Watching a bad movie is always a disappointing experience, but it’s especially disappointing if the movie had a great premise and completely squandered it. The buddy dynamic of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is ripe for a comedic take, which sounds refreshing in the wake of all the dreary dramatic adaptations of late.
Unfortunately, the execution of this idea — 2018’s Holmes & Watson — is one of the worst comedies of the last decade. And that’s just one example. Movies that waste a strong premise with bad execution are ten a penny in Hollywood, thanks to the design-by-committee style of big-budget blockbusters.
Holmes & Watson (2018)
There are two squandered opportunities in Holmes & Watson. There’s promise in both a comedic take on the Sherlock Holmes stories and a reunion of Step Brothers stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Sadly, the movie is let down by a limp script with on-the-nose, out-of-place “Make America Great Again” jokes and a lactating Dr. Watson.
Its references to the Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies feel terribly dated, especially since the most famous on-screen incarnation of the character now is Benedict Cumberbatch’s modern take.
Downsizing (2017)
The first act of Alexander Payne’s Downsizing sets up a brilliant high-concept sci-fi comedy as Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig take part in an experimental new procedure whereby people are shrunken down to live in a society of tiny people. Right before undergoing the irreversible shrinking process, Wiig gets cold feet and runs away, leaving Damon to live in their new tiny house by himself.
After this, it just becomes a more or less regular movie as he contends with his hard-partying upstairs neighbor and befriends a cleaning woman. The “downsizing” element doesn’t play into the story at all.
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)
2012’s The Avengers did a great job of assembling Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and defining their dynamic. Loki made for a memorable villain and the Battle of New York was a suitably breathtaking climactic set piece.
Unfortunately, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron failed to recapture the same magic. Tony Stark going full Frankenstein and creating a killing machine was a juicy premise to start with, but the threat of Ultron never felt real. He can travel across the world via computer networks, but in the final battle, they just hit him with a barrage of firepower until he stops getting up.
Bright (2017)
David Ayer’s gritty fantasy police thriller Bright has an interesting premise with potential for strong themes and allegory. It’s set in a world in which humans co-exist with fantasy creatures like orcs and fairies and dragons, who are otherized by the human race.
Unfortunately, the execution of this premise goes as deep as a paddling pool. The world doesn’t seem any different. Regular racism still exists among humans, major historical events like the Battle of the Alamo took place, and a throwaway line referencing Shrek pulls apart all the worldbuilding, because Shrek is a satire of fairy tales and this is supposed to be a world where fairy tales are real.
Prometheus (2012)
Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus was poised to explain how the xenomorph came to be. Granted, the xenomorph didn’t need an origin story, but the idea of cosmic “Engineers” who create lifeforms teased another mind-boggling sci-fi epic from the visionary director of Blade Runner.
But Prometheus ended up asking a lot more questions than it answered. Scott planned a Prometheus trilogy that’s since gone off the rails, but the first movie didn’t inspire a lot of confidence that everything would eventually make sense.
The Happening (2008)
The opening scenes of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening set up a horrifying premise: something in the air is making people take their own lives. There are genuinely creepy scenes of entire streets full of people calmly, methodically dying by suicide. The first half of the movie is an eerie horror-thriller about inescapable airborne suicidal ideation.
Unfortunately, in the second half, it all comes apart as it reveals that plants are making people kill themselves as revenge for climate change. As usual, the undoing of a juicy Shyamalan premise is his incessant need to include a big plot twist. Eventually, the titular “happening” just randomly ends and the plants let humans go back to normal.
The Dark Tower (2017)
Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is one of the greatest book series ever written. The stories combine western tropes with science fiction, supernatural elements, dark fantasy, and full-on horror. They’re primed to be turned into a visually stunning movie franchise.
After years in development hell, a Dark Tower movie finally hit theaters in 2017 and it was a bitter disappointment. Rated PG-13, it’s a toned-down, scaled-back shadow of the source material.
Yesterday (2019)
Danny Boyle’s Yesterday has a fascinating alternate universe premise as its protagonist, a struggling musician, wakes up one morning in a world that doesn’t remember the Beatles, allowing him to capitalize on the Fab Four’s catalog of hit songs.
Sadly, Richard Curtis’ script barely begins to explore the implications of its premise before it predictably devolves into a generic romcom.
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
A showdown between Batman and Superman should’ve been the movie event of the century, but Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice suffered from a massively overstuffed plot.
In addition to telling the story of Bats and Supes getting into a fight (inspired heavily by The Dark Knight Returns), BvS functions as a sequel to Man of Steel, a reboot of the Batman franchise, an extended trailer for Justice League, and a string of Easter eggs teasing upcoming DCEU movies — it’s too much.
The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (2015-2019)
J.J. Abrams’ reductive, nostalgic storytelling in The Force Awakens doomed the whole Star Wars sequel trilogy. He introduced a new empire, a new rebellion, a new evil overlord, a new desert scavenger-turned-Jedi’s only hope — the infinite possibilities of the post-Return of the Jedi adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han establishing the New Republic and rebuilding the Jedi Order were confined to a little box just to evoke memories of the original trilogy.
The sequel trilogy introduced a lot of intriguing characters like Finn, a Force-sensitive ex-Stormtrooper, and the Knights of Ren, Kylo Ren’s ragtag team of ruthless enforcers, only to do absolutely nothing with them for three movies.