Keep the Premise, Forget the Plot

[Guttersnipe]

Are there any films that have a premise you love, yet you hate where the creator went with the story? What would you change and why?

 

[BAYLOR]

Starship Troopers , I love the book and I loath the Paul Verhoeven film.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Event Horizon. Had the potential to be a brilliant film, but all went a bit silly.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Event Horizon. Had the potential to be a brilliant film, but all went a bit silly.

Agree.

For me it's the Ewan McGregor / Michael Bay flop "The Island"

 

[.matthew.]

The entire Star Wars franchise after the original trilogy

 

[HareBrain]

Titanic. Interesting ship-board drama ruined by totally unnecessary calamity.

 

[asp3]

I'm afraid I've pretty much purged those films that "could have been so much better" from my memory. If one comes up I'll definitely post it here.

 

[Valtharius]

Titanic. Interesting ship-board drama ruined by totally unnecessary calamity.

Agreed. At the beginning the ship is explicitly said to be unsinkable and then it sinks at the end. How can you write such a huge plothole and nobody notices?

 

[Ursa major]

How can you write such a huge plothole and nobody notices?

If said plothole is below the waterline...?

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Stowaway
Thought it had a serious moral dilemma but sorta went a bit too easy with it.
Changes:
A stowaway is found and the captain (Marina) instantly makes an executive decision to kill him ...just a little too easily. David and Zoe are freaked, figure they could be next, and plot to give it to Marina in the neck once a pre Mars McGuffin task involving all the crew is completed. Marina smells a rat and stalls the task till the very last minute, and kills David, but Zoe manages to get hold of a heavy object and bludgeons the captain to death. The first images beamed back from the surface are of a bloody Zoe standing over the corpses of her crewmates. (Just because I'd liked the film to have had a bit more bite than it did!)

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Agree.

For me it's the Ewan McGregor / Michael Bay flop "The Island"

Aye! Intriguing set-up in the first 45 minutes or so, could have turned into a decent psychological thriller. Instead, the whole of the rest of the film was "World's Dumbest Action Sequence."

I have a certain amount of affection for "Jupiter Rising," but I really, really wish the plot wasn't just "Dogboy rescues the princess over and over again." Imagine if they'd used that fantastically baroque SF setting but shown Mila Kunis's character actually, like, do something? Use her new-found status, find allies and actively try to make a difference, instead of being a passive pawn in other people's plans.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Agree.

For me it's the Ewan McGregor / Michael Bay flop "The Island"

I'm still undecided on The Island. When I watched it, I had no idea of the storyline, so it was a genuine shock when I saw what was really happening. I also liked the way that Ewan McGregor's 'human' character was totally different to his kinder more sympathetic island-self.

Perhaps if it had been made into a HBO serial and had more time to develop. it may have helped.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Stowaway
Thought it had a serious moral dilemma but sorta went a bit too easy with it.
Changes:
A stowaway is found and the captain (Marina) instantly makes an executive decision to kill him ...just a little too easily. David and Zoe are freaked, figure they could be next, and plot to give it to Marina in the neck once a pre Mars McGuffin task involving all the crew is completed. Marina smells a rat and stalls the task till the very last minute, and kills David, but Zoe manages to get hold of a heavy object and bludgeons the captain to death. The first images beamed back from the surface are of a bloody Zoe standing over the corpses of her crewmates. (Just because I'd liked the film to have had a bit more bite than it did!)

Yes, I think this goes for many of the mid-pandemic, low budget, made-for-tv/Netflix films. It has a solid premise, starts off well and then weakens as the movie progresses. I've seen this quite a number of times with movies made in the last couple of years including Anti-Life/Breach with Bruce Willis.

 

[paranoid marvin]

The entire Star Wars franchise after the original trilogy

I'm of the opinion now that I'll never watch the first 3 (Phantom Menace - Revenge of the Sith) again. The acting and dialogue and storylines, particularly in PM and AOTC is terrible beyond belief for such a huge budget and once-great director. Whilst things are much improved for Sith, the movie cannot stand alone without it's prequels, so they are off the radar for any re-watches.

The final 3 movies are much improved, probably in part to the change of overall control and the fact that the original actors are involved. But I'm coming to the conclusion that the series doesn't need those extra episodes; I don't need to see my heroes grow old, have problems with their kids and die. I want to remember Han, Leia, Chewy, Lando and Luke as they were in the original trio.

As an addition though, I would still include Rogue One, because it feels like it is a part of the original series of movies. It's got great action, is funny, is consistent with the original movies and is exactly the kind of movie that Lucas would have made 30 years ago when he was in his pomp.

After going to the movies to see the prequels and feeling devastated about just how bad they were, I went to see Rogue One knowing virtually nothing about it and having no expectations that it would be any good. I couldn't believe just how great a movie it was and how it felt just like a proper Star Wars movie should. Even the CGI additions of Leia and Tarkin, which could have gone disastrously wrong, were done just right as to make the characters believable that it was Carrie and Peter in their original roles.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Titanic. Interesting ship-board drama ruined by totally unnecessary calamity.

It seemed to go down well at the cinema?

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Yes, I think this goes for many of the mid-pandemic, low budget, made-for-tv/Netflix films. It has a solid premise, starts off well and then weakens as the movie progresses. I've seen this quite a number of times with movies made in the last couple of years including Anti-Life/Breach with Bruce Willis.

It's a pity -I thought 'The Midnight Sky' had the same problem; there again, it's great to see Sci-Fi stuff get made, and if anyone outside the forum asks ...they were all pure class from start to finish

 

[BAYLOR]

Event Horizon. Had the potential to be a brilliant film, but all went a bit silly.

Ive seen it several times, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[BAYLOR]

Titanic. Interesting ship-board drama ruined by totally unnecessary calamity.

The movie ran longer than it actually took the Titanic to sink. The film also cost more to make than the ship.

 

[BAYLOR]

The entire Star Wars franchise after the original trilogy

According to the theory of multiverses, there is a universe where the prequels are actually good films and, Jar Jar Binks is a much beloved cinema character .

 

[KiraAnn]

I would nominate Battlestar Galactica, whether the old 70’s series or the more recent remake. There was so much that could have been done with the original premise.