the truth. Uzi learns about Nori nearly being made into a host for the Absolute Solver and enters a meltdown when Doll turns up dead and "Tessa" nearly kills her for allegedly killing her, the "Tessa" seen by that point was actually the Absolute Solver controlling the real Tessa's corpse trying to manipulate Uzi into being it's new host after it failed to do the same with her mother, Nori is still alive and gets punted into a "flesh hole" by an unaware Uzi while trying to free her from the Absolute Solver, and Uzi's "Death/Rebirth" comes from Uzi sacrificing herself by allowing the Solver to drag her into the flesh hole so she can save N.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • MatPat argued that the tuppence in Mary Poppins would have been worthless had Michael put it into the bank. Come its sequel, and it turns out the tuppence ends up being what was needed to save Michael's house.
  • MatPat constantly jokes that his Film Theories predicting future events don't actually happen, citing Rogue One, Last Jedi, and other such movies. Come 2019, though, and two of his theories, Black Widow dying in Avengers: Endgame and Dany becoming the Mad Queen in Game of Thrones, end up becoming correct. Making this all the more funnier is that his theory for The Rise of Skywalker (another Star Wars movie), in which Palpatine created Rey as per a contingency plan, also ends up being correct, albeit differently from how he predicted it.
  • At the beginning of Mat's theory that Detective Pikachu is Ash's Pikachu, he brings up the possibility that Pikachu is Tim's father, before dismissing it. In the actual film, that's exactly how it turns out.
  • At the end of Mat's theory "The 3 BIG Twists of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", he makes an admittedly out there guess in regards to who the Big Bad of the series is: Sharon Carter, only to then say that they are more than likely not the Big Bad. Well, when the final episode of the series aired, Sharon Carter was revealed to be the true identity behind Power Broker, the Greater-Scope Villain who had supplied the Flag Smashers with their super soldier serums, killed Karli Morgenthau to preserve her identity, tricked Sam and Bucky into giving her not just a pardon, but a high ranking position in S.H.I.E.L.D., and is now set to take all of their government secrets and sell them to the highest bidder.
  • Mat's two parter on the Disney Princesses states that Moana was excluded from the line because she doesn't wear a traditional dress. Moana was officially made a Disney Princess some time later.
  • Mat's theory on Murder Drones posited that a character named "Serial Designation 'S-010011X01'" would appear at some point in Episode 7, both due to Uzi finding a document pertaining to a Drone with that designation at the "Cabin Fever" facility, one of the seemingly prophetic things Uzi's mom Nori showed her dad Khan being a "cool S I can draw", and due to a framework set up in the "Pilot" based on The Hero's Journey but specifically applying to Uzi suggesting she would meet a "Helper" while in the "Abyss", and would reveal N killed Nori. After Episode 7 "Mass Destruction" premiered, said "Helper" turned out to be Nori herself, and a later merch promo would nod to "Serial Designation S"... by having it be J's Original Character in her JCJenson notebook, it's design all but saying its her Self-Insert.
• It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: In his Zootopia video, MatPat cautioned viewers that his Film Theory and Game Theory series are intended for introducing people to new ideas that they can then research themselves and that the videos shouldn't be taken completely at face value. Given how his Zootopia video does discuss controversial real life topics like the War on Drugs and police brutality, it's probably for the best.
• Memetic Mutation: Whenever one of MatPat's theories are proven false, it is common to joke that he Knew It All Along and the studio changed it so that he would be wrong.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Same as in his Game Theory videos, MatPat has the tendency to not always distinguish between his own theories and those he is simply regurgitating, the most egregious example being his Game of Thrones theory. Not only had the R+L=J theory existed for years (and is easily one of the most well-known fan theories around), but certain terminology in the video (such as encouraging fans to come back to the video once the theory is inevitably confirmed in show to congratulate him for being right) has irked certain people, since it sounds as if he's actively trying to claim credit for it.
  • Mat's Simpsons theory on Where the Hell Is Springfield? is more or less commonly known Simpsons trivia and not some mind blowing theory like he made it out to be.
  • Mat's Escape the Night theory was figured out by the fandom of the series about two years before the release of his video, and before he went on the show, in fact. Some fans were...not very happy about how the 'theory' was rather unoriginal.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Mat's heavily-criticized theory about The Lorax (2012) has a strangely Randian conclusion, especially for a film based on a work that called out the impact of industry on the environment. MatPat claims the Once-ler and O'Hare weren't all that bad because they were simply acting within the tenets of supply and demand, and the one true villain of the movie were the townsfolk because they were the ones creating a market for the products. He even backs up part of his reasoning for the Once-ler not being a bad person with an instructional pamphlet from a logging company, with the idea being that the Once-ler was justified in clearcutting the Truffula trees because logging companies replant the trees they cut.^note While logging's impact on the environment varies on a case-by-case basis, with it even being beneficial at times, intruding into a virgin ecosystem and clearcutting all the trees would be devastating for the environment whether or not the trees are replanted afterwards, due to the logging's effect on the local microclimate of the habitat and the time it takes for trees to grow back.
  • To his credit, it is implied at the beginning of the video that this is less of a message he aims to impart onto the audience and more of an example of how the movie breaks the Aesop of the original book, but he never brings it up again by the end of the video.
• Win Back the Crowd: Mat's Don't Hug Me I'm Scared theory has been more warmly received, for using far less shaky evidence and logic than his more infamous theories. It helps that this was a long-requested theory as well.