- 2 minutes ago
All that wasted potential.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00There's nothing quite like a movie that just hooks you the second you hear about its premise,
00:04be it Speed's unstoppable bus, Toy Story's sentient playthings,
00:08or Inception's action thriller set entirely within dreams.
00:12And though an imaginative yet easily digestible concept can quickly garner social media interest,
00:18it sadly doesn't mean the end result will actually be any good.
00:22And as such, the annals of cinema are littered with hugely promising movies
00:26that successfully sold their premises to audiences,
00:29though didn't quite manage to deliver a consistently compelling film in the bargain.
00:34So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture,
00:37here with terrible movies that blew awesome concepts.
00:42The Box.
00:43Based on a story where a couple receive a box from a mysterious man
00:47who offers them $1 million if they press the button on top.
00:51But here's the catch.
00:52Pressing the button will kill somebody they don't know.
00:54It's an incredible what-if elevator pitch of a premise,
00:57and one that captured the public's imagination in the lead-up to the film's release,
01:02aided by the appealing involvement of writer-director Richard Kelly.
01:06So, what went wrong?
01:08Well, The Box unfortunately cemented Kelly as a one-hit wonder director,
01:13for despite his film's riveting hook, he ultimately failed to make the most of it
01:17or lead his characters in a remotely satisfying direction.
01:20Receiving a rare F cinema score from audiences,
01:24there was widespread dissatisfaction at the film's third act in particular,
01:29which seems to suggest that Kelly wrote himself into a corner
01:32and couldn't find a way out of it.
01:34Given that the original story was originally adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone,
01:38it's painfully obvious that there just wasn't enough material here for a feature film adaptation.
01:43Tellingly, in addition to its critical and commercial failure,
01:46Kelly hasn't directed another film in the decades since.
01:49Film and TV is cool, but you know what else is cool?
01:52Protecting your privacy online.
01:54Scan the QR code or click the link in the description
01:57and get up to 76% off a two-year NordVPN plan,
02:01plus three months free if you sign up today.
02:04I'd make that deal.
02:05Damn good deal.
02:07Hancock.
02:07What if a guy with superpowers was a suicidally depressed alcoholic
02:11who caused millions of dollars in property damage
02:14and was more of a super scourge than a superhero?
02:16In 2008, the hype was certainly real for this ahead-of-its-time black comedy superhero film,
02:22boasting a stonking $150 million budget and a killer cast.
02:27So, what went wrong?
02:29As is so often the case with big-budget movies,
02:31a brilliant original idea had most of its edges planed away during production.
02:36Hancock is based off a script called Tonight He Comes,
02:39which spent the better part of a decade being passed around Hollywood
02:42before it was finally rewritten into what would become Hancock.
02:46And during that process, the R-rated tone was reworked in favour of a broader,
02:51more family-friendly one.
02:52Though it's generally accepted that Hancock begins solidly,
02:56things take a sharp turn at the midway point,
02:58with an increasingly contrived and off-putting number of revelations
03:01which overcomplicate a fairly straightforward character study.
03:05In a post-Deadpool world, it's easier to imagine studios accepting the original script at face value,
03:11but back in 2008, the world clearly wasn't quite ready for a more rough-edged vision of superheroism.
03:19Transcendence
03:19After an AI scientist, Dr. William Castor, is mortally wounded,
03:24his consciousness is uploaded to a quantum computer,
03:27allowing Will to survive physical death,
03:29but raising questions about the precise nature of human existence.
03:34With Christopher Nolan's acclaimed cinematographer Wally Pfister directing,
03:38a script that appeared on the coveted blacklist for best unproduced screenplays,
03:42and with a brilliant cast,
03:45there were plenty of reasons to be excited.
03:47So what went wrong?
03:49This was 1000% down to the scripts,
03:52and though Pfister made a few directorial stumbles in his debut,
03:56he ultimately acquitted himself fairly well for a first-time filmmaker,
04:00given a $100-$150 million budget.
04:04Though Transcendence asks a compelling central question,
04:07what is it to be human?
04:08It's ultimately a depressingly superficial film that thinks it's far smarter than it actually is.
04:14The characters routinely act like idiots,
04:16the tech logic doesn't line up with how the internet actually works,
04:20and the majority of the ensemble cast are wasted in forgettable-nothing roles.
04:24Worse than all this, though, Transcendence is just thunderously dull,
04:28and it's likely that few have even actively thought about it since its cinematic release.
04:33Truth or Dare
04:34What if Truth or Dare was more than just a harmless game played by drunken teenagers?
04:39What if it was governed by a malevolent supernatural force
04:43which kills anyone who either lies or fails to complete their dare?
04:47On paper, it's certainly a neat, easily marketable concept for a fun R-rated comedy horror flick
04:53in the vein of Final Destination,
04:55where irritating teens are brutally killed off in imaginatively gnarly ways by an unseen murderous entity.
05:01So what went wrong?
05:03So many things.
05:05Granted, Blumhouse knew exactly what they were doing with Truth or Dare,
05:08constructing a stunningly tame PG-13 horror flick
05:12which would appeal to the adolescent crowd and pull in easy profits as a result.
05:16It ultimately grossed almost $100 million against a mere $3.5 million budget,
05:21so it certainly worked out.
05:23Yet this film basically goes in the exact opposite direction that it should have.
05:27The tone takes itself way too seriously,
05:29there's no self-awareness regarding how irritating the characters are,
05:33the PG-13 rating ensures tame, choppy death scenes,
05:37and the CGI smile everyone wears before dying is more laughable than creepy.
05:42The performances suck,
05:43the visuals have all the blandness of a forgettable CW teen drama show,
05:47and the ending is about as hilariously desperate as sequel bait finales come.
05:52In time.
05:53In a 22nd century, humans have been engineered to stop ageing at 25,
05:58after which they receive a one-year countdown to death.
06:01As a result, time has become a universal currency,
06:04where acquiring more of it,
06:06either through work or more nefarious means,
06:08is of the utmost importance.
06:11Oscar-nominated screenwriter Andrew Nichol was hired to write and direct the film,
06:15and given his history of penning socially relevant sci-fi films,
06:19it was easy to be excited from the outset.
06:22So, what went wrong?
06:24This is perhaps the textbook example of incredible premise,
06:27awful execution,
06:28because Nichol deserves a wealth of credit for coming up with such a unique allegorical hook.
06:34But despite some intriguing world-building,
06:36a lack of consistent in-universe logic alongside two utterly unremarkable protagonists,
06:42make in time more a frustrating, weirdly generic experience than anyone ever anticipated.
06:49Laughably unsubtle in serving up limp action sequences,
06:52Nichol's film doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of its ludicrous potential.
06:57Tomorrowland.
06:58A washed-up genius inventor and a hopeful teenager venture together to Tomorrowland,
07:03a futuristic secret society that harbours some disturbing secrets about the future of humanity.
07:10With total legend Brad Bird directing,
07:12it's safe to say that Tomorrowland was one of 2015's most anticipated movies.
07:17So, what went wrong?
07:20Though the performances are fine enough and it sure looks handsome,
07:23Tomorrowland is, for all of its fist-pumping about the boundless possibilities of human achievement,
07:28a rather ironic monument to failed potential.
07:31Bizarrely charmless and sterile,
07:33the film sees Bird misguidedly keeping Clooney off-screen for around an hour,
07:38while forcing Robertson to follow a series of uninspired plot threads towards their inevitable collision.
07:48What if Terminator fans finally got that future war movie they've been asking for since the very first Terminator movie?
07:55What if that incredible opening sequence from T2 was, you know, the entire movie?
07:59And what if it starred Christian Bale as John Connor?
08:02Sounds good, doesn't it?
08:04So, what went wrong?
08:05It was incredibly easy to be lured in by the terrific marketing for this film,
08:09which touted the fourth Terminator movie as a gritty answer to the not-bad-but-overly-comical Terminator 3.
08:16Yet, Salvation ultimately goes too far the other way,
08:19stripping out even the agreeable black humour of the first two movies,
08:22leaving behind a dull, soulless husk of a blockbuster without much on its mind at all.
08:27Also, Bale's shouty performance is a total misfire,
08:31failing to convey the heroism or the conflicted nature of the Resistance leader.
08:36And the CGI Arnie's pretty bad too.
08:39The One.
08:39You can just imagine writer-director James Wong pitching this movie to Columbia Pictures as Jet Li's Highlander,
08:46because it's honestly one hell of a hook.
08:49The One casts Li as a rogue interdimensional police officer
08:52who decides to visit all 124 parallel dimensions and kill every alternate version of himself,
08:59gaining power with each one he kills.
09:02So, what went wrong?
09:03The One is a casualty of the post-Matrix boom,
09:06where every sci-fi action flick wanted to be a mind-bending,
09:10CGI-fuelled martial arts extravaganza in the pursuit of epic box office receipts.
09:16And though it arguably works as ironically entertaining garbage,
09:19the film ultimately fails to make the most of its Jet Li vs. Jet Li premise,
09:24serving up wonky, technically rough action set to hilariously inappropriate new metal music.
09:30I mean, it was the early noughties, need I say more?
09:32Also, Jason Statham has hair in this film, which is just inherently off-putting.
09:37Passengers.
09:38A spacecraft transporting 5,000 colonists to a far-flung planet suffers a malfunction,
09:44causing one of the inhabitants, Jim Preston, to be woken from stasis 90 years early.
09:50In order to stave off crushing lifelong loneliness,
09:54Preston wakes up another passenger, Aurora Lane, without her knowledge or consent.
09:59So, what went wrong?
10:00The tone and marketing for this film were all wrong.
10:03Though Columbia ultimately decided to conceal the fact that Jim is the cause of Aurora waking up,
10:09this was actually revealed in an early synopsis released by the studio,
10:13before they decided that this darker element might turn off more mainstream viewers.
10:17But the biggest issue stems from the script and direction,
10:20which fail to adequately convey the agony of Preston's predicament,
10:24and insist that the blossoming romance between Jim and Aurora
10:27is genuine rather than, you know, sublimely creepy.
10:31Had the film taken place from Aurora's perspective,
10:33and then sort of morphed into a horror film of sorts in Act 3 once Jim's desperate act is revealed,
10:39then Passengers really could have been something.
10:41Instead, it wants audiences to root for a most questionable love story indeed.
10:46In addition to this, neither Chris Pratt nor Jennifer Lawrence brought much to the table,
10:50and despite being the hottest movie stars on the planet at the time of the film's release,
10:55their chemistry was completely lacking.
10:58Downsizing.
10:58A sci-fi dramedy from Alexander Payne, where Paul and Audrey Safranek decide to undergo an
11:04experimental new procedure, shrinking themselves down in order to escape their financial problems
11:10and live a more prosperous life.
11:12But when Audrey bails out at the last minute,
11:15a miniature Paul is now forced to re-evaluate his life choices.
11:19The film came jam-packed with satirical promise,
11:21especially given Payne's prior Oscar-winning success,
11:25not to forget his fantastic cast.
11:27As such, downsizing was widely expected to be a major Best Picture Oscar threat in late 2017.
11:34So, say it with me now, what went wrong?
11:37After a compelling first act establishes the premise and places Paul in this wacky predicament,
11:42Payne finds himself as a lost writer-director,
11:45unable to pull the alluring scenario in any further interesting direction.
11:50Rather, the bulk of the movie's bloated remnants are needlessly devoted to the Vietnamese activist
11:54character in a subplot that's more grating, charmless and misguided than politically relevant.
11:59Rather than serve as a stinging satire about late capitalism that makes the most of the cast's charms,
12:05it's a ham-fisted piece of environmental hand-wringing
12:08that feels like somebody making a half-baked effort to emulate Payne's style above all else.
Comments