10 Films That Don't Live Up To Great Premises
Great idea, terrible execution.
They tell you to have an elevator pitch at the ready in Hollywood. This is in case, during one of your temp jobs or in between making coffee for a celebrity or non-convict producer, you can spout out a catchy, one-sentence line that'll grab the attention of your desired audience.
You get a lot of "versus" or "meets" in these scenarios. "It's Reservoir Dogs Meets Godzilla, with a touch of Ordinary People for good measure." Naturally, you, the pitchman, are trying to hit as many buzzwords that are trending at the time within a minute, hoping it'll get an, "I'm listening..." from the Hollywood dealmaker you're talking up.
But your actual script rarely lives up to even your expectations, going through extensive rewrites and plot changes once you've sold your soul. The machinery kicks in and, while your initial idea is in place, the terrain feels entirely unfamiliar.
So they bastardized it, just as they probably did all of these. Or they were bad ideas to begin with, made worse by ambition gone awry.
10. Prometheus
Say what you will about the franchise post-Aliens, there were attempts made to keep it interesting. Most failed miserably, but few on as many levels as Prometheus, which saw the return of series original Ridley Scott. One unanswered aspect of Scott's 1979 classic Alien was the mystery of the Engineer - a giant, skeletal figure found on the crashed alien-infected ship, seemingly the pilot.
The answer is explored in this prequel with extreme, grueling detail. Amazingly, though, Scott manages to keep the origin of the Engineers vague. It appears they found humanity (why?). It appears they turned on their creation (why?). It appears they were the first hosts of xenomorph-esque beings.
That's to say nothing of the obscenely stupid, random character decisions made with each passing scene; every scientist with expertise in a certain field goes against the very principles of scientific objectivity (a biologist touches an unknown species within seconds of discovering it). You don't even need scientific training to be stupid in Prometheus. If you have a large, round object circling toward you, best to run straight in its path of destruction, rather than dodge to the left or right.