Romance is a huge part of almost every major story that has been told, which is fitting as it is a major part of life, and its inclusion in fiction goes a long way to making characters relatable. Having two characters become romantically involved has the potential to elevate each of their narratives, provide additional stakes, and ultimately enhance the work that they appear in. Romance is such a critical part of storytelling that some films have even suffered for its absence, a fact that was even referenced as far back as the original King Kong film in 1933.
As necessary as a romantic subplot can be, however, it is something that can go terribly wrong if executed poorly. Fairly often the writers, directors, or even studios, will add a romance to a story that actually hurts the main plot. In some cases, this is just a matter of characters acting out of character for the sake of the romance, or wasting precious screen time on a side story that doesn’t go anywhere.Other times, the romance can be so egregiously jarring or forced that it derails the main plot entirely, doing irreparable harm to what would have otherwise been an excellent story, and in still more examples the subplot can override the genre or tone of a film entirely, overshadowing the main plot or theme. We’ve taken a look at popular films and collected 10 of the greatest examples of when romantic subplots actually got in the way of or completely took over their films.
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10 Michael Bay’s Transformers Series
Paramount Pictures
In 2007, the Transformers franchise was brought into the realm of live-action blockbusters by filmmaker and explosives enthusiast Michael Bay. The first outing of the merchandise-driven franchise served up an exciting premise, with sentient alien vehicles coming to Earth to protect a human boy from their evil counterparts. A second plot line dealt with a government conspiracy, and a third followed a group of soldiers fleeing attack by those same evil alien robots, carrying valuable information to help the humans attempt to fight back. Fast cars, explosions, it all came up to a fun romp through a lot of the expected action film tropes.
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With three major plots in play, one would think that the audience would have enough to keep track of; however, the film also managed to make time for a somewhat awkward romance plot between Shia LaBeouf’s Sam, and Megan Fox’s Mikaela right in the middle of the high-octane action scenes. While this film can be considered a breakout role for Fox, and her character does have a few genuinely entertaining moments, most of her scenes amount to little more than eye candy. These scenes are so egregious that they can be considered a distraction from the higher stakes plots at best, and problematic at worst. The result is that her character isn’t actually necessary to the plot at all, and the film would barely be any different without her.
To make the issues with the romantic B plot even worse, Fox was outspoken in her issues working with director Michael Bay, going as far to make highly public comments about his direction to Wonderland Magazine. These comments ultimately resulted in her being removed from the franchise, and the character replaced. This handling of a major element of the films makes for large amounts of screen time that just drags on, leaving audiences very anxious to get back to more of the main plot that carries much more impact.
9 Avengers: Age of Ultron
Marvel StudiosDisney
The Avengers franchise is the most ambitious and well received collection of interconnecting movies and TV programs ever attempted, and the creative teams behind the various projects have ensured that their work has something for everyone. In the middle of the Infinity Saga, 2015’s Age of Ultron had a lot to both set up and a lot to pay off. The titular Avengers were cleaning up a loose end with the scepter from the original film, Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark was developing a sense of responsibility that would drive future projects, and the reveal of the mind stone allowed the creation of Ultron and Vision while joining the Tesseract, Ether, and Power Stone as the fourth out of six macguffins motivating series big bad, Thanos.
Yet even with all the superheroics and cosmic plots in motion, the film found a way to include a romantic subplot that left fans confused. Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner had interacted a bit in the previous film, coming across as professional and respectful colleagues. While the two of them got along fine, there was no hint at any kind of romantic interest between them, and the sudden inclusion of their relationship was such an unexpected element that many fans found it jarring. Not only did these two characters have little chemistry, but this development came immediately after Romanoff had spent an entire film flirting heavily with Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
This plot failed to even feature in any films beyond Age of Ultron, as the next time the two characters would meet in Infinity War, they mercifully had bigger things to worry about and the filmmakers decided to scrap any reference or resolution to the budding romance. Considering how divisive this particular element was in the second Avengers film, it is safe to say that abandoning it was a good call for Infinity War and Endgame, allowing both characters much more freedom to develop independently.
8 The Hobbit Trilogy
Warner Bros. Pictures
Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy had a lot to live up to when it began in 2012. The Lord of the Rings trilogy that Jackson had already completed years earlier was one of the most successful book adaptations of all time, and is credited with popularizing the high fantasy setting in modern media. With this new series came new opportunities to explore different elements of the world that the original trilogy hadn’t, and so the filmmakers chose to add the character of Tauriel, the Elven leader of the Mirkwood border guards in 2013’s The Desolation of Smaug. The character expanded the setting with a different take on the elves from what had already been featured in the franchise while also adding a strong and compelling female character to an otherwise male dominated cast.
The original romantic subplot featuring Tauriel actually functioned as a stand-in for another plot that featured in Tolkein’s original Lord of the Rings trilogy, but hadn’t made it into the films, one between Galadriel and Gimli. This allowed a major exploration of the relationship between the two fantasy races and the attitude that their people would have to such a match, and would have been a decent addition to the story if it had been left alone. However, the filmmakers felt that the film needed to feature Legolas, and chose to use this new character as his motivation for entering the story, thus creating a love triangle.
Not only was this development unnecessary, but it was included directly against actress Evangeline Lily’s stipulations for taking the role. In an interview with Yahoo, Lily detailed her condition for accepting the role and the sudden materialization of the love triangle during re-shoots in 2012. The scenes devoted to this particular B plot undermine what the character could otherwise have explored, and the disconnect from the main plot lengthens the already epic films with scenes that serve little purpose to develop any of the characters involved. This particular subplot could have been beneficial to the characters and the lore of the setting, however the expansion into a love triangle plot diminished the originally intended plot and just got in the way of rest of the movie.
7 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Warner Brothers Pictures
As an adaptation of the books by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince actually does a lot of things exceptionally well, especially in regard to the main relationships within the cast. Of particular note is the expansion of Ginny and Harry’s interactions, which makes their eventual pairing come across more naturally than it does in the books. Ron’s character is also given an upgrade, downplaying the jealous tendencies that were present in the book and making him more sympathetic. However, while the romantic subplots in the film are fairly solid, they are completely disconnected from the major plot points of both the film, and the series as a while, and all the focus given to them overshadows the main plot.
This is such a major point that it earned a review from SFX noting that while the romance was well handled, there was just too much. Nowhere is this more evident than in the climax, with a moment that is directly tied into the very plot that provides the subtitle for film. So much time is devoted to the rotating wheel of teenage relationships that the investigation into the identity of the Half-Blood prince is all but forgotten. The reveal during the climax feels almost tangential as a result, and some fans have even claimed to be confused as to why this information is even important.
Any film with a large cast of hormonal teenagers is bound to have an abundance of romantic elements, and a lot of the film’s more enjoyable moments come from these plot lines. The issue is not that the romances didn’t make sense, or that they were poorly handled, just that they were given so much focus that the actual main plot was ultimately forgotten. While it was still a fun ride, it cannot be denied that the focus was in the wrong place for the overall story.
6 Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy was the first taste of what the galaxy far, far away would be moving forward. Beginning in 2015 with The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams introduced a new cast of characters that had the potential to continue a Star Wars tradition of a balanced trio of colorful characters playing off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses against a backdrop of interstellar conflict. While diverging story lines prevented this from being the case, each of the new trio did have their own character arcs to follow, with the main physical threat in the form of Kylo Ren functioning almost as a fourth member as he developed from a tantrum-throwing child into a terrifying and sadistic villain.
Another tradition of Star Wars films is that of at least one romantic subplot taking place in the middle of the chaos, with the Han and Leia story in the original enhancing the story and bringing another dimension to the characters, while Anakin and Padme’s romance drove the conflict and ultimately resulted in the dark conclusion of the prequel trilogy. For the sequel, the filmmakers chose to go with an “enemies to lovers” approach by pairing off the main heroine of the film with the main villain. However, this plot turned out to not only be distracting, but heavily problematic.
The two characters’ interactions were almost entirely antagonistic, with Kylo even going so far as to outright devalue Rey, claiming that she was “nothing” and repeatedly trying to kill her. This provides excellent characterization for the villain of the trilogy, but are hardly the behaviors of a romantic candidate. The character continued this trend right up until the last act of the last film, conveniently after being stabbed through the abdomen by her lightsaber. Because of his consistently terrible behavior and abusive attitude, the romantic payoff in the last act came across as very forced, and gave Kylo’s character a redemption that didn’t make sense in context. In a trilogy that has been controversial for its side stories, this stands out as one of the most jarring and definitely one that could have and should have been handled better.
5 Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Columbia Pictures
Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be considered one of the best literary adaptations of the 90s, and has served to inspire much of the vampire fiction to follow. Gary Oldman’s portrayal of the titular vampire as a darkly seductive and tormented creature gives the monstrous antagonist layers, and some fans of the film have gone so far as to refer to the count as more of a tragic anti-hero than an outright villain. The filmmaking brought a level of artistry to what would otherwise have been an oppressively dark piece, with every aspect from costuming to sound design playing a part in telling the story. So much care was taken in faithfully adapting Stoker’s work that the narration is often read directly from the novel, which delighted fans of the original work.
While the film was excellently made, its main deviation from the source material was so egregious that it changed a few of the characters completely, and made it unclear to many audiences who the protagonists of the story actually were. Originally, Dracula was unambiguously evil, a predatory creature of hunger and lust that stalked the night. In Coppola’s version, the count becomes what he is out of despair for his wife’s suicide, and Mina Harker is depicted to be either an exact lookalike or a reincarnation of her. Dracula’s motivation becomes more romantic in tone in the film, adding a plot element that was not originally present and shifting the genre away from pure horror and into something more ambiguous.
This expansion of Dracula’s backstory impacts Winona Ryder’s Mina Harker most directly, changing her from a victim of his evil in the novel into a willing adulteress and borderline antagonist in the film. Mixing these changes with the accuracy to the source material makes for good cinema, but confuses the genre and tone, switching back and forth between horror and romance, and cleanly splitting the audience on who they should be rooting for without actually giving an answer on either front. While this approach did work brilliantly, there is still a divide on whether it was necessary, and debate still continues to this day whether Coppola’s film is truly a faithful adaptation of the novel as opposed to just taking major inspiration from it.
4 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Disney
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides saw the return of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow on a quest for the fountain of youth. As the first film without Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly’s Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, the story centers entirely around Jack and his exploits as he is caught up in a three-way contest between England, Spain, and Blackbeard to reach the fountain first. Essentially, a high seas adventure without the romantic element that helped shape the first three movies.
During the course of the film, Jack encounters an old flame, played by Penélope Cruz, who just so happens to be Blackbeard’s daughter. The two characters engage in constant bickering and flirting that is entertaining, and helps to drive the plot and development of the characters along. However, a romantic subplot between minor characters Phillip and Syrena also snags a bit of screen time. This pairing is significantly more tedious, and the interactions between the characters serve to distract from the more entertaining moments, as well as the more important elements of the plot.
During the film, both Phillip and Syrena are captives of Blackbeard’s crew; however, beyond this shared ordeal, the two have very little in common, with their romance developing from what seems like simple attraction. This subplot doesn’t take up much screen time when compared to some other examples, but when it does take front and center the momentum of the film is lost, and the next scene has the task of building it back up again. Ultimately the characters don’t get any development, and the subplot could have been omitted entirely without seriously impacting the story or even the characters involved.
3 Jurassic World
Universal Pictures
The long awaited continuation of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World brought us a version of the park in full operation under the supervision of Claire Dearing, a no-nonsense executive played by Bryce Dallas-Howard. Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady is also working with the park, studying the behavior of velociraptors. The main plot of the film, as might be expected, follows the events on the island after the dangerous carnivorous animals escape and begin causing widespread devastation, this time with thousands of guests panicking and a behind the scenes plot to try and weaponize the cloned animals.
There is already a lot going on in the film, especially considering its mission to set up a new Jurassic franchise. Howard’s character, especially, begins the film in dire need of character development, as her laser focus on the job of directing the park is called out by multiple other characters, and even sets off part of the plot involving her nephews lost in the park. However, the romantic subplot between her character and Pratt’s is something of an unnecessary distraction that crops up despite getting virtually no build-up in between action scenes. In fact, the only indication that the characters had any interest in one another at all is a single line of dialogue referencing a disastrous date which happened before the events of the film even began.
The next two installments make sure to give the subplot a little more context, developing the relationship between the two characters, however this serves to further emphasize just how unnecessary it was to include that side of their relationship in the first film. Including the romantic element during the events of Jurassic World came across as a forced development with no justification in the final product that could have been removed from the film entirely without harming the end product, or even derailing its inclusion in the rest of the series.
2 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Paramount Pictures
A prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sees Harrison Ford joined by Kate Capshaw in the role of singer Willie Scott. The relationship between the two characters serves as a major point of contention for some fans, with some seeing her as a fun character and others viewing her as an obnoxious and unnecessary addition to the cast that was made out of obligation to have a female lead. Her characterization has been derided by critics, filmmakers, and even Capshaw herself, who referred to the character as little more than “not much more than a dumb screaming blonde” in Joseph McBride’s biography of director Steven Spielberg.
The romantic subplot in the film suffers from having a pair of characters that just don’t seem to like each other, and for this reason it grates against the film. The overall plot is solid, and even with the tonal issues that certain critics have it is still an overall good film. The issue with the subplot is simply that one half of the pairing doesn’t contribute to the rest of the story, and her inclusion just doesn’t justify itself enough to work. This is made particularly striking as the female lead of Raiders, Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood, had been so brilliantly utilized.
Future Indiana Jones films made no reference to the character, which makes narrative sense due to temple of doom being a prequel, but it is notable that such an omission is something that audiences don’t generally notice.
1 The Expendables
Millennium Films
As a love letter to action films featuring nearly every living actor to have led such a film, The Expendables is a testosterone and adrenaline-soaked thrill ride where every plot point exists to bring in a new star or play an action trope. It is a seriously fun film that doesn’t really take itself too seriously and is self-aware without going all the way to the point of parody. In short: this is an action movie, and it knows it.
The core cast is led by Sylvester Stallone, and is a who’s-who list of action heroes including the likes of Dolph Lundgren and Jet Li. Jason Statham plays ex-SAS mercenary Lee Christmas, who is in a complicated relationship. The first film uses this particular aspect of his character in an attempt to ground him, but mainly succeeds at slamming the brakes on the action by featuring a plot line that is completely disconnected from the main plot and the rest of the cast. At any point that the relationship between Statham’s character and his romantic interest is shown, the plot slows down, and the audience is treated to a story that is ultimately not necessary for the larger story that is being told.
For a film that goes so far out of its way to cater to the tropes and clichés of the genre, the inclusion of a romantic subplot, especially one that isn’t connected to the rest of the cast or the action, is a choice that comes across as obligatory and breaks the flow of the film. The scenes are well performed, and the subplot’s narrative on its own isn’t a terrible story, it’s just out of place in a film like The Expendables.
