Great concepts don't always translate to great films. Join us as we explore Hollywood's missed opportunities - from ambitious sci-fi ventures to potential franchise starters that fell flat. Despite star-studded casts, hefty budgets, and promising premises, these films left audiences wondering what could have been.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the films that could have
00:10been more satisfying if they had better direction, writing and or acting.
00:19Number 20 Jupiter Ascending The duo behind The Matrix poured a lot
00:23of work into this new property.
00:25Please, this has to be a mistake.
00:27These people don't make those kind of mistakes.
00:30What if I say now? What if I don't go with you? What if I go home?
00:35Inspired by Star Wars, The Odyssey and The Wizard of Oz, Jupiter Ascending was set to be the Wachowskis'
00:40next sci-fi hit. The studios invested about $200 million into the project and the cast was packed
00:47with star power. Unfortunately, none of that made the film as entertaining as it should have been.
00:52Oh God, I'm so sorry.
00:54Despite the exciting premise about a housekeeper turned monarch,
00:57the plot was just too bloated and at times unintentionally hilarious.
01:01With some polishing, this could have rivaled the likes of Avatar or Doom.
01:05Number 19 Bright Director David Ayer is no stranger to action
01:10thrillers and screenwriter Max Landis has some decent work in the industry.
01:14You know what? You know what? It's a new day. Back to work. We hitting the reset button.
01:22Copy that.
01:23So why wasn't their urban fantasy film a success? It might have to do with its tired buddy cop tropes
01:28or odd lack of social commentary. Some claim that it poorly attempts to blend gritty drama with comedy.
01:34In any case, it's a shame that it didn't have any staying power, as the world of Bright is pretty
01:39interesting at least on a surface level. Maybe someone will do it justice in a sequel.
01:47Number 18 Chappie
01:48Action movies about innocent robots tend to do well with viewers.
01:52Chappie, listen to me. I'm your maker. I brought you into this world.
01:58Characters like the Iron Giant and Wally were easy to root for, but Chappie didn't quite make an
02:04impression. For most of the runtime, he came off as annoying and one-dimensional. This wouldn't be
02:09that big of a problem if he wasn't the main character or if he had other more interesting
02:14characters to bounce off of, but even the humans are as flat as they are cartoonish. Many also
02:19thought the movie wasn't as profound as it thinks it is, citing it as a huge step down from Neil Blomkamp's
02:25District 9. At least the sci-fi visuals are pretty darn good.
02:39Number 17 Now you see me
02:42You think a heist film with magicians would, at the very least, be a fun time at the movies.
02:48It also doesn't hurt that its cast has some very charismatic actors.
02:52Come in close. Closer. Because the more you think you see,
03:01the easier it'll be to fool you.
03:02Unfortunately, it just didn't have the magic. The already convoluted plot relied heavily on tricks
03:09that would be literally impossible to pull off. Maybe some on-camera practical effects and less CGI
03:16would've made it more believable. It also would've been a fun way to pay homage to real-life illusionists
03:21and escape artists.
03:28In the end, the movie wasn't boring, and it proved popular enough to spawn sequels,
03:32but it was far and away from the magical heist thriller we wanted it to be.
03:37Number 16 Timeline An adaptation of a popular Michael Crichton book
03:41would seem like a slam dunk.
03:43I don't understand you guys. You all live in the past.
03:45What?
03:46You know what the past is to me?
03:47What? What's the past to you?
03:49The past is why my parents split up. The past is basically what I've been force-fed ever since
03:53I was a little kid. I mean, none of you archaeologists looks to the future.
03:56After all, Jurassic Park was a huge hit both on-screen and on the page.
04:01However, Timeline was both a financial and critical failure. Starring Paul Walker,
04:06Francis O'Connor, and Gerard Butler, it follows a team of corporate time travelers during the Hundred
04:12Years War. If that sounds like an odd mix, you'd be right. Audiences just couldn't connect with the
04:17sci-fi elements and the medieval swashbuckling.
04:19Not even Richard Donner, the director behind Lethal Weapon and The Goonies, could make it work.
04:34The film got terrible reviews and lost Paramount about tens of millions at the box office. Hopefully,
04:39the book will get properly adapted in the future.
04:42Number 15 Passengers After Guardians of the Galaxy elevated him to stardom,
04:47Chris Pratt was set to take the industry by storm.
04:50Wait, what?
04:52It's perfectly normal to feel confused. You just spent 120 years in suspended animation.
04:59What?
04:59He was cast in a film by director Morton Tildum, who's best known for his Oscar-nominated work
05:04on The Imitation Gate. Then, when Jennifer Lawrence got on board, it seemed like Passengers was destined
05:10to be a huge success. Instead, it was brought down by heavy-handed dialogue and a flawed third act.
05:16Others accused the film of being downright creepy in his portrayal of love, with many saying that
05:20it should've just been a thriller in space.
05:22So we're stranded. Eye on drive.
05:25On a sinking ship.
05:27Even Jennifer Lawrence agrees that changes would've improved it.
05:30Number 14 The Monuments Men While a movie about art historians and museum
05:36directors trying to preserve paintings during World War II might seem like a thrilling romp,
05:40The Monuments Men ended up being a disappointing two-hour snooze-fest.
05:45But if you destroy their achievements and their history, then it's like they never existed.
05:51The star-studded cast of Hollywood's elite couldn't save this war drama and actually only
05:57slowed the film down when time had to be allotted to each character's story. Although there are some
06:01interesting action bits in it, nothing of any substance really happens, and viewers just have
06:07to sit back and watch as they're taking on a slow ride to the credits.
06:11Yesterday, we found 16,000 pieces of stolen art buried in a German copper mine.
06:17It seems the Nazis took better care of paintings than they did people.
06:21Number 13
06:22End Time An intriguing premise and timely cast made this movie a hot commodity
06:27before its release. Unfortunately, End Time added up to nothing more than an interesting idea with
06:37no real substance. The movie sets up an alternate future where the amount of time you have left to
06:42live is also currency. But too much of the first half of its runtime is spent setting up this confusing
06:48premise, which eventually devolves into a Bonnie and Clyde-esque adventure.
06:52See? They won't jump.
06:56So much for you, theory.
06:58Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried head up this movie's fresh-faced cast,
07:02but neither convincingly pulls off their roles. Audiences were left confused and slightly bored by
07:08this sci-fi misfire.
07:09Number 12
07:10Hand Cop Will Smith brings charm, comedy, and a little extra something to all of his roles,
07:16so audiences tend to flock to anything he's in.
07:19What, you want a cookie? Tell out my face.
07:22Couple that with the burgeoning superhero craze and you got yourself a sure hit, right?
07:29Unfortunately, fans of The Fresh Prince were just pleased by the lack of charm and the incoherent
07:34plot structure of Hancock. The foremost complaint was that the superhero comedy drama starts well,
07:39but halfway through undercuts its own humorous premise and introduces a wobbly love triangle.
07:44I hate to burst your little crazy lady bubble, but it must not have been all that great because
07:50I don't remember you. The special effects and super-powered action weren't enough to carry
07:54the movie across the finish line, and what we're left with is an uninteresting mess.
07:59Number 11
08:00Downsizing
08:01As bizarre as the premise is, this could have been a great movie.
08:05It had a lot going for it, including popular lead actor Matt Damon, award-winning director Alexander
08:18Payne, and a concept weird enough to draw in audiences. But the story about a man who shrinks
08:23himself down ended up falling short. The social satire was half-baked, with comedy undermining
08:28its deeper messages. Matt Damon also just seemed pretty boring in the role of Paul.
08:33I made a mistake, Dave. Biggest mistake of my life. I should have stayed where I was.
08:38Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
08:39There are countless criticisms that people had with the film, but ultimately it flopped at the box
08:44office and is mostly remembered for squandering its intriguing premise.
08:48Number 10
08:49Event Horizon
08:50Pitched as a haunted house story in space, this sci-fi flick was a critical and commercial failure.
08:56It fell far short of recouping its budget and was criticized for its reliance on horror cliches.
09:01I think your captain has some kind of a problem with me.
09:05Oh, well. Don't worry about him. He just loves having complete strangers on his ship.
09:10Worst of all, it wasn't really scary. Director Paul W.S. Anderson chalks this up to the rushed
09:16editing process, which he thinks made the direction and acting look worse than it is. Paramount nonetheless
09:21forced him to release a cut he wasn't happy with. If we got his complete vision, maybe it would have
09:27been a hit. We can see glimpses of brilliance in the atmosphere and set design.
09:31It's complicated.
09:32Well, how much time do you need? We have 17 hours and 48 minutes.
09:38The film has gained a cult following over the years, indicating there's something there,
09:43just not enough to fully satisfy.
09:45Number 9
09:46The Lone Ranger. Hot off the successful Pirates of the Caribbean series, we were ready for Gore
09:51Verbinski's and Johnny Depp's next blockbuster. How could this actor-directing pairing disappoint?
09:57Alright, let's do this.
10:00Well, by being an Old West take on the Pirates' films, but without any of the charm that made them
10:06work. We will say that the set pieces are impressive and display some Buster Keaton levels of creativity.
10:11It falls flat, however, in nearly every other department. The plot moves at a snail's pace,
10:17and both its heroes and villains are bland. Scared, aren't you?
10:26It should be.
10:27The depiction of Native American history also garnered controversy that didn't do it any favors.
10:32With some tweaks, this could have been the Western genre's grand return to the mainstream.
10:37Number 8
10:37The Black Dahlia. The novel of the same name is a popular and critically acclaimed piece of crime
10:42fiction.
10:43Mr. Long, can you assure the public that you will find the murderer before he strikes again?
10:48I can guarantee you, Mr. Long, this killer will be caught.
10:52Based on the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, the story follows two police detectives out to solve
10:58the case. The adaptation maybe would have been great if David Fincher hadn't left to direct Zodiac.
11:03Instead, Brian De Palma was given the reigns, and what we got was a movie that feels like a parody of
11:09film noir. Critics generally agreed that the script is incoherent and needlessly complicated,
11:14and despite its star-studded cast, De Palma just couldn't get good performances out of them.
11:24However, both the director and original author claimed that the initial three-hour cut is the far
11:30better film. Number 7
11:31The Purge. This movie's premise alone had us hooked. One night a year, all crime is legal,
11:37and a family must survive until morning.
11:39Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous
11:46hours. Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.
11:53When The Purge concludes. With the whole country as a backdrop, you would expect something more than
11:59just a standard home invasion thriller. And that's where the problems start to show themselves.
12:04The predictable script wasted actors Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey, and the action wasn't exciting
12:09enough to make up for it. At its worst, the movie was mind-numbingly generic and full of cliches.
12:14I'm so sorry, but we're going to make it through tonight. All right, we will. And everything is going
12:20to be okay. We were eager for a dystopian take on society's violent urges, but The Purge was
12:26ultimately just another bland rehash of familiar ideas. Still, that premise was enough to sustain
12:31a franchise, but oh, what might have been. Number 6 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. An
12:38epic comic book anthology created by one of the most influential comic book writers of all time,
12:44and Sean Connery as an adventure-seeking legend grouped with the most badass literary characters of
12:49all time. Would you like to learn how to shoot? I can't already. That's gotta be a surefire recipe
12:58for a comic book adaptation if there ever was one, right? Wrong. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
13:04or LXG as it's lovingly referred to by no one, was a critical flop when it came out,
13:10as it treated the audience to a condensed storyline that became incoherent and lacked
13:14any semblance of character development. I've been waiting a week to do that. Get a grip, man.
13:20Somewhere in a deep magical cave, Alan Moore is probably still cursing Hollywood.
13:25Number 5 Transcendence. How does that old saying go? You don't bring a cinematographer to a director
13:31fight? Something like that. Some scientists refer to this as the singularity. I call it transcendence.
13:40Well, that time-worn adage has proven itself true once again with this half-hearted attempt at a
13:45science fiction brain teaser. While the story asks a lot of questions about the future of computer
13:50science and artificial intelligence, it never puts forth any satisfactory answers. Instead,
13:55it leaves the viewer on a narrative goose chase that doesn't resolve itself. Familiar and well-loved
14:13faces fill all of the main roles, but the actors struggle to keep up with the disjointed storyline,
14:18giving Transcendence the awkward feel of a B-movie sci-fi. Number 4 Cowboys and Aliens. In this
14:24American-Canadian production, the director of Iron Man, the early 21st century James Bond,
14:29and the legendary Han Solo come together to give you an epic tale of Wild West action and
14:35extraterrestrial mayhem. What are you going with us? I need that weapon. It's the only thing that counts.
14:42Producers must have been patting themselves on the back for developing and releasing this sure to be a
14:47blockbuster film. Alas, the whole was not nearly as rousing as the sum of its parts. Cowboys and Aliens
14:54made less sense than its title, opting not to take advantage of the tropes of either genre and
14:58instead focusing on a group of characters that were just as lost as the audience. The potential was
15:07there, but the execution was lacking. Number 3 Sucker Punch. Up until 2011,
15:13Zack Snyder's directorial credits included Dawn of the Dead and 300. Needless to say, fans of epic action
15:20extravaganzas, we're looking forward to this Japan-influenced ultra flick. But buried under
15:31strata of bad CGI and even worse acting is what could have been an interesting story of a helpless girl
15:37who is unable to deal with reality and succumbs to psychotic episodes in which she is a powerful heroine.
15:43No. This is right. This was never my story. It's yours.
15:55Instead, we are left with something like an incoherent visual tone poem that fails to impart
16:00any sense of emotional depth, all thanks to Snyder's distinct inability to deal with story structure
16:05and character development. Number 2 The Mummy. The classic Universal
16:10Monster series is one of the studio's best franchises. In 2017, horror fans were eager to
16:16see a fresh take on the iconic Mummy story. With a team of talented writers and Tom Cruise as the lead,
16:36it was expected to be the start of a shared universe. But it was such a misfire that the so-called dark
16:42universe was scrapped before it even really got started. At best, the film was an action horror
16:48that's light on scares. At worst, it was a typical blockbuster with forced humor. What? What? It also
16:54made the mistake of spending too much time setting up said cinematic universe. What was supposed to be the
16:59Universal Monsters Grand Return was sadly a big disappointment. Before we continue, be sure to
17:06subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option
17:11to be notified for occasional videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your
17:16settings and switch on notifications. Number 1 Waterworld. It was the mid-90s and no one could
17:24wait to see the next big Kevin Costner flick. On top of that, Waterworld had a huge budget and was
17:30reportedly being filmed on the ocean on a super expensive set. Sadly bloated, incomprehensible,
17:43and waterlogged, this ambitious Kevin Costner classic seemed like it aimed to please almost no one,
17:49which would be refreshing except that it achieved this goal pretty spectacularly.
17:53From long before its release, whispers surfaced of the film's increasing budget and production
17:58setbacks. Those whispers turned to screams when what was originally a $100 million film
18:06ballooned into an almost $175 million flop. Which of these movies deserves to get remade the most?
18:13Let us know in the comments down below. It must have been so hard for you. It was.
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