Top 10 Badly Executed Movies That Had Potential

The TV series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was beloved for its engaging storyline and interesting characters. So it stands to reason that a live-action adaptation of the animated series would (or should!) be super awesome. Unfortunately, M. Night Shyamalan saw this as an opportunity to further his crusade against all that is good. Condensing a full season into a little more than an hour and a half of incoherent plot structure, plus characterizations that were chewed up and spit out into a completely indigestible form irritated both fans and casual moviegoers alike. We guess that’s just want happens when you entrust great source material to the guy who disappointed everyone with “The Village.”

 

While a movie about art historians and museum directors trying to preserve paintings during World War II might seem like a thrilling romp, “The Monuments Men” ended up being a disappointing two hour snooze fest. A star-studded cast of Hollywood’s elite couldn’t save this war drama and actually only slowed the film down when time had to be allotted to each character’s story. Although there are some interesting action bits in it, nothing of any substance really happens and viewers just have to sit back and watch as they’re taken on a slow ride to the credits.
 

An intriguing premise and timely cast made this movie a hot commodity before its release. Unfortunately, “In Time” added up to nothing more than an interesting idea with no real substance. The movie sets up an alternate future where the amount of time you have left to live is also currency, but too much of the first half of its runtime is spent setting up this confusing premise - which eventually devolves into a Bonnie and Clyde-esque adventure. Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried head up the movie’s fresh-faced cast, but neither convincingly pulls off their roles. Audiences were left confused and slightly bored by this sci-fi misfire.
 

Will Smith brings charm, comedy and a little extra something to all of his roles, so audiences tend to flock to anything he’s in. Couple that with the burgeoning superhero craze and you got yourself a sure hit, right?! Unfortunately, fans of the Fresh Prince were displeased by the lack of charm and the incoherent plot structure of “Hancock.” The foremost complaint was that the superhero comedy drama starts well, but halfway through undercuts its own humorous premise and introduces a wobbly love triangle. The special effects and super-powered action weren’t enough to carry the movie across the finish line and what we’re left with was an uninteresting mess.

 

It’s the moment fans have all been waiting for. In this corner is the extra-terrestrial plague that bursts from your chest with its extra sharp claws and spits horrible acid that can melt your face and pretty much anything else. In the other corner is the space-travelling prize hunter that can make itself invisible and which kills badass commandos for breakfast. Sadly, the two alien adversaries also had to contend with sub-par directing, b-movie acting and a distinct lack of epic battles. A simplistic script and bad lighting didn’t help either, and fans were left yawning sleepily at what could’ve been an amazing showdown.

An epic comic book anthology created by one of the most influential comic book writers of all time and Sean Connery as an adventure-seeking legend grouped with the most badass literary characters of all time; that’s gotta be a sure-fire recipe for a comic book adaptation if there ever was one, right?! Wrong. “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” or LXG as it is lovingly referred to by… no one, was a critical flop when it came out, as it treated the audience to a condensed storyline that became incoherent and lacked any semblance of character development. Somewhere in a deep magical cave, Alan Moore is probably still cursing Hollywood.
  

How does that old saying go? You don’t bring a cinematographer to a director fight? Something like that. Well that timeworn adage has proven itself true once again with this half-hearted attempt at a science-fiction brainteaser. While the story asks a lot of questions about the future of computer science and artificial intelligence, it never puts forth any satisfactory answers. Instead, it leads the viewer on a narrative goose-chase that doesn’t resolve itself. Familiar and well-loved faces fill all of the main roles, but the actors struggle to keep up with the disjointed storyline, giving “Transcendence” the awkward feel of a B-movie sci-fi.
  

In this American-Canadian production, the director of “Iron Man,” the early 21st century James Bond, and the legendary Han Solo come together to give you an epic tale of Wild West action and extra terrestrial mayhem. Producers must have been patting themselves on the back for developing and releasing this sure-to-be-a-blockbuster film. Alas, the whole was not nearly as rousing as the sum of its parts. “Cowboys & Aliens” made less sense than its title, opting not to take advantage of the tropes of either genre and instead focusing on a group of characters that were just as lost as the audience. The potential was there, but the execution was lacking.
 

It was the mid-90s and no one could wait to see the next big Kevin Costner flick. On top of that, “Waterworld” had a huge budget and was reportedly being filmed on the ocean on a super expensive set. Sadly, bloated, incomprehensible, and waterlogged, this ambitious Kevin Costner classic seemed like it aimed to please almost no one, which would be refreshing except that it achieved this goal pretty spectacularly. From long before its release, whispers surfaced of the film’s increasing budget and production setbacks. Those whispers turned to screams when what was originally a one hundred million dollar film ballooned into an almost 175 million dollar flop.
  
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
 
“The Avengers” (1998)
 
“Jumper” (2008)
 
“Gamer” (2009)
 
“The Golden Compass” (2007)
 
“The Purge” (2013)
 

Up until 2011, Zack Snyder’s directorial credits included “Dawn of the Dead” and “300.” Needless to say, fans of epic action extravaganzas were looking forward to this Japan-influenced ultra flick. But buried under strata of bad CGI and even worse acting is what could have been an interesting story of a helpless girl who is unable to deal with reality and succumbs to psychotic episodes in which she is a powerful heroine. Instead, we are left with something like an incoherent visual tone poem that fails to impart any sense of emotional depth, all thanks to Snyder’s distinct inability to deal with story structure and character development.
  
Do you agree with our list? What badly executed movie do you think had potential? For more epic Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.