Best / worst titles in media

[Kato]

"Is this a Zombie?" (mentioned for the trifecta of shows that love to be a question)
.

Well, I'd say considering the tone of the show it's actually kind of well chosen for the pure weirdness. (also, wasn't it actually "am I a zombie?" my lacking Japanese is showing..)

Sounds like a good title for a picture book that prepares little kids for the zombie-apocalypse.
Hey, the brats need to know when it's time to shoot daddy in the face

Hah


Also, speaking of anime, where does good old Neon Genesis Evangelion fit on the scale?

[Noldo]

A few movie titles that have really manages to catch my attention were:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Requiem for a Dream

In terms of horrible titles, especially translations, I have to submit two classic Finnish titles for foreign films (Finnish name translated into English):

Rita Hayworth - the Key for Escape (you guessed it: The Shawshank Redemption)

Avenger with a Harmonica (Once Upon a Time in the West)

[The Fury]

Sanity's Requiem isn't a bad title, though.

I'll give ya that one. Though if the complete title were "Sanity's Requiem: Eternal Darkness," I might have liked it better.

Well, I'd say considering the tone of the show it's actually kind of well chosen for the pure weirdness. (also, wasn't it actually "am I a zombie?" my lacking Japanese is showing..)

Heh. If there were a series titled "Am I a Zombie?" I'd give it a watch it based on the title alone. I'd be hoping for a set of PSAs for how newly turned undead can determine their new status, and how they can lead a full life death ...whatever.

[Eldan]

Well, I'd say considering the tone of the show it's actually kind of well chosen for the pure weirdness. (also, wasn't it actually "am I a zombie?" my lacking Japanese is showing..)

Hah


Also, speaking of anime, where does good old Neon Genesis Evangelion fit on the scale?

Isn't that correct-ish Greek? I mean, it's another rather superficial Christian allusion in NGE, but it's not a bad title, I'd say.

[Kato]

Heh. If there were a series titled "Am I a Zombie?" I'd give it a watch it based on the title alone. I'd be hoping for a set of PSAs for how newly turned undead can determine their new status, and how they can lead a full life death ...whatever.

It's actually... well, I liked it well enough. (Also, I was wrong on remembering the title) It's a very crazy Story about a Boy who gets turned into a Zombie and a magical girl and collects a harem including a ninja vampire (vampire ninja?) and it's pretty much as crazy as it sounds. It's definitely not for everyone but to turn off your head and just enjoy a metaphorical drug trip it's not bad.


Also, what about some classic book titles, rather distant from their subject matter?
"To kill a mocking bird"? "Catcher in the Rye"?

[Soepvork]

A recent worst title for me would be 'The Commuter' .

To me it evokes images of the following: Watch this movie, featuring a man/woman get stuck in slow-moving traffic everyday!

[veti]

If you can't think of titles that don't match the protagonist / plot summary / setting, that suggests you don't read enough decent books. Try:

American Gods
The Kindly Ones
The Ogre Downstairs
To Say Nothing of the Dog
An Instance of the Fingerpost
The Remains of the Day
An Artist of the Floating World
Never Let Me Go

[Kato]

If you can't think of titles that don't match the protagonist / plot summary / setting, that suggests you don't read enough decent books. Try:

American Gods

American Gods portrays the lives of Gods living in the US... How is that a title that doesn't match its plot?

[Knaight]

Speaking of these I'd add The Buried Giant to both the categories of good names and those that don't reference a protagonist.

[Wraith]

Easily the most disappointing film title-to-film quality disparity that I have ever witnessed would be Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter.

I mean.... just look at it. How could a film with a title like that possibly be anything other than immensely entertaining, even if only in the same way that it's impossible to look away from a really good car-wreck?

And yet, it's really bad. There's nothing redeeming about it except the title - even the musical numbers are, at best, just.... meh. (Oh yes; it's a musical, by the way). 90 minutes of completely wasted potential, if you ask me.

Strangely, despite the foreboding title of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was a much, much better affair. It was still quite silly, of course, but once you accept that then there wasn't anything else wrong with it at all and I liked it a lot.

[Iruka]

If you can't think of titles that don't match the protagonist / plot summary / setting, that suggests you don't read enough decent books. Try:

American Gods
The Kindly Ones
The Ogre Downstairs
To Say Nothing of the Dog
An Instance of the Fingerpost
The Remains of the Day
An Artist of the Floating World
Never Let Me Go

I have not read all of them, but the ones I know all refer to an important character in the story or the main theme of the story.

[Wardog]

There were a bunch of thrillers and action movies recently that had particularly boring jobs as their titles, although "The Accountant" and "The Mechanic" are the only one I can remember at the moment.

[Yora]

I want to mention Record of Lodoss War and Attack on Titan for being obviously picked by people who don't know English gramar. And they aren't even called that in Japanese. In Japanese they have proper Japanese names. How can translators mess up that badly?

[factotum]

Attack on Titan for being obviously picked by people who don't know English gramar.

Well, technically "Attack on Titan" could mean an attack happening on Saturn's moon Titan, which is what I always thought that was about until I read a plot summary...

[Velaryon]

The Remains of the Day

I don't know whether it's the intended meaning of the title, but it's not hard to make it make sense, after a fashion. The whole novel is about

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Stevens coming to grips with the idea that he's wasted his life, and deciding how he wants to make use of the remainder of his day life.

So I think that one makes sense, even if it doesn't tell a prospective reader very much about what they're in for.

Easily the most disappointing film title-to-film quality disparity that I have ever witnessed would be Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter.

I mean.... just look at it. How could a film with a title like that possibly be anything other than immensely entertaining, even if only in the same way that it's impossible to look away from a really good car-wreck?

And yet, it's really bad. There's nothing redeeming about it except the title - even the musical numbers are, at best, just.... meh. (Oh yes; it's a musical, by the way). 90 minutes of completely wasted potential, if you ask me.

Strangely, despite the foreboding title of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was a much, much better affair. It was still quite silly, of course, but once you accept that then there wasn't anything else wrong with it at all and I liked it a lot.

*double checks to make sure I didn't write this post*

You nailed it. JC:VH sounds like the most epic, amazing B-movie ever when you describe it. The basic plot (Jesus returns to Earth to stop a group of vampires from harvesting skin from lesbians so they can go out in the daylight, and recruits legendary Mexican wrestler El Santo to help) sounds awesome. A lot of the scenes (a car full of atheists challenging Jesus to a fight, God speaking to his son through a bowl of ice cream, and so on) sound like they will be hilarious.

And then you see the thing and realize it was made on a budget of $5, and it looks like a film school student recruited his non-actor friends to play this out and recorded the whole thing on a potato. Great idea, terrible execution.

Not since Ninja Vengeance have I seen such a disappointing bait-and-switch.

I want to mention Record of Lodoss War and Attack on Titan for being obviously picked by people who don't know English gramar. And they aren't even called that in Japanese. In Japanese they have proper Japanese names. How can translators mess up that badly?

Reminds me of Corpse Princess, which I often see written as Corpse Princess: Shikabane-Hime (which is redundant since that's literally the same thing, but in Japanese).

[The Fury]

Also, what about some classic book titles, rather distant from their subject matter?
"To kill a mocking bird"? "Catcher in the Rye"?

I'm not sure that I agree that those in particular are distant from their subject matter. I supposed that I'd say that they relate to their subject matter in a way that's not immediately clear.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" as a line in the book refers to destroying something that's only trying to bring some measure of joy into the world. "...Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." This thematically ties in to Tom Robinson's trial. Tom Robinson being a man that helped a young woman with her household chores because he felt sorry for her, and got accused of a crime he didn't commit for his trouble. As such it's a metaphor for the novel's plot that's not immediately obvious until you've read the book.

"Catcher In the Rye" as a title informs the protagonist more than the plot, (then again, this is a novel that's sort of light on plot.) In this case, "The catcher in the rye" refers to a line from a poem that Holden misremembers, (Phoebe corrects him.) Yet Holden sticks to his (mis)interpretation saying he wants to be "the catcher," that is someone who safeguards innocence. This fits his character perfectly, as Holden is the kind of guy that can never admit to being wrong, and is grasping blindly for meaning in a world that seems bent on denying him that satisfaction.

At least I think so. Someone better versed in American literature can probably correct me.

[Eldan]

Well, technically "Attack on Titan" could mean an attack happening on Saturn's moon Titan, which is what I always thought that was about until I read a plot summary...

Yeah. I remember reading that in an "upcoming Anime of the season" title and thinking "Ooh, are they making another big space opera? I liked Legend of Galactic Heroes!"
And then being really disappointed.

As for why we end up there, apparently the Japanese creatores sometimes want to do the translation themselves and then insist on what they think sounds cool.

[Eldan]

You nailed it. JC:VH sounds like the most epic, amazing B-movie ever when you describe it. The basic plot (Jesus returns to Earth to stop a group of vampires from harvesting skin from lesbians so they can go out in the daylight, and recruits legendary Mexican wrestler El Santo to help) sounds awesome. A lot of the scenes (a car full of atheists challenging Jesus to a fight, God speaking to his son through a bowl of ice cream, and so on) sound like they will be hilarious.

Wait. He actually recruits El Santo for this? How could they screw this up!

[Wraith]

Wait. He actually recruits El Santo for this? How could they screw this up!

In the credits he's not listed as El Santo; it's Santos, who just happens to be a luchador in a sparkly silver mask, and the "we're totally not violating copyright guidelines"-friendly version of the wrestling legend. That should tell you all you need to know about the role and the quality of the script, to be honest.

It had a budget of ~$100,000CAD, in all fairness, so making fun of a cheap film for looking cheap is dishonest of me. It's just one of those things that was crying out for a semi-decent budget to make it a true cult classic.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, technically "Attack on Titan" could mean an attack happening on Saturn's moon Titan, which is what I always thought that was about until I read a plot summary...

I thought the exact same thing and was highly disappointed.

[Yora]

Shingeki no Kyojin literally translates to "Advance of the Giant(s)" or "Advancing Giant(s)". You can play around with the exact terms to get "Attacking Titans" or "Attack of the Titans", but there's no wriggle room with the gramar. It's just wrong.
Record of Lodoss War is at least containing the correct information, but nobody would phrase it like that in fluent English.

While not a terrible title in itself, I don't understand why they named the game "Dragon Age II"

Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Awakening
Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne
Dragon Age: The Calling
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age: Asunder
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Did they just forget the naming convention they had established?

Oh, this reminds me of a whole bunch of terrible titles:

Conan the Barbarian (2011)
The Thing (2011)
Thief (2014)
Doom (2016)
God of War (2018)

Don't do that. It's forbidden.

[Lord Raziere]

I thought the exact same thing and was highly disappointed.

Me too. That was exactly what I thought, a sci-fi flick about an alien invasion upon a human colony of Titan and thought "sweet, alien invasion story of something thats NOT earth for once!" and that you'd get a bunch of setting stuff about what its like to live on Titan and why its so important to defend, and then its just grimdark fighting giants bull with absolutely no creativity put into anything. so disappointing.

[Adderbane]

Any use of ": The Movie" is particularly bad in my opinion.

Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War (Conflict: FreeSpace – The Great War if you're in Europe) is another overly long title. Thankfully they left the sequel as FreeSpace 2

[factotum]

While not a terrible title in itself, I don't understand why they named the game "Dragon Age II"

If only that were the only thing about that game where they didn't bother to put much thought into it...

[Rynjin]

While not a terrible title in itself, I don't understand why they named the game "Dragon Age II"

Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Awakening
Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne
Dragon Age: The Calling
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age: Asunder
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Did they just forget the naming convention they had established?

I mean, it's not like the convention was established at the time. Origins was a subtitle, yes, but Awakening, Stolen Throne, and The Calling aren't games...one is a DLC, and two are novels which would by necessity NEED a subtitle since they can't just be named "Dragon Age".

Dragon Age II is the second Dragon Age game. Simples.

[Velaryon]

"Catcher In the Rye" as a title informs the protagonist more than the plot, (then again, this is a novel that's sort of light on plot.) In this case, "The catcher in the rye" refers to a line from a poem that Holden misremembers, (Phoebe corrects him.) Yet Holden sticks to his (mis)interpretation saying he wants to be "the catcher," that is someone who safeguards innocence. This fits his character perfectly, as Holden is the kind of guy that can never admit to being wrong, and is grasping blindly for meaning in a world that seems bent on denying him that satisfaction.

I more or less agree with that interpretation, but you make it sound about 10,000% less whiny than I remember it.

It had a budget of ~$100,000CAD, in all fairness, so making fun of a cheap film for looking cheap is dishonest of me. It's just one of those things that was crying out for a semi-decent budget to make it a true cult classic.

I know $100K isn't a big budget by any means, but what the heck did they spend it on? It sure as heck wasn't professional actors, quality equipment, or a good scriptwriter.

[Kantaki]

I know $100K isn't a big budget by any means, but what the heck did they spend it on? It sure as heck wasn't professional actors, quality equipment, or a good scriptwriter.

Booze?

[Chromascope3D]

Bubblegum Crisis always stuck in my memory when I saw it in a full page ad alongside NGE and GitS as a kid. So much so that later on I specifically had to seek it out to satisfy my curiosity. I liked all the 80s OVAs but I couldn't make it past the first few episodes of the 2000s reboot (which, ironically, is what the page had been advertising). However, I did get to find out what the title was referring to...

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...Absolutely nothing. It just sounded cool.

[Eldan]

I more or less agree with that interpretation, but you make it sound about 10,000% less whiny than I remember it.




I know $100K isn't a big budget by any means, but what the heck did they spend it on? It sure as heck wasn't professional actors, quality equipment, or a good scriptwriter.

Well, you have to consider that even semi-professional movie cameras cost a few thousand. (A professional studio film camera can cost hundreds of thousands by itself.) Plus audio equipment. Then, even for a student project, you need a few dozen people. I've been part of some. Absolute minimum for a student film, say, 3 actors, a director, 2 people on sound, 2 people on camera, 2-3 people on lighting, a general gofer or two, someone on makeup who can maybe also double up on costumes... in a student project, the director, sound guy or camera man can also take editing, but then it will take ages. 100k is really gone in no time.

And yeah, speaking of booze, catering. Even if you don't pay your guys, 100 bucks for pizza and coffee a day for a month comes in at 3'000.

[AliceKCunningha]

Hi. I am a freelancer. I work on the big project for the website now. Help me write my paper. I write interesting article, about horror films with the bad name. Who knows such movies?