10 Brilliant Movies With A Terrible Concept

by Danny Meegan

1. The LEGO Movie

The Lego Movie Emmet Batman
Warner Bros.

The Concept: The Emoji Movie - a terrible cash-grab made only to capitalise on the popularity of a product - is what everyone thought The Lego Movie would be.

After all, the idea is basically nothing. It's a movie about LEGO - so what? Where's the emotional hook, where are the memorable characters, and how can a children's toy be turned into an engaging onscreen story?

The Movie: Nobody expected The LEGO Movie to amount to anything, but it absolutely delivered the goods, and then some.

Funny, creative and with a genuinely heartwarming message about the importance of family and inclusiveness, it was easily the best animated movie of 2014, and its absence from the following year's Oscar nominations is widely regarded as one of the biggest snubs in the history of the awards show.

It's also universally entertaining, and it really does have something for everyone. Kids can sit back and enjoy all the zany characters and creative visual gags, while adults can soak up all the pop-culture references and surprisingly witty satire (why do we pay so much for a cup of coffee?).

"Everything Is Awesome" could not be a more fitting title for the movie's theme song.

Any other great movies that sounded like bad ideas? Let us know in the comments section!

Watch Next


Horror

10 Horror Movie Trailers Scarier Than The Actual Film

20 Upcoming Movies You Won't Believe Are Real

Every Christopher Nolan Movie, Ranked

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!