The science fiction genre has always seen mixed success in Hollywood, from icons like The War of the Worlds to disastrous flops like Battlefield Earth. A lot of the time, the genre’s stories are built around great premises that, whether because of poor writing, bad effects or simply underwhelming execution, just don’t resonate with audiences. All the same, these movies deserve some respect for teasing a great idea, even if they didn’t quite stick the landing.
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Science fiction movies are often the most ambitious films in Hollywood, with the likes of Avatar pulling in billions of dollars on big budgets and epic visuals. However, some filmmakers wind up spending too much time on the superficial side of these films than truly exploring their ideas. Moviegoers are just as interested in character development and world-building as flash and style, something these movies should have understood.
You are watching: 10 Sci-Fi Movies With Great Concepts, But Poor Execution
10
Waterworld (1995)
Directed By Kevin Reynolds
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Waterworld
pg-13
Action
Sci-Fi
7.4/10
Release Date
July 28, 1995
Runtime
135minutes
Director
Kevin Reynolds
Writers
Kevin Reynolds
Cast
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-
Kevin Costner
-
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Waterworld follows a lone drifter known as “The Mariner”, played by Kevin Costner, who finds himself in a conflict between a group of survivors seeking a mythical place called “Dryland” and a gang of pirates who want to capture and enslave them. Directed by Kevin Reynolds, the 1995 post-apocalyptic action movie is set in a future where sea levels have risen, covering most of the Earth’s landmass.
Studio(s)
Universal Pictures
Distributor(s)
Universal Pictures
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Following the success of George Miller’s Mad Max franchise, a slew of post-apocalyptic action movies made their way to the big screen. One of the most divisive yet intriguing of these was Waterworld, which takes place in a future where Earth has been submerged in rising oceans. The story follows Kevin Costner in the role of The Mariner, an amphibious mutant man who aids a young girl and her protector in their search for Dryland.
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Waterworld has slowly earned some respect from science fiction fans, even if only for its ambition. However, the film tried too hard to be a seafaring Mad Max, and left so much of its premise under-explored. The film has a great story, and Costner’s Mariner made for a great hero. However, aside from trading the desert for the high seas, the film didn’t add much to its genre, only offering brief glimpses of how much has changed.
9
In Time (2011)
Directed By Andrew Niccol
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In Time
pg-13
Action
Sci-Fi
8/10
Release Date
October 20, 2011
Runtime
109minutes
Director
Andrew Niccol
Writers
Andrew Niccol
Cast
See All
-
Justin Timberlake
-
Amanda Seyfried
In Time tells the story of Will Salas, a factory worker living in a future world where genetic engineering has allowed people to stop aging on their 25th birthday, but in turn, gives them only a certain amount of time to live, controlled by a clock on their forearm. Time has become currency in this future, with those wealthy enough able to live forever while the poor often “time out” and die. When Will suffers a devastating loss, he swears revenge on the wealthiest people in society, vowing to bring down the system. Justin Timberlake stars as Will, alongside Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, and Alex Pettyfer.
Studio(s)
20th Century
Distributor(s)
20th Century
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One of the most common — and increasingly popular — sub-genres of science fiction has always been dystopias, which explore the extremes of inequality. In 2011’s In Time, the topic of inequality was explored through the brilliant premise of using time on a person’s life as currency. Following the story of a working-class man as he tries to ransom a rich man’s daughter, the story turns into a veritable sci-fi Bonnie and Clyde saga.
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In Time offers science fiction fans a terrifying look at dystopia, as well as a very tangible exploration of inequality that could have resonated with people, especially had it been released later on. However, for such a unique concept, wasting it on a predictable crime story didn’t allow for much exploration of the deeper side of the premise. World-building and the political side of the story were traded for another paint-by-numbers action story. It starts out strong, but audiences understand where it’s all leading by the halfway point.
8
Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets (2017)
Directed By Luc Besson
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
PG-13
Sci-Fi
Action
Adventure
5/10
Release Date
July 21, 2017
Runtime
137 Minutes
Director
Luc Besson
Writers
Luc Besson
Cast
See All
-
Dane DeHaan
-
Rihanna
Luc Besson’s big-budget space opera Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline, two officers from the United Human Federation’s police force in the distant future. When Valerian receives a telepathic message from an unknown alien, the pair find themselves uncovering corruption and conspiracy from within the Federation itself.
Studio(s)
Disney
Distributor(s)
Disney
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Combining high fantasy with science fiction has always been hard to get right, with movies like Star Wars nailing it, while others fall flat. In Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, audiences were given an intriguing quest to save the galaxy, one that lead them on a tour of a cavalcade of alien species and worlds. Focusing on a pair of elite operatives racing to defeat galactic villainy, the story offers plenty of high adventure, but not much in the way of deep world-building or interesting characters.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is like a montage of sci-fi tropes and cool creature designs, dwelling more on the marvels of CGI than a compelling story. For its visuals, the film is worth a watch, but it never manages to achieve anything more than that, feeling more like an ambitious video game than a film. Like Avatar, the film spends more time trying to wow its audience than telling an original story.
7
Jumper (2008)
Directed By Doug Liman
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Jumper
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Science Fiction
4/10
8.7/10
Release Date
February 13, 2008
Runtime
88 Minutes
Director
Doug Liman
Writers
David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, Simon Kinberg
Cast
See All
-
Hayden Christensen
-
Jamie Bell
Jumper is a science fiction action film directed by Doug Liman, featuring Hayden Christensen as David Rice, a young man with the ability to teleport anywhere instantly. As David uses his powers to escape a troubled home life and explore the world, he becomes entangled in a centuries-old war between those like him, known as Jumpers, and a covert group sworn to destroy them.
Main Genre
Action
Budget
85000000.0
Studio(s)
Dune Entertainment, Hypnotic, New Regency Pictures
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As superhero cinema took off thanks to the likes of X-Men and Spider-Man, a number of filmmakers sought to explore a more grounded, serious side of the genre. One of the most interesting movies to come of this was Jumper, a story that effectively asks and answers the question of what a young man would do with the power to teleport. Here, Hayden Christensen stepped into that role as a morally-flawed but ultimately heroic “Jumper,” David Rice.
However, it also suffered from feeling like a film whose creator threw everything at the wall to see what would stick, rushing out to explore as many plot threads as possible in one go.
It’s clear to anyone who watched it that Jumper was a premise rife with potential, and even had all the building blocks to be great. However, it also suffered from feeling like a film whose creator threw everything at the wall to see what would stick, rushing out to explore as many plot threads as possible in one go. Audiences were left with an open ending that did tease more, but the overall execution was simultaneously underwhelming and bloated.
6
Soldier (1998)
Directed By Paul W.S. Anderson
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Soldier
R
Drama
Sci-Fi
Action
Release Date
October 23, 1998
Runtime
99 Minutes
Director
Paul W.S. Anderson
Writers
David Webb Peoples
Cast
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-
Kurt Russell
-
Jason Scott Lee
-
Jason Isaacs
-
Connie Nielsen
Soldier is a 1998 science fiction action film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It stars Kurt Russell as Todd 3465, a genetically-engineered soldier trained from birth. After being defeated by a new breed of warriors, Todd finds himself discarded on a distant planet where he must confront his past and protect a new community from existential threats. The film explores themes of obsolescence, resilience, and redemption.
Main Genre
Action
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The 1990s saw the sci-fi/action combination reach its peak through the likes of Terminator 2, Demolition Man and Starship Troopers. These movies allowed some of Hollywood’s biggest action stars to branch out into a fresh genre — including Kurt Russell in Soldier. Telling the story of a futuristic super-soldier abandoned on a barren planet inhabited by lost colonists, the film explores themes of redemption and overcoming ideology to do what’s right.
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One of the most intriguing — and often forgotten — aspects of Soldier is that it’s actually set in the Blade Runner universe, albeit only subtly. The film’s core message of a soldier finding his humanity could have been delivered had Russell been allowed more emotional range in his character. Unfortunately, due to bad direction and a story that goes exactly where everyone expects at every turn, the movie is almost unwatchable. The fact that the film’s most interesting part is a throwaway reference is as telling as anything.
5
After Earth (2013)
Directed By M. Night Shyamalan
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After Earth
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
4/10
Release Date
May 30, 2013
Runtime
100minutes
Director
M. Night Shyamalan
Writers
Gary Whitta, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith
Cast
See All
-
Isabelle Fuhrman
-
Daha Mohamed
In M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, one-thousand years following humanity’s forced evacuation of Earth, Kitai Raige and his estranged father, Cypher, crash on nowhere else but Earth. With Cypher seriously wounded, Kitai must embark on his own, braving a futuristic Earth containing highly evolved animal species and a ruthless alien life to seek help and find a way home.
Studio(s)
See more : Soulcatcher Summary & Ending Explained, Soulcatcher Plot, Cast, And More
Sony
Distributor(s)
See more : Soulcatcher Summary & Ending Explained, Soulcatcher Plot, Cast, And More
Sony
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After Earth takes place in a future where humanity has been forced to leave Earth following a war with an alien race. Revolving around a son trying to survive the dangerous new Earth to find help for his wounded father, the movie blends survivalism with creature feature sci-fi. Despite its potential, the movie is just incredibly boring, and wastes an otherwise interesting backdrop for a predictable “man versus nature” story.
Despite a good idea, After Earth is one of Hollywood’s biggest cases of an actor making a project about himself, with Will Smith insisting on acting opposite his son, Jayden. The film would have been greatly improved by focusing more on the father/son angle, instead of splitting the two up for most of the runtime. The only interesting part about the movie is sacrificed to give Jayden more screen time, robbing it of its emotional potential.
4
Bloodshot (2020)
Directed By Dave Wilson
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Bloodshot
PG-13
Fantasy
Drama
Action
5/10
5/10
Release Date
March 13, 2020
Runtime
109 minutes
Director
Dave Wilson
Writers
Jeff Wadlow, Eric Heisserer
Cast
See All
-
Toby Kebbell
-
Talulah Riley
Based on the Valiant Comics character of the same name, Bloodshot follows soldier Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) who is resurrected with superpowers after witnessing the murder of his wife at the hands of mercenary Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell). Swearing revenge, the nanite-enhanced Garrison sets off to kill Axe, even as the scientists who brought him back seek to turn him into their own private weapon.
Studio(s)
See more : Soulcatcher Summary & Ending Explained, Soulcatcher Plot, Cast, And More
Sony
Distributor(s)
See more : Soulcatcher Summary & Ending Explained, Soulcatcher Plot, Cast, And More
Sony
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Based on the comic book of the same name, Bloodshot cast Vin Diesel in the role of Valiant’s immortal antihero, exploring his origin story. Like many sci-fi superhero movies, the film introduces a variety of elements but doesn’t really explain or explore them in any real detail. Instead, the audience is led on a standard action revenge story, one that underwhelms its audience in just how predictable it is.
Bloodshot suffered from a few problems, from the COVID-19 pandemic depressing theater turnout to competition from Marvel and DC. Ultimately, the movie just felt too much like a paint-by-numbers 1990s-style action movie, with bland antagonists and nothing but a gimmick to set it aside from other revenge movies. A hero kept alive by nanites should be a cool, high-concept idea on the big screen, but here they’re just used as a way of preventing the audience from asking too many questions.
3
Wild Wild West (1999)
Directed By Barry Sonnenfeld
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Wild Wild West
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Science Fiction
Western
Release Date
June 30, 1999
Runtime
107 Minutes
Director
Barry Sonnenfeld
Writers
Jim Thomas, John Thomas, S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Cast
See All
-
Will Smith
-
Kevin Kline
-
Kenneth Branagh
-
Salma Hayek
This action-comedy film follows two Secret Service agents as they team up to protect the President from a diabolical mastermind during the post-Civil War era. Using a mix of futuristic inventions and classic western elements, the duo embarks on a high-stakes adventure to thwart a deadly plot.
Main Genre
Western
Studio(s)
Peters Entertainment, Sonnenfeld/Josephson Productions
Distributor(s)
Warner Bros.
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After his success in iconic buddy movies like Men In Black and Bad Boys, Will Smith made his way to the Old West in the steampunk buddy cop movie Wild Wild West. Casting him in the role of a no-nonsense US Army captain, Jim West, he partnered with Kevin Kline’s Artemus Gordon on a mission to save President Grant from a Confederate plot. Despite a good premise, the film doesn’t really have much that sets it apart from other buddy comedies, and its steampunk elements all come across as too campy.
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Steampunk is a sub-genre Hollywood often fumbles, but in Wild Wild West, the stars’ on-screen chemistry and the story’s adventurous premise should have been enough to make it work. The buddy cop dynamic is something not often seen in the Western genre, and seeing that combination made for a promising story. The film has its moments of fun and a star-studded cast, but its execution made for a cheesy mystery that is less enjoyable the older you get.
2
The Black Hole (1979)
Directed By Gary Nelson
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The Black Hole
PG
Adventure
Family
Science Fiction
Action
Release Date
December 18, 1979
Runtime
98 minutes
Director
Gary Nelson
Writers
Gerry Day
Producers
Ron Miller
Cast
See All
-
Anthony Perkins
Dr. Alex Durant
-
Maximilian Schell
Dr. Hans Reinhardt
-
Robert Forster
Captain Dan Holland
-
Joseph Bottoms
Lieutenant Charles Pizer
The Black Hole, released in 1979, follows the crew of the explorer craft USS Palomino as they discover the lost USS Cygnus near a black hole. Controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his robotic companion, the Cygnus harbors ominous secrets that transform the crew’s awe into dread.
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’70s science fiction was a mixed bag when it comes to both story and execution, with the decade’s poor special effects and low budgets hindering the genre. One of the best examples of this came in 1979’s The Black Hole, a movie that follows the voyage of a starship to an abandoned vessel on the edge of a black hole. After encountering the ship’s sole survivor, a brilliant but evil scientist, the fate of the crew soon becomes an all-too-predictable Star Trek-style story.
A reflection of ’70s sci-fi, The Black Hole’s limited budget didn’t align with the grand ideas behind the story, making it feel more like a ’50s B movie than anything else.
A reflection of ’70s sci-fi, The Black Hole’s limited budget didn’t align with the grand ideas behind the story, making it feel more like a ’50s B-movie than anything else. In its absurd character designs and predictable plot, this movie promises a deep, mind-bending exploration of the mysteries of black holes, only to offer a brief glimpse as a religious concept. Elements of the film were strong enough to make their way into the likes of Event Horizon, which did aspects of the premise justice as a terrifying cosmic horror story.
1
John Carter (2012)
Directed By Andrew Stanton
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John Carter
PG-13
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Action
7/10
8.8/10
Release Date
March 9, 2012
Runtime
132 minutes
Director
Andrew Stanton
Writers
Michael Chabon, Mark Andrews, Andrew Stanton
Franchise(s)
John Carter
Cast
See All
-
Mark Strong
-
Willem Dafoe
Adapted from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, Disney’s John Carter brings the author’s Barsoom series to life. When American Confederate Civil War captain John Carter accidentally transports himself to Mars, he soon becomes entangled in the planet’s own internal power struggles. Using the increased strength and speed afforded to him by Mars’ atmosphere, Carter fights to achieve peace on the distant planet known by the natives as Barsoom.
Studio(s)
Disney
Distributor(s)
Disney
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The work of Edgar Rice Burroughs has been incredibly influential on both adventure and science fiction, contributing enormously to George Lucas’ ideas for Star Wars. In 2012, Disney honored the centennial of his space-based hero, John Carter, in his own movie. An epic journey to Mars, where the hero is caught up in the midst of a civil war, the film was one of the most ambitious of its decade — but was also a record-setting flop.
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John Carter is one of those movies that, on paper, should have worked, from the stunning visuals to a tale as old as time in the hero rescuing a princess. However, due to the character’s modern-day obscurity, tough competition in 2012, and many incorrectly seeing it as a Star Wars clone, the film went down in flames. By no means is the movie terrible, but its execution felt generic and predictable, struggling to set itself apart from other sci-fi/fantasy stories Disney keeps trying to make.
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Category: Entertainment