What movie had an absolutely 10/10 incredible premise but completely fumbled the execution?

[u/Big_Emotion4963]

I think about this all the time. There is nothing more frustrating than watching a movie with a concept so good it gives you chills, only for the actual plot to turn into generic, predictable garbage halfway through.

The most infamous one for me is In Time. The idea that time is literal currency and people stop aging at 25 is brilliant sci-fi. But instead of doing something mind-blowing with it, they just turned it into a painfully average Bonnie and Clyde bank robber action movie.

The Purge is another massive one. You have a night where all crime is legal, and instead of showing us the insane psychological breakdown of society, the first movie just gave us a standard, boring home invasion thriller.

What movie made you furious because the core idea was genius but the writers completely wasted it?

[u/PurplMaster]

I'm not bringing some high cinema to the talk, but I've always loved Enchanted. It's a clever play on Disney/Fairytale tropes and a very enjoyable movie.

Disenchanted, its sequel, is kinda shit, but THE IDEA is absolutely glorious. Since the princess from the first movie is married to a man that has a daughter, she has become stepmother. And since she's a fairytale character, she starts to become evil, as stepmothers do.

This idea is fantastic and super funny, but the movie fumbles pretty much everything else, and it becomes just a basic fantasy movie for kids. Since a spell turns a suburb town into a fantasy town, there's no clever play between real world and fantasy world. It's basic as fuck and It hurts me to say that

[u/SpiffyShindigs → u/PurplMaster]

Ugh, that is a perfect sequel hook. What a pity.

[u/runswiftrun → u/PurplMaster]

Yeah, the first one using the billboard as the castle, the "introduction" of the dwarf, and eventually the animals cleaning and musical number are just the right amount of whimsy in a "real" world.

I guess showing the dragon in the first one kinda opened the door for the magical transformation though

[u/StupidS3xyFlanders → u/PurplMaster]

It's not high cinema, but I will die on the hill that Amy Adams deserved an Academy Award nomination for Enchanted.

Disenchanted though... It was just so bland. At least they finally let Idina sing.

[u/TryUsingScience → u/StupidS3xyFlanders]

Putting Idina Menzel in a musical as the one main cast character who never sings is the funniest thing.

I wish they'd kept in some of her deleted scenes, though. There's one at the beginning where she's talking about how she wishes for a fairytale prince to carry her away but she knows that's not realistic and she'll have to settle. Watching that makes her character's ending way more satisfying.

[u/Moglorosh → u/TryUsingScience]

It's kinda like The Lorax where they cast Zac Efron and Taylor Swift as the two main characters and they never sing despite the movie being a musical.

[u/whoops_batman → u/PurplMaster]

Damn, that is a GREAT idea for how to do a sequel to that film. Shame, the first one is excellent.

[u/usaskie]

Gamer (2009). The ethical implications of people giving up their autonomy and allowing an unknown stranger to manipulate their body or being the one to take over control of a stranger’s body are fascinating. The movie itself was pretty bland.

[u/Chiffley → u/usaskie]

Yeah but we got to see Dexter do a goofy dance

[u/Competitive_Fun6247 → u/Chiffley]

That scene is unironically great 

[u/tortoiseterrapin → u/usaskie]

all I remember from this movie is him vomiting like 2 ounces of vodka into the gas tank of the car to drive full throttle for like 15 minutes straight, and that fat syrup drizzle guy.

[u/Bleakjavelinqqwerty → u/tortoiseterrapin]

He also pissed in the gas tank after the vomit

[u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House → u/usaskie]

Gamer and Surrogates coming out at the same time was funny

[u/bruiser95 → u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House]

Peak double feature.

Actually I'm gonna go ahead and do that

[u/doodler1977]

Valerian & the City of 1000 Planets. it has a lot of good ideas and could've gone a lot of different directions but gets bogged down in a fairly standard plot

[u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled → u/doodler1977]

In addition to the leads problem, there's the meandering plot. The whole Rhianna side quest could have been completely cut and shaved 20 minutes.

[u/doodler1977 → u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled]

or: make it all about side-quests and lose the whole Clive Owen bit. i mean, i like Clive Owen, but a movie like this almost doesn't need an antagonist

[u/DontBelieveTheirHype → u/doodler1977]

Man I was so psyched for this movie, watched the trailer for it thought oh Luc Besson this is gone be good, got to the theater and by hour 5 I was passed out in my seat

[u/doodler1977 → u/DontBelieveTheirHype]

i really liked the opening and the "multi-dimensional bazaar" or whatever that was. lotta good ideas. but the cast and the Clive Owen villain plot was a waste of a great opportunity

[u/robodrew → u/doodler1977]

The VFX artists I feel had the time of their lives working on that film. Too bad the plot and casting were truly awful.

[u/neverseenghosts → u/doodler1977]

The start of that movie has some of the worst exposition dialogue I’ve ever seen. Just two characters recapping a ton of stuff about each other and their feelings toward each other so they could skip any effort in showing us who they are through good writing.

[u/moonboyforallyouknow → u/neverseenghosts]

I thought you were talking about the very beginning with the alien ships and I was like damn that was the best part.

[u/Martel732 → u/moonboyforallyouknow]

Yeah, that opening is a great little short film on its own.

[u/PapaMoBucks → u/doodler1977]

It's the insufferable leads and their oil:water chemistry that does it in for me more than anything

[u/Vladplaya → u/PapaMoBucks]

Didn't help that on top of not having any chemistry, they kinda looked like siblings.

[u/Blackboard_Monitor → u/Vladplaya]

Young ones at that, I kept thinking they'd just got separated during a school outing at the bazaar.

[u/I_travel_ze_world → u/Vladplaya]

The dialog is so forced

What kind of playboy swears to stop sleeping around and instantly asks his co-worker to marry him?

no flirting.. no double speak.. no hints or game to it.. he pretty much straight up asks to put a ring on it cause they work together.

dork weirdo kind of dialog but according to the movie he's a super smooth space spy

[u/blisa00]

Napoleon. Had everything going for it - story, director, actor, epic scale…just landed flat.

[u/uarstar → u/blisa00]

I was so excited for this movie. I’m a big Josephine nerd. I really like Joaquin Phoenix.

But it pissed me off so much that they made Josephine 14 years younger than him. Heaven forbid Hollywood cast a woman the correct age! We can’t have an older woman with a slightly younger man. If a woman is older, she has to be decades older.

There are two ages for casting women in Hollywood movies; 50+ or 30 and under.

It’s a pretty central part of their relationship that she’s a bit older. People thought they were an odd couple. He was poor and Corsican and she was old aristocracy and older than him. It was both she’s too good for him but also she’s too old for him.

Her social circle didn’t get why she married him. His family hated her for being older because they thought he wouldn’t get an heir. Also she had a bit of a salacious reputation and a lot of debt. But she was well connected in society.

He divorced her because she was unable to give him children due to her age and medical complications. He also needed to seal an alliance with Austria. But they maintained a relationship after their divorce. He would still visit her at Malmaison. You read his love letters to her and he’s so passionately in love with her.

He also maintained a close relationship with her children from her first marriage. Her son became Viceroy of Italy and her daughter married his brother. Their son later became Napoleon III.

All this rant to say, I can’t watch it.

[u/ikonoqlast → u/uarstar]

History Buffs (YouTube) did TWO HOURS on the errors in this movie. Worse than Braveheart (battle of Stirling Bridge, entire battles revolves around the bridge, director removes it...)

He does mention a much better Quebec-French miniseries no one has never heard of as much better.

[u/NizmoxAU → u/blisa00]

To be fair, when was the last time Ridley Scott made a good film? His recent films have been a disaster

[u/Gripeaway → u/NizmoxAU]

Approximately five years ago, which isn't that bad.

[u/TheBrightestSunshine]

Hancock. What a mess.

[u/CommodoreKD → u/TheBrightestSunshine]

Act one of that movie is so fun and I curse whoever shoehorned in the "corporate superhero" and "ancient gods" shit

[u/runswiftrun → u/CommodoreKD]

Second half is like a "if Disney made The Boys". Not terrible on it's own, but terrible second half

[u/Red-Sun-Cinema → u/runswiftrun]

They took two scripts and mashed them together, and very poorly, I might add.

[u/polchickenpotpie → u/CommodoreKD]

Honestly the whole corporate angle could have been used for him to really find out who he is, like eventually finding a middle ground between his old destructive, asshole self and his stiff, self controlled corpo self. That he was better than either of those personas, and he just needed to find purpose, and maybe a real friend like Jason Bateman. That now he had a newfound family, he wouldn't feel as lonely as he used to.

But, you know...the second half happened

[u/urboitony → u/TheBrightestSunshine]

I watched the first half of it on a school bus on someone's phone with one ear bud each over a decade ago and thought it was such a great movie and I should watch the rest later. I never got around to it and every time I see comments like this, I'm thankful that I missed out on that disappointment.

[u/sirnumbskull → u/TheBrightestSunshine]

I remember reading somewhere that it's actually two different movies literally smashed together. Makes total sense once you see it.

[u/alex-2099 → u/sirnumbskull]

It was originally called “Tonight, He Comes” and I remember reading about it in Entertainment Weekly in the late 90s.

It was a hard drama about a superhero who had become an alcoholic, struggled with PTSD, loneliness, and suicidal ideation he couldn’t execute on. He becomes mixed with a human family and begins to obsessed over the mother and eventually kidnaps her.

[u/nearlyheadlessbick → u/TheBrightestSunshine]

To be fair the first half of the movie is excellent

[u/Agent-Blasto-007]

Ultraviolet.

A dystopian futuristic medical based feudal society sounds interesting.

But it's just sort of not-vampires that wastes it's original premise.

[u/Indigo_Sunset → u/Agent-Blasto-007]

It reminds me of an Aeon Flux sort of escapade that never quite gets to the fluxing

[u/Malphos101 → u/Indigo_Sunset]

Those were the same movie to me. I dont have a rational explanation and they are obviously pretty different if you sit down and discuss the differences but just the "feel" of the movies were identical to me lol.

[u/Pet_Velvet → u/Agent-Blasto-007]

I kinda love that movie. It's so bad, but there is something so sincere about it that I can't help but love it.

[u/Hussard]

Mortal Engines!

[u/SweepingAstringency → u/Hussard]

I couldn't believe it! They had a franchise right there in their hands. What happened? I loved those books.

[u/Whitealroker1 → u/SweepingAstringency]

OH NO! ITS LONDON!

[u/FiestyRhubarb → u/Whitealroker1]

Very "Kal-El, No!" energy isn't it

Lon-don, No!

[u/Hussard → u/SweepingAstringency]

Studio interfere as always, I suspect 

[u/AmbroseEBurnside → u/Hussard]

One of the coolest trailers I’ve ever seen. And then I can’t remember a damn thing about the movie except the feeling of disappointment.

[u/oddlyDirty → u/Hussard]

What's crazy about this movie is that it would 100% work as an anime. I honestly think most of the characters and set designs from the movie are lifted from various anime tropes.

[u/ajahanonymous → u/oddlyDirty]

I'm picturing Howl's Moving Castle crossed with Nausicaa right now.

[u/Jbewrite → u/Hussard]

The books are great, but the movie threw away much of the story and turned it into a Star Wars movie. So much potential wasted!

[u/Artemicionmoogle → u/Jbewrite]

And once again ensured that the deformed lead was actually quite attractive with a kewl scar instead of a mangled fucking face.

[u/seanc6441 → u/Artemicionmoogle]

I always thought the book tried to overemphasise her ugliness a bit too much to really sell the description to the reader. I would have been fine with a prettier Hester if they had also kept the scar more obvious and some more deformity.

But yeah it's hollywood so they made her a beauty with a slight 'imperfection' instead. Pathetic.

[u/TheGuyThatThisIs → u/seanc6441]

Sad part is that you can totally have it both ways, you just can't lean so far into the hottie direction. Make it look like she *was* a stunner, but every feature is broken.

[u/Sc00ty_Puff_Sr]

Army of the Dead.  Crack team does a vault heist in a quarantined, zombie infested Las Vegas?  Amazing premise.  What we got?  Sigh

[u/elifreeze → u/Sc00ty_Puff_Sr]

Should've been near impossible to fuck up a premise as cool as "casino heist in a zombie infested Vegas" but here we are.

[u/Ink_Smudger → u/elifreeze]

Agreed. It's one of those premises where, when you hear it, it seems so obvious and surprising that no one has tried something like that. But, unfortunately, rather than focus on that premise, they decided they were going to launch some sort of mega-franchise from it, and forgot the part about actually needing to make an entertaining and cohesive movie first.

[u/ThatEvanFowler → u/Ink_Smudger]

Don't they literally find their own dead bodies outside the bank vault at one point, implying that there is some kind of time-loop, time travel whateverthefuck going on that's never even mentioned again in the film or did I actually hallucinate that?

[u/theblackfool → u/ThatEvanFowler]

There's also robot zombies and aliens in the movie, totally unexplained

[u/ThatEvanFowler → u/theblackfool]

I swear, Zack Snyder is the most out of control cinematographer who ever lived. The man’s ego controls him like a tiny alien piloting a human suit.

[u/discovigilantes → u/ThatEvanFowler]

He's like a kid that has had way too much sugar and just babbling incoherent cool ideas but runs with them all. 

Rebel moon kind of had a good start then went to shit 

[u/discovigilantes → u/theblackfool]

The alien I think was meant to be the start of the zombies. The robots don't get explained, the smart zombies don't get explained, the time travel doesn't get explained.

Such a let down 

[u/GorillaX → u/Sc00ty_Puff_Sr]

This is a great example. I was so upset at how bad this movie was, it should have been entertaining at the very least. It was not.

[u/Top5hottest]

Jumper.

[u/koyre → u/Top5hottest]

Yes. This would have been an awesome tv series if done right

[u/klti → u/koyre]

Impulse was actually pretty good, it just got no traction since it was YouTube Premium exclusive. 

[u/froo → u/Top5hottest]

Jumper is one of my secret shamewatch movies.

I know its bad, but I like it.

[u/Awkward_Bison_267]

X-Men 3. An X-Men movie had Juggernaut AND Colossus in it AND THEY DIDN’T FIGHT! HOW?!

[u/gapedoutpeehole → u/Awkward_Bison_267]

My favorite xmen comic arc, they botched it and I'll never get over it

[u/kch_l → u/gapedoutpeehole]

They botched it twice

[u/gabbertronnnn → u/kch_l]

Not only twice, but written by the same damn person. How the hell were Fox so inept to allow that?!

[u/IRLconsequences → u/Awkward_Bison_267]

At least Ryan Reynolds had them fight in Deadpool 2.

[u/lunafysh69 → u/IRLconsequences]

"Big CGI fight, comin' up"

[u/Stillwater215 → u/Awkward_Bison_267]

Plus, X-2 was so good! That made the disappointment of X-men 3 even worse.

[u/MissionLetterhead292]

Bright. Supernatural creatures in the modern day as cops should have been awesome but nope, falls flat.

And another Will Smith: Gemini Man. Retired killer hunted by his younger clone, that's a great plot and to his credit Smith did his best making the performances different but somehow Ang Lee couldn't make it exciting.

[u/Cronis1 → u/MissionLetterhead292]

About as close to a real life Shadowrun as we can get and its pretty disappointing.

[u/half_derpy → u/MissionLetterhead292]

Bright is my go to answer for this question any time I see it online. It's basically Shadowrun: The Movie, but it just never lives up to it's full potential. It either needed a couple of rewrites or even just to be turned into a show where they could properly flesh out the world.

In one scene you can see a dragon flying off in the far distance and it just made me want to see SO much more of the world rather than "wow everyone hates Orc's and let's just bash you over the head with that really fucking obvious social commentary"

[u/renaissance-Fartist → u/MissionLetterhead292]

I’m still confused by the Alamo joke in the movie

wtf do you mean, white people are mad at Mexican people because of the Alamo

There was an evil, world dominating elf wizard who was defeated by an orcish hero about 2000 years ago (you know….a significant time period in world history already) and NOTHING has changed to the point where “the Alamo” is still a thing?

What?

[u/verrius → u/renaissance-Fartist]

This is the core reason most "supernatural creatures meet modern world"/urban fantasy either still have Masquerade rules (normies can't know about the supernatural), or the Masquerade rules have ended very recently. Because otherwise yeah, supernatural creatures and powers would necessarily massively alter the arc of world history to the point that it's unrecognizable, and "modern" society never happens.

[u/Moron-Whisperer → u/MissionLetterhead292]

I think the problem with will smith movies is they spend all their money on will smith.  

[u/TreyWait → u/MissionLetterhead292]

I'm like the one person on the planet that likes Bright.

[u/gingeritis90 → u/TreyWait]

I loved Joel Edgerton in it.

[u/btribble → u/MissionLetterhead292]

Bright as it was is an ok movie. It’s worth watching. It could have been so much more though.

[u/doodler1977]

Honestly, Spider-Man 3. Raimi should've just jettison'd Sandman once the studio forced him to squeeze Venom in, it's too overstuffed all the plotlines get shortchanged

[u/DuncanGilbert → u/doodler1977]

Which sucks because Sandman is the best part of the movie. But also gets in the way of being a cohesive movie that the studio was forcing on him

[u/doodler1977 → u/DuncanGilbert]

oh i agree: the better option is to just keep venom out of #3 but oh well

[u/lookglen → u/doodler1977]

Should have gone what the video game plot did and have Harry be venom, he was set up to be that character in everything but his name not being eddie

[u/Asyncrosaurus → u/doodler1977]

It should have been 2 movies, where he has the symbiote/black suit throughout the first one and rejects it near the end ( tease Venom after credits), then do a part 2 where he just fights Venom.

[u/Syric13 → u/doodler1977]

But you don't understand. Marko is doing this for his daughter. He reminds you 10 times throughout the movie. He's not a bad guy. He's doing it for his daughter.

[u/Red-Sun-Cinema → u/doodler1977]

When Sam Raimi envisioned the film, he had Sandman as the central villain and had no interest in adding another villain to the story. Sony screwed up when former Sony executive Avi Arad strongly pressured Raimi to include Venom. This left him with the problem of having to shoehorn an extra character into a story he had already fleshed out to wrap up the trilogy. It would have been far better had Sony just left him alone to finish his trilogy than fuck it all up by forcing an unwanted villain on him.

[u/CrissBliss → u/Red-Sun-Cinema]

Sony messing up with Spider-Man is sort of their thing.

[u/profsa → u/doodler1977]

He should have ejected Goblin Jr

[u/fleshbunny → u/profsa]

Little goblin jr. Gonna cry?

[u/GCC_Pluribus_Anus]

Now You See Me. So much potential with magicians turned bank robbers, only to be ruined by impossible magic and a nonsensical plot twist.

[u/SlateFrost → u/GCC_Pluribus_Anus]

Agreed, I would’ve loved this movie if it was done with practical sleights, instead of nonsense actual magic.

[u/WaltJay → u/GCC_Pluribus_Anus]

1000000% agree. That movie makes me so angry for that very reason.

Using street magic (or whatever the term is for IRL magic) for heists sounds like a great idea. But then OOPS WE’RE WIZARDS!!! 😑 😤 🤷‍♂️ 🫠

[u/Big_I → u/WaltJay]

I honestly walked out of that movie thinking that "wizards are real" was the point of the film, I guess sort of like how the point of the John Wick franchise is "assassins are real". Like the whole film was about the Horsemen auditioning to join the wizard Illuminati.

Then I saw some comments from the director where he said that wasn't the intent and I couldn't believe it.

[u/ZellZoy → u/Big_I]

It's absolutely a world where low level super powers / magic exists. Don't care what the director says

[u/razzy1319 → u/WaltJay]

Also the action scenes with street magic was a good idea. I was imagining what if Jackie Chan knew street magic.

[u/GreySneakers83 → u/GCC_Pluribus_Anus]

This is the correct answer. And if the impossible CG magic isn't bad enough, the entire cast carry on with a smugness at how 'genius' they all are. So infuriating.

[u/QuadDad]

All the Highlander movies after the 1st one

[u/Curtbacca → u/QuadDad]

There are no other movies. There can be only one!

[u/jwc1138]

Downsizing

[u/Lopkop → u/jwc1138]

the movie completely forgot what it was about at one point. It's supposed to be about shrunk-down tiny people but huge stretches of it show things from their POV & there's nothing to indicate they aren't normal-sized

The whole second half of the movie is "something something climate change" with one joke at the end to remind us all they're tiny people.

[u/lIlllIIIlI2 → u/Lopkop]

The way the movie just turns into a completely different movie halfway through! What were they thinking??

[u/Obvious-Animator6090 → u/Lopkop]

I was hoping we’d get to talk about how everyone that shrunk down essentially gave up all their individual rights as human beings. The company owns them. If it went bankrupt they’d be at the mercy of the government to help them and we all know how well that goes. So many ethical implications I would have loved to explore. I mean the whole illegal immigrant slum area was the most interesting part.

[u/kaplanfx → u/Obvious-Animator6090]

The TV show Upload explores this concept pretty well, despite sometimes being a goofy comedy.

[u/FireflyBSc → u/jwc1138]

I strongly believe that Downsizing would have made an excellent anthology series like Black Mirror. Have a whole episode or season about human trafficking and people downsized but living in poverty. One about the environment and the life of the kid who was born tiny. One about loser Matt Damon getting divorced. It could have fully explored any of those plot lines, rather than the absolute shit execution we got. I hate it so much.

What kind of movie you give me? Shit movie.

[u/Netwinn → u/jwc1138]

It was like 4 movies in one and kept changing the plot. They should have…downsized

[u/exitwest → u/jwc1138]

This is the right answer.  That movie frustrated me at levels I hadn’t considered possible.

[u/chumpz11]

Timeline

[u/PsychologicalRole238 → u/chumpz11]

My favorite book growing up. I was so disappointed in the movie.

[u/DrDJ27]

The Postman.

Fantastic book by David Brin about the importance of human connection just turned into a vanity piece for Kevin Costner. Also seems to have tainted any other adaptations of Brin's books

[u/AtheistTyler → u/DrDJ27]

I liked the movie quite a bit, but based on what you’re saying I may need to check the book out too.

[u/jfish3222]

I was literally thinking exactly 'In Time' before I continued reading and got to your example 🤣

Absolutely brilliant premise for a film where time left to live is used a currency, but MAN was it executed poorly. 

If recommend sticking to reading the original short story the premise is very similar to:

'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman'

[u/smilysmilysmooch → u/jfish3222]

In Time is the best answer to this question. That movie premise of trading your lifespan as a currency is quite brilliant. Even sort of tying it to Bonnie and Clyde styled heists is good stuff. Ending sucked.

[u/Lanster27 → u/jfish3222]

I'd' say the first half of the movie was great. The set up and world building got great execution.

The other half, especially the ending, is very meh.

[u/profsa]

Thor Love and Thunder. Completely butchers a great storyline. It’s a bit overstuffed with the Jane Thor storyline crammed in as well. Could have been two movies.

[u/Netwinn → u/profsa]

I still want to see the movie Christian Bale thought he was making.

[u/fightingbronze → u/Netwinn]

Exactly this. Christian Bale’s performance in the opening minutes of the movie gave me a vastly different expectation for what that movie would be, and I was so on board. Only made everything that followed more underwhelming.

[u/DrabExterior → u/Netwinn]

A wasted actor and a wasted villain, Love and Thunder was such a disappointment.

[u/CrikeyMikeyLikey → u/profsa]

I was really mad about this one, because its predecessor, Thor: Ragnarok, is like top 3 best Marvel films

[u/codex2013 → u/CrikeyMikeyLikey]

I feel like that was part of the problem, it was like they got Taika back and said "we know everyone liked Ragnarok, so do all that again, but MORE" except that's not how comedy works. You have to keep things fresh or else they're just unfunny reminders of a better movie

[u/charitytowin → u/CrikeyMikeyLikey]

Exactly, I could watch Ragnarok once a month and never get tired of it. Love and Thunder... Not so much.

[u/oki-ra → u/charitytowin]

I always get a kick out of the cameos of Sam Neill (rip), Matt Damon and Luke Hemsworth. It was just so unexpected, the movie didn’t take itself to seriously and that really paid off.

[u/alex-2099 → u/profsa]

That whole Jason Aaron run in the Thor comics is incredible. To have it adapted like that was quite the bummer.

[u/Much_Basis_6965 → u/alex-2099]

And to add insult to injury Bale seems like he was trying his best and did pretty well with what he was given to work with. Could’ve been incredible in that role with the right script (which shouldn’t have been hard because the source material is perfect..)

[u/newbrevity → u/profsa]

Utter waste of a great villain played by a great actor. Also the makeup department failed hard on Gorr's design. Made him too human.

[u/JailhouseMamaJackson → u/profsa]

Waititi got way too high on his own supply and absolutely blew this movie. I honestly feel like he/it are responsible for people largely giving up on the MCU.

[u/CrissBliss → u/JailhouseMamaJackson]

I think even his ex wife came out and said that Thor Ragnarok changed him. He went away and came back a different person.

[u/Big_I → u/CrissBliss]

I can believe that. I remember watching some ad with Korg and Deadpool (maybe as a promo for Deadpool 3?) and Korg breaks the fourth wall a bit and basically narrates how Taika Waititi was on the verge of giving up on film making before he got the Ragnarok offer out of nowhere.

I've also seen interviews with Ragnarok cast where they seem genuinely happy about their experiences on the film. It was shot in Australia over a few months so they were all on location together, and they loved that they got to improvise some of the dialogue.

So the guy goes from an indie director at rock bottom to a Hollywood director with a hit that revives a franchise and who A listers love working with, basically over the course of two years. Must've been a hell of a ride.

[u/CrissBliss → u/Big_I]

I thought What We Do In The Shadows might’ve been his big break, but I’m sure nothing beats Marvel money.

[u/Confu5edPancake]

The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Dracula on a ship should be great! Like an Alien movie at sea. Too bad it wasn't.

[u/mchgndr → u/Confu5edPancake]

I went in with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. It was plenty creepy and entertaining

[u/Silly-Flower-3162 → u/Confu5edPancake]

Tbh, it was better than I thought it would be.

[u/amulie]

Disclosure Day.

I, like many, thought that what was the END of the movie was going to be where the movie STARTED.

The idea of a movie that just shows plainly humanity reaction to alien disclosure would have been such a good idea. 

Kinda like Civil War, where the movie isn't about the specifics of why the war happened but moreso humans reaction to it. 

And it's profound, like how would we react if we all just became suddenly aware altogether that aliens do indeed exist

[u/toutetiteface → u/amulie]

Yeah the title was selling a great idea. The result was an empty boring two hours and a half

[u/LarcenyGames → u/amulie]

Agreed. It should've played almost like Contagion. The first act is the actual disclosure and the rest of the film is the aftermath. Instead, we got what we got: a letdown filled with standard ufo tropes.

[u/MaybeOnFire2025]

World War Z

(the novel was amazing, and completely different)

[u/thelingletingle → u/MaybeOnFire2025]

For the majority of my life I’ve been like, “the movie wasn’t bad, I don’t get it.”

After getting into audiobooks recently (thanks DCC) I listened to this and…..yeah, the movie really missed the mark and I so wish we got to see the Battle of Yonkers.

[u/JCkent42 → u/thelingletingle]

I would argue The Battle of Yonkers is boring. We’ve seen that in a million times in media. Let us see the rise of the Shield society after the evacuation of Japan, the Chinese civil war and the use of nukes on the mainland, the astronauts on the international space station keeping the global comm network up and running and literally watching the world go dark and suffering lethal levels of exposure to solar radiation, and Michael Choi fighting zombies under water and protecting the oil rig workers etc.

World war z is so insane with so many things never put to film that the Battle of Yonker isn’t that big of deal in my opinion. In fact, I would rather see the Road to New York and Todd Wainio’s journey to becoming squad leader and standing there at the end at the Hero city as the Newly elected President declares victory.

[u/Tamination → u/JCkent42]

It needs to be apple tv series. Like 3 seasons

[u/StillStanding_96]

The Tomorrow War. The premise is basically like Terminator, in that there’s a war in the future and winning it requires time travel to the present, but they fumbled it hard

[u/negativeyoda → u/StillStanding_96]

If they hadn't had the whole "oh let's fix everything in the last 20 minutes so none of this happens" bit and it just ended on such a downer as Chris Pratt coming home with PTSD and having to raise his daughter knowing what's going to happen... that would have been pretty rad and a good use of the whole "subvert expectations" thing.

[u/TreyWait → u/StillStanding_96]

There were so many wtf things going on. Let's give random people guns and ship them to the future. Training? Naaa. Equipment, like uniforms at least? Naaa. How bout telling them at least a little bit about what they'll be fighting? Naaa, it's too scary. But isn't not knowing going to make it even less likely for them to be successful? Naaa, it'll be fine.

It's all ludicous nonsense.

[u/nightshiftfox13]

Monuments Men

[u/geekroick]

Yesterday. I refuse to believe that had the Beatles not existed, the only significant change in the world by the 2020s would be that Oasis never existed either.

[u/AngryCod → u/geekroick]

Honestly, watching Ed Sheeran get his ass absolutely handed to him when Jack whips out The Long And Winding Road will never not be funny.

[u/TheChessLobster → u/AngryCod]

The ultimate dick move to act like you thought up long and winding road off the cuff lmao

[u/SonOfMcGee → u/geekroick]

That also means that millions of college guys in the early ‘00s would grab a guitar at a party, sit on the couch, and play… nothing.

[u/SunMyungMoonMoon → u/SonOfMcGee]

It could have been the Age of Glycerine

[u/SonOfMcGee → u/SunMyungMoonMoon]

Throughout grad school I had to use a lot of glycerol in my bio-engineering lab. Glycerol isn’t exactly glycerine but I didn’t care. Whenever I was carting the gallon jug around I was singing: “Don’t let the dayyyyys gooooo byyyyyyy.”

[u/fullmetalsprockets → u/SonOfMcGee]

Does Blur exist? They could play Charmless Man.

[u/burgerblaster → u/geekroick]

My interpretation was after the bus accident a bunch of things cease to exist. I think I remember coca cola and harry potter not existing as well. We only focus on the Beatles because it's the only forbidden knowledge that our lead can take advantage of.

[u/NeuHundred → u/geekroick]

I agree with the movie but not your reason. The Beatles not existing isn't the premise, it's the hook. The premise is the classic "struggling musician gets the fame and fortune he's always dreamed of, but does it make him happy?" story, the Beatles part is how they made it different.

To me, the missed opportunity was the movie not going all in in the creative process, how we start out by copying others, then we start to analyze what made it special, then putting our own twist on it, then finding our own voice. No story about creativity really talks about it, it's always a flash of inspiration or a natural talent but it's not. There's a scene in the movie where he's trying to remember all the lyrics to all the songs and they come out half-formed, and he's not sure if they're right, and he starts doing research and trying to piece it all together... that was familiar, that feeling is something everyone creative has had.

[u/agentoutlier]

"Passengers" could have been so good if it was told from Jennifer Lawrence POV and Chris Pratt was finally a bad guy.

[u/mymanchris → u/agentoutlier]

Honestly they missed the ending 100%. Chris Pratt should have died from his injuries then left Jennifer Lawrence faced with the same moral dilemma of whether to wake someone else and condemn them to share her fate, or die alone.

[u/coconut071 → u/mymanchris]

Ooh, I like it. That would be a haunting and much more interesting ending for sure.

[u/CrissBliss → u/agentoutlier]

There’s a great video on Passengers where they breakdown the movie, and where it could’ve been great. Basically open the movie from JL’s perspective, and then go back and see that CP has been lying to her the entire time. Problem is, CP was known for being the silly/lovable guy in movies, and it’s like the movie didn’t want to go there.

Here’s the video-

https://youtu.be/Gksxu-yeWcU?is=VwYBEKdi5UPTcwqn

[u/drawnblud260]

The Gorge. Great exciting concept of hellish monsters, then turned into a science experiment gone wrong. Still a fun movie tho...

[u/Eruannster → u/drawnblud260]

Yeah. I really liked it up until the mystery was solved. Is it aliens? Demons? Ghosts? And then they tell you about the whole science experiment and it's like... oh, now it's not as interesting anymore.

[u/grex2222]

Going to cheat a bit and say a TV show instead, but The Book of Boba Fett

If you would've told me, as a ten year old kid, that there was going to be an entire TV SHOW about Boba Fett escaping from the Sarlaac, tracking down his gear, and then deposing Jabba the Hutt to take over his throne on Tatooine?

And then it ends up being all about how he learns to love the sand people, has weird, boring, flashbacks all the time, and even helps a bunch of kids-on-bikes get rid of criminals in town? And then the final half of the show goes off for a while to talk about other characters and barely even mentions Boba Fett?

Like, c'mon man. Give me more of the train heist episode stuff and less of the "earning the respect of the sandpeople for some reason" stuff.

[u/Hefty_Direction5189 → u/grex2222]

And they didn’t even use the sand people for anything! I was so sure they were building up that relationship so he could team up with them to take down the Pyke Syndicate. Like “oh no, this big criminal organization is here, causing trouble, if only I knew a group of people I’d just befriended that may also have an interest in keeping them off the planet”. But nah, we got nothing.

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/Hefty_Direction5189]

Yeah, it would have solved basically every issue I had.

"Why should people respect him?" Because he has an army of sand people backing him.

"Why does he want to be respected and not feared?" Because people fear the sand people and he wants them to be respected instead.

"Why does everyone hate him?" Because he's bringing a bunch of sand people into town and demanding they be treated as citizens.

Cut mando, cut the scooter patrol, and give most of mando's scenes to the badass sand person or Boba himself.

[u/IDinnaeKen → u/grex2222]

Biggest let down of my life, and haven't touched a Star Wars show since. I thought we were going to get a gritty show about the morally grey bounty hunter. Instead, we got a very safe one about a local government official cleaning up the town with the help of his power ranger friends. Just felt like such a wild pivot of his character considering everything that made him appeal to people in the first place. Admittedly, I only made it through a few episodes so maybe it got better. I was just so disappointed!

[u/spkincaid13 → u/IDinnaeKen]

Please give andor a shot if you haven't already. Way better than anything else Disney has pumped out.

[u/LarcenyGames → u/grex2222]

So right. This should've been an R rated John Wick-esque Star Wars show giving us Boba Fett kicking interstellar ass. Showing exactly why he was so feared. Instead, it was drivel featuring an old, out of shape actor who could barely move. Such a waste.

And I'd add the film Solo to this. I thought years ago an origin story of Han, Chewy and Lando would be so much fun. But again, heavy handed dreck (although I would like to know and/so see what the original directors were bringing to the table prior to being fired).

[u/Jedi_Temple]

Jurassic World: Dominion. This was supposed to be the movie the finally showed what the world looked like with dinosaurs coexisting with humans and how that would play out. The trailers lied to us. Instead, we got yet ANOTHER let’s-have-the-entire-movie-take-place-in-one-spot borefest.

[u/ConvenienceStoreDiet]

The Signal (2007). A signal plays on everyone's TV, turning them into dangerous zombies. The first part of this film is excellent. But for some reason, they decided to have each third of the movie written and directed by someone else. Tonally there's a massive shift from this exciting thriller to some weird "comedy" where these zombies from what I remember are just talking to each other. It just nosedived the whole movie which sort of recovered by the end. But I just remember being completely done by then.

[u/SutterCane → u/ConvenienceStoreDiet]

It didn’t make people into zombies. It just drove them crazy. Some people were violent crazies and others were just delusional crazies.

A lot like the Crazies from George Romero.

[u/nonresponsive → u/ConvenienceStoreDiet]

Man, I thought you were talking about Cell (not to be confused with The Cell), which has cellphones turning people into dangerous zombies but wasn't very good. Because I remember The Signal (2014) that I found fairly entertaining, not perfect, and had nothing to do with zombies. I guess I'll go watch The Signal (2007) now.

[u/Icosotc]

The Purge.

It should have been an anthology, jumping back and forth in time across films, slowly revealing the story of how it came to be, with different in-universe stories stretching across America in different eras with different casts of characters. Incredible missed opportunity.

[u/Syric13 → u/Icosotc]

This would work great as a TV show and if they showed other crimes than, you know, murder.

Maybe it is the best time for a race across the city where no rules happen

Or a heist. Everyone loves a heist.

Maybe someone breaks zoning laws!

Who knows! Let's get wild with it.

[u/Clawless → u/Syric13]

What sort of majorly illegal business merger or stock trading type stuff happens during the purge? Do a Wall Street, but purge edition.

[u/-BailOrgana- → u/Syric13]

This is the purge tv show and it worked but was underrated and little watched

[u/ConvenienceStoreDiet]

The Happening.

There's one scene that really defines how crazy this move could have been. You have something happening that's basically killing everyone. Nobody understands it. Everyone's trying to escape it. It's airborne or mysteriously moving around as far as people know. At one point, you have cars from all directions, clearly trying to escape it, and just hitting an intersection at the same time.

For me, this is a massive moment in this movie. This visual alone evokes just the absolute craziest idea. There is no escape. And the grief of that should have hit every actor like a ton of bricks, defining this film as potentially one of the most devastating films.

Here's a little bit of the car scene I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPqcIcg5JTA

Instead, we got a movie with this in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PK4qYzNkI

[u/AdamAtomAnt → u/ConvenienceStoreDiet]

Yep. What killed the movie was when they heavily implied it was the plants killing everyone, which lead to scenes where they "outrun the wind".

[u/fullmetalsprockets]

Cowboys and Aliens.

[u/flash246 → u/fullmetalsprockets]

Not gonna lie. I actually enjoyed that movie. It was dumb fun

[u/hazycrazydaze → u/flash246]

It was fine. But it could’ve been amazing.

[u/IllusionLvl_Adult → u/flash246]

It had cowboys. It had aliens. It had cowboys and aliens. I don’t know what else anyone expected.

[u/Pretend_Scholar_306 → u/fullmetalsprockets]

When I heard about this movie I thought it sounded amazing. A great idea for a movie. So much potential. It was ok but could have been awesome.

[u/thelingletingle → u/fullmetalsprockets]

I actually enjoyed it for what it was.

[u/PapaMoBucks]

Aliens vs Predator. Awesome comic book series. Constant stream of awesome games, culminating in two of the best shooters of the 2000s. Mid tier sludge is what we got as a movie. Give the license to Genndy Tartakovsky, let him make it with effectively no dialogue, if he even wants to put humans in it. Have the greatest cross franchise movie ever made.

[u/thoriginalrumpshaker → u/PapaMoBucks]

I haven't watched this movie since I was about 9 and I am choosing to remember it as the most awesome 2 hours of my life and never watch it again thank you for the warning

[u/OriginalUsername9]

Brightburn

[u/Cornelius_Wangenheim → u/OriginalUsername9]

It would have been so much more interesting if he had naturally turned evil because he was a child who was too powerful to be told no or disciplined. Instead, the ship just flips a switch in his head and he's magically full-blown evil.

[u/The_Fiddle_Steward → u/OriginalUsername9]

Interesting, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

[u/GenderJuicy]

The Giver

[u/meltymcface → u/GenderJuicy]

Haven’t watched the movie and never will. I don’t need that disappointment

[u/SamuraiGoblin]

Hancock.

Before things like Chronicle or The Boys or Brightburn gave us 'gritty' superheroes, Hancock explored the concept and how lonely and depressing it would feel. It's a very interesting premise.

Unfortunately the move is unwatchable. Awful writing, awful attempts at humour, awful CGI, awful acting, etc.

[u/maverickaod → u/SamuraiGoblin]

Chronicle was solid

[u/JeSuisOmbre → u/maverickaod]

Chronicle is what I want out of movies with super powers. 20 minutes of getting powers. 40 minutes of cool slice of life with cool powers. 15 minutes of tragic ends because of said powers.

Its so refreshing to not have world-ending stakes be their antagonists.

[u/nearlyheadlessbick → u/SamuraiGoblin]

The first half is good, the second half is what lets the movie down

[u/karlverkade]

Yesterday, for me. Such a cool premise for a musician to wake up and be the only one in the world who remembers the Beatles. I was so intrigued to watch it. But then it just kind of fell flat after the first half, ending with Kate McKinnon yelling, “Stop! In the name of money!” like a cartoon villain.

[u/jamesreyne]

A drug mule getting powers from the substance inside them in Lucy is a fucking brilliant premise. And surprisingly uncommon.

In terms of story though- you have a desperate protagonist,

a ruthless antagonist,

a time limit from the overdose,

limited access to protection from authorities,

a McGuffin that's inside the protagonist

and a smorgasbord of powers and side effects to be utilised.

Now I really enjoy Lucy. It's bonkers. (And don't @ me about brainpowers cause I don't care). But in terms of a more generic action thriller/ superhero movie, all the ingredients are right there.

[u/idkidd]

How do you mess up Chris Evans with telekinetic powers? Watch Push (2009) to find out. Great premise and opening. Some solid action scenes and one silly one. Then a lot of unnecessarily complex mess. I give it 2 floating pistols out of 5.