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I knew there was a reason I admire Conan O’Brien so much. Not only is the former late night TV host and this year’s Mark Twain Prize recipient one of the sharpest minds in comedy, but he has also proven to me on many occasions that he has great taste in cinema.
Furthermore, the star of Max’s travel docuseries, Conan O’Brien Must Go, demonstrated on a recent episode of his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, that he has a certain distaste for a particular movie cliché that I also agree has overstayed its welcome. Allow me to explain…
Conan Can’t Stand Movies With Portals
Roughly 50 minutes into his episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, guest Ryan Reynolds dishes on a topic he has discussed at length multiple times: what went wrong with Green Lantern. His answer is that the studio would “throw money at problem after problem… instead of creating constraint,” which he calls “the greatest creative tool in the world.”
Further talk of how audiences tend to be more invested in well-rounded characters over large-scale, CGI-heavy action spectacles prompts O’Brien to say the following about one of his biggest pet peeves in the world of cinema today which, I must say, was music to my ears:
I’ve been saying this for years. I refuse to see a movie… that has a portal.
He goes on to elaborate on this nuisance, explaining how there are so many blockbuster films that, usually in the final act, involve a portal suddenly opening up in the sky. To him, this is a sign that the creators had no idea how to end the story and resorted to having the antagonist conjure some gargantuan obstacle from another planet or an alternate dimension for the hero to fight .
I cannot tell you how great it is to hear someone, especially a public figure I admire, call out this tired, lazy, uninspired, and overused trope. I recall seeing far too many movies in just the last decade or so that use portals as a crutch, particularly critically reviled superhero movies like 2015’s Fantastic Four (which has its redeeming qualities for some people) or Suicide Squad from the following year, which shocked many by winning an Oscar for its makeup. I am thankful, however, that we have seen fewer portals on the big screen in more recent years or, at least, seen them used more tastefully.
There Are A Few Worthy Exceptions For Portals
Reynolds responds to O’Brien’s criticism of portals by pointing out that they were used as a plot device in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, to which the host admits that it was handled in a more deliberate and, especially, humorous way. I would actually agree that the Multiverse-hopping, cameo-heavy Marvel flick has one of the best uses of a portal (referred to as “the Marvel Sparkle Circle”) as of late.
In fact, I think some of the all-time best uses of a portal come from some of the best Marvel movies, such as in 2012’s The Avengers, when Tony “Iron Man” Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) carries a missile up through a sky portal to destroy the Chitauri’s mothership and falls back down to Earth just as it closes. Also, who could forget when the Avengers assembled with countless allies who emerged through portals to battle Thanos’ army at the end of Avengers: Endgame?
Just about any Hollywood trope has its strengths and weaknesses, and I suppose that does include portals. However, I do hope that one does not appear in the final act of O’Brien’s new A24 movie, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Of course, he might not have agreed to star in the upcoming 2025 movie if it did, so that’s a relief.