Failed Films With Potential

[DoomsdayApex]

All the nerds were salivating over Neil even before D9 came out. His short films were fantastic. After it came out, us nerds only had their thoughts put it polyurethane and mounted above their computer.

^This.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Green Lantern

I think this one was universal. After the four minute preview, I expected this film to be EPIC. I mean, the film had a great director and a decent cast (on a $250 million budget), what could go wrong?...

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Jumper. Whenever I think of wasted potential, I think of this movie for some reason. It had an interesting concept. Unfortunately, a combination of Doug Liman's crappy screenplay and directing along with Hayden Christensen's charisma on par with a wooden chair, this film was such a failure. I remember being so excited to see this movie, too.

Ugh, I remember the same thing. I loved the concept of 'Jumpers', but the casting was just bad. I never really got into the film at all. I remember zoning out a couple times during some of the action scenes.

 

[Nightmare]

Im gonna say Wolverine. I thought the director had a good reputation prior to doing that. Just a total mess of a film.

 

[mclay18]

Green Lantern
Wolverine

Those are the first ones that come to mind. I also agree with most of D.A. Crowe's picks.

 

[jacobed]

Jumper would have been fantastic had it focused on Jamie Bell's character. He was freakin great in that movie

 

[Fanticon]

Surprised no one said The Last Airbender. What it had going for it: Strong source material, planned trilogy, M. Night ready to redeem himself after a few flops, big-time producer, big enough budget, Night was even a fan of the show and the creators of Avatar TLA even gave Night their blessing after meeting with him about it. Things were looking good. Production value (a few casting woes ) previews started to look good. Then the ugly: Paramount enforcing 3D, Night having no say in it after being given creative control in his prior movies, resulting in deleted scenes, re-shoots, short running time etc. This movie was beautifully shot, had great set designs, a good score and...SOME OF THE WORST ACTING EVER. Night only needed to adapt it FAITHFULLY without changing too much, but instead he butchered it! Adapting the screenplay should have been the least hardest thing to do here. F that up and it all goes downhill. I can forgive bad acting with a good script but not bad acting with an equally bad script. 22 Episodes in the first season, bring that down to 2hrs-2hrs20 some odd minutes, I get it, it's tough, but it was entirely possible and we ended up getting an hour 43mins. Consider the pooch screwed with no chance of a sequel or reboots any time in the near future. Disgraceful what happened to that one.

 

[Figs]

One film that comes to mind is Push. That could have been so much better, but it bored me to tears.

 

[8wid]

Lost in Space
Planet of the Apes
Green Lantern

 

[Nemi]

One film that comes to mind is Push. That could have been so much better, but it bored me to tears.

This was gonna be my suggestion. I did enjoy the movie though and even bought the Blu-Ray but it could have been so much better.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

I'm surprised no one has yet to mention the Matrix trilogy...

 

[Marvolo]

i didn't mind it, but it could have been amazing, and the trailers made it look incredible

Seconded strongly. I enjoy the final cut, but it has many problems. Alexander's life is an open book of thrilling stories, and would make a great film. The story just needed someone who knew how to handle it. Truthfully I would prefer an HBO mini series to a movie as Alexander's life is so large it is hard to compress into just 3 hours or less. I still can't believe they left out the Siege of Tyre. Alexander turned an inconquerable island into a penninsula for god's sake, and won an awesome victory. If that isn't the thing of movies I don't know what is.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

One film that comes to mind is Push. That could have been so much better, but it bored me to tears.

Yes, Push. Another film I was excited to see that really bored me to death.

It sucked to see it fail because the cast was awesome and the premise seemed very interesting.

 

[lespaul59]

I've yet to see a discussion that focuses on films/movies that had great potential but fell face first due to whatever reason -- so I've created this thread. A thread to discuss what could have been...


My first pick would have to be "Babylon A.D."

The film was based on the novel "Babylon Babies" (impressive sci-fi fiction) written by French writer Maurice Dantec. Other than having a solid cast in Vin Diesel, Mark Strong, Michelle Yeoh, Lambert Wilson, and Melanie Thierry, the film had director Mathieu Kassovitz at the helm with a well balanced budget. Unfortunately, issues arose from Day One onset and the film limped on to the finish line. The director publically stated that 20th Century Fox studios interfered quite frequently during the filming and edited his scenes that provided any philosophical message. According to the cast, the director quit mid-way through the film and the project was thrown into chaos (three weeks behind schedule, and another 10 million added to the tab).

I like Babylon A.D. as it is but I also wonder how different it could have been.

How about Jonah Hex? I think this movie could have been done better all around.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Green Lantern come to mind.

Well I suppose Transformers II didn't fail commercially, just in every other way.

 

[Motown Marvel]

sunshine was awesome.

 

[Mace Dolex]

GATTACA

I first caught it years ago on HBO and loved it, very interesting look at how society in the future would treat people born genetically over people born the natural way.

I'm not really good at reviews you'd just have to rent it.

 

[Figs]

This was gonna be my suggestion. I did enjoy the movie though and even bought the Blu-Ray but it could have been so much better.

Yes, Push. Another film I was excited to see that really bored me to death.

It sucked to see it fail because the cast was awesome and the premise seemed very interesting.

Yeah, I felt Evans was a good choice for the lead, but the film dragged too much. They could have amped it up a bit.

sunshine was awesome.

I can understand the complaints in the last act with the bad guy, but overall I thought it was pretty damn good.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

The original Startrek movie had a really great concept with fantastic images, even today they are still impresssive imo. However, the movie itself was boring.

 

[James]

Good topic!

My first thought, right away, was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Awesome setting, wicked concept and then...poof. Boring, sloppy, ended on a pointless joke. Could have been a unique and exciting film in a genre all its own. Alas.

 

[Heffer Wolf]

-Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading is one of my favorite movies that have come out recently. Loved Brad Pitt in it.

Sucker Punch. Seriously.

This.

Get a better written script and get rid of some of that damn slow motion and this movie could have been awesome. It has a good premise, hot chicks fighting things, but the dialogue and parts of the story were just so damn stupid.

 

[Dark Victory]

Green Lantern. Its superhero eccentricity is joyless and flat, and its structure flows like a generic TV show. Though, to be fair, I don't know if I'd like the general direction of a Green Lantern movie, maybe something more left field like Green Hornet. Jack Black in a unitard isn't my preference, but literalized manifestations who spend most of their time talking about the values they embody makes for something that forcefully limits your imagination and is boring in the first place. Dissuasion from from comic book writers' help would be better, too.

 

[bullets]

Funny People - I was really behind the idea but it became drawn out and unfunny.

The Spirit

Sucker Punch

Robin Hood

Predators

The Davinci Code

Eragon

Van Helsing

Year One

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

spider-man 3 could have been amazing...but it was the opposite

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I don't think Spiderman 3 was as bad as people made out.
It was still better than the first imo.