This movie had an awesome idea. Time is the currency of the future. Everyone has listed on their arm just how much time they have left in life. You can gain some and lose some every day. In fact, I thought the premise of this movie was interesting enough for me to remain interested throughout. However, I think the movie could have been better with different actors, and a different direction for the story. It ended up being kind of a socialist movie rather than having a more substantive plot. Though I like JT, get rid of him and replace him with a better actor, change the direction of the plot, keep Olivia Wilde in the picture a little longer, and I may have liked this movie.
#2 Hancock
I know some people liked this movie, and it is tough to not like a movie with a good cast like this movie had. However, I really did not like this movie at all. I think it was a good idea that was kind of squandered. It is a cool idea to make a movie about a super hero who is kind of a bum, doesn't want to help anyone, and is sarcastic and mean. This would have been a much better movie if the whole focus of the movie was dedicated to turning him into a hero, and him growing to love helping people. You throw some inspiring music in there, have more scenes where he is using his powers to help others, more character development on his part, get rid of the entire Charlize Theron character and subplot, and you have yourself a pretty decent movie.
Man gets his mind erased, and neither he nor the audience knows what happened during that time. He sends himself clues so he can remember, and spends the whole movie trying to do so. Sounds awesome and intriguing. However, you put Uma Thurman in there and give her TERRIBLE lines, have the bad guy not have any motivation for being bad, and have Ben Affleck miraculously be able to figure out when to use what knick-knack with no provocation whatsoever, and you have made a pretty weird movie out of a pretty good idea.
#4 Vantage Point
Seeing the same event from a bunch of different character's perspectives is a pretty cool idea. It sounds really good on paper. However, this movie struggled from what I felt "The Edge of Tomorrow" got right. Yes, the premise is that we as the audience are going to see the same thing many times. But come on! Make each character's perspective unique and different enough so that it doesn't feel like we are watching the same 15 minute movie 8 times in a row!
A kid realizes he has the power to teleport. He actually uses this ability to do some pretty cool things. He robs banks, travels all around the world, etc. There are a lot of different things you can do with this plot. However, when you pick Hayden Christensen to be the main character, give him terrible lines, and you have him being chased by people who hate teleporters for some unexplained reason, you have squandered the cool teleporting kid idea.
#6 Double Jeopardy
The idea behind the legal principle "double jeopardy" is that one cannot be charged with the exact same crime twice. In this movie, a woman is framed for killing her husband. She does her time in jail and is then let out. She figures out her husband is still alive, and wants to murder him, because she knows she cannot be prosecuted a second time for it. But man, this movie really falls flat. It is just straight up boring. I don't know if it is the acting, the script, or the direction they took the movie in, but the cool idea for this movie should have propelled it much further than it did.
A man can see a few minutes into the future his whole life. This means he can see every possible scenario based on every possible decision, and decide what the best course of action is. The government needs him to help in finding out where and when a terrorist is going to attack. Sounds awesome right? Well, have Nicholas Cage play the main character and give him some terrible dialogue to throw back and forth between Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel, and you have effectively ruined this idea. Get rid of Nicholas Cage, replace him with a better actor, and you have yourself a pretty good movie.
#8 LockoutI'm going to be honest, this one is a stretch, because this movie was unbearably terrible. However, just the idea of having a supermax prison in space seems pretty cool to me. Change everything about this movie except that one idea, and the movie could have potential to be pretty cool.
This movie had been in the works for years, and Christopher Nolan was even a producer on the project. It had potential. The idea of programming a dying man's mind into a super computer, and having him be able to manipulate the internet and anything attached to it is a pretty interesting idea. However, the choice of actors, the dialogue, and the whole part with using nano-technology to turn people into weird, creepy, controlled zombies was a little too much. This idea could have been taken in almost any direction, but the direction it actually took was a pretty bad one.
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