Films have always been a divisive subject, but that’s
been especially true over the past two decades; it’s also showing no signs of
slowing down with fanbases becoming increasingly splintered with each
instalment in a franchise. Having said that, nobody sets out to make a bad film
and everyone signs on to a films production with the best of intentions.
However, at some point along the way, things just get messed up and the
audience gets hit with a film that looks likes a Frankenstein’s monster of different
thematic plot points.
However, in the cases of some films, it turns out that
they may have been spectacularly terrible for a sole reason; in many cases,
that reason may also be the one we least suspect. As such, there are a few bad
films that can point at one key reason why they flopped so hard.
Tom Cruise Hijacked The Mummy
Universal tried to take a page out of Marvel’s and DC’s book by trying to launch the Dark Universe with a reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise. Based on the success of the movie, this is probably the first time that you’re finding out that Universal tried to launch a Dark Universe. While the Universe was great on paper – including the likes of the Hollow Man, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and a virtual who’s who of other literary characters – it didn’t play out so well in reality.
This was essentially because, unlike the Brendan
Frasier version, this reboot sucked hard, and that was mainly because it seemed
like the majority of the movie was made to stroke Tom Cruise’s ego. And that’s
because, the film was basically made to stroke Tom Cruise’s ego. According to
reports, once Mr. Cruise signed on for the film, he had his own screenwriters
rewrite the movie to make his part bigger and the titular Mummy’s part smaller.
The new version of the film also referred to Mr. Cruise’s character as a “young
man,” despite being portrayed by a man in his mid-50s.
The vast majority of the seventeen people who saw the
film will probably remember that the character’s defining trait is how good at
sex he is. Tom Cruise’s writer’s also had the character turn into the titular
Mummy by the end of the film, as a dramatic arc for the character. Looking back
on it, it’s sounding less and less like the story of a film being made, but the
plot of a South Park episode. It’s quite a shame, as if Tom Cruise hadn’t made
those changes, it wouldn’t have been such a bad film.
Holmes & Watson Was Supposed To Come Out Ten Years Ago
Will Ferrell and John C. Reily were one of the best
comedic film pairs in recent years, thanks to films such as Step Brothers. It
was right around this time that their brief window of opportunity began to
close, so they quickly starting work on a comedic take of Sherlock Holmes. The
resulting script contained dozens of references to different popular trends of
the day, and then promptly sat on a shelf for ten years.
While it didn’t start out as a bad film, it just
happened to come out about a decade too late. There’s a reason that the
majority of references to the film come across as if they were written in 2008,
and that’s because the majority of them were written in 2008, flat on the heels
of Step Brothers and more. However, work on the Robert Downey Jr. version of
the character ended up stalling production on Holmes & Watson, because the
studio didn’t want to compete with a more serious version of the character.
After this, the film went into production hell for the
following few years before finally being released over a decade later. By this
time, however, Sony realized how much of a flop it had on its hands and offered
it to Netflix for almost no profit; Netflix said no and we were all forced to
watch the ads for Holmes & Watson for a few weeks.
Star Trek V Was A Mess Because William Shatner Is Insane
When it comes to directing a film, nobody should ever
put William Shatner in the driver’s seat because you’re not just going to get a
bad film, but one that’s pretty insane. Even though Star Trek has a history of
being extremely hit or miss, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a standout
because of just how weird it gets. And we have William Shatner and one minor
clause in his contract to thank for that.
This was a clause that Mr. Shatner had in his contract
for years that stated he got everything that was given to Leonard Nimoy.
Because of that, after Mr. Nimoy directed Star Trek IV, William Shatner
demanded the reigns for V. For some reason, the studio also let him write the
screenplay, which is how we got some of the weirdest moments in Star Trek
history. For those who are lucky enough not to have seen it, the story follows
the Enterprise after it’s stolen by Spock’s half-brother who uses it to go find
God.
They do so, and God ends up being an alien, as well as
pretty dickish. Thankfully, though, there were a few restraints put in place.
For example, Spock’s half-broken Sybock was originally going to ride a unicorn
and the apparent God turned out to be the Devil. Add in some Angel’s turning
into demons and you’ve got William Shatner’s version of a good Star Trek film.
Or just a bad film, by most peoples’ standards.