Have you ever seen a movie that you thought was terrible, but had such higher hopes for it that you think it deserves a second chance?
These people have, and after a Reddit post asked people for the bad films that they thought could be great films if they were remade, and these were some of their answers. If any directors or other studio workers are reading this, you might want to take some notes.
"Cirque Du Freak. Anybody that was a fan of the books will tell you how upsetting that movie was. Guess that applies for a ton of book adaptations tho."
You'll find that a great number of entries on this list are movie adaptations of books. The trend of them being less-than-stellar has been true for decades.
"I would like to see someone take a crack at the Percy Jackson stories. The movies they made were awful, just awful."
Another personal disappointment I experienced at the hands of a film adaptation to a series I loved. I really got my hopes up for this one, as if The Golden Compass taught me nothing.
"Passengers with the movie starting from Jennifer's Lawrence's characters perspective and Chris Pratt being the bad guy, like everyone suggested."
Someone else elaborated on this idea, "You don't have to remake it. You can just reedit it into a horror... Then show Pratt character's loneliness at the end as a flashback. So you see it from her POV first, then his."
"Venom. R rated. That is all."
The comments were all over this, as am I. I love the film deeply as it is and can't wait for the sequel, but it being R rated would give it an extra edge and make it even better.
"Green Lantern 100%. A character with that power set, passionate director and enthusiastic writer can birth a good DC film."
Someone thought this was fit for nearly all DC movies, "Dude, I say this about all the DC movies. Their problem isn't the universe or the characters or that Marvel beat them to it or any of the other hundred excuses people use. DC just sucks at getting people to make good movies. All of them would rock if they just tried."
"Almost any Stephen King movie from the 80s and 90s. The dude has soooo many great books that could be top tier horror films [...] but people just keep [expletive] up the adaptations," answered one user.
Someone else argued against this, "Stephen King's writing style makes accurate movie adaptations of his horror works almost impossible. There's a reason Kubrick's The Shining is so different from the novel and yet successful."
"The Dark Tower, epic 7k page Stephen King masterpiece that was filed down to a 1.5 hour piece of actual garbage."
Though it was true that fans of the book really didn't like the movie, one reply showed a bright side, "For what it's worth, I went to see the movie with zero knowledge about the books. I liked the movie, I loved the world, I bought all the books the next day and loved them. So at least [The] Dark Tower gained one new fan."
"The Golden Compass. [Expletive] that [expletive]. The BBC are doing a series and I can't wait."
The Golden Compass was my first experience with being disappointed by a movie, as I was pretty young and did read the book before going. A tiny piece of my heart died that day.
"I would watch the [expletive] out of a Super Mario Bros. remake with Danny Devito as Mario," said one user who already has casting ideas."
"Add Arnold Schwarzenegger as Luigi," added another, "[...] it can be the spiritual sequel to Twins."
"Suicide Squad. Give it an R rating. Replace the villain with something more appropriate (the whole point of the suicide squad is to give plausible deniability when it comes to black ops). Cut the stupid side characters."
I'd argue that some of the 'stupid' side characters are what gave that movie its charm, but maybe that's just my taste.
"[Tron: Legacy]. It was good enough to me and Daft Punk fans but wasn't so popular. Perhaps it wasn't the right timing when released."
It's true that now, all people seem to remember from that movie is Daft Punk and how they used CGI to make Jeff Bridges appear younger. That was pretty trippy for the time.
"Gosh, [Ender's Game]. What a trainwreck," wrote one user, clearly dejected.
"Seriously, how could they cram that into one movie and The Hobbit gets 3?" Agreed a second.
"The Hobbit," said a completely different comment, though they agreed on the unnecessary length, "Just make it ONE film and don't deviate from the book or invent characters just to set up a romantic secondary plot and it would be brilliant [...] Also forgot to specify, only have an incredibly sparing use of CGI. [Lord of the Rings] looked far better because it was REAL and only used CGI when there really was no alternative (e.g. the Balrog)."
"World War Z. The book was basically a perfect movie script, requiring only that they not try to turn it in to a star vehicle for some single major character. It is the vignette-based story of the struggle of all humanity.
"What they made was utter trash, and nothing to do with the book. They tried to focus on a single person (WRONG!) and have a hero (WRONG!), and ignored the entire point of the book. The only similarly at all was the name."
"Fantastic 4. Both of them."
Drawing a pretty fantastic comparison, someone else replied, "There is already a perfect Fantastic 4 movie. It's called The Incredibles."
"I wish they remade John Carter. Probably some better care in costume and casting this time. That movie was good."
I'm glad to see there were people still calling this movie good because I loved it when it came out. It could definitely use a nice revamp, but it was enjoyable!
"The Purge. There is a lot of room for it to be an intriguing plot if the main plot point wasn’t just an excuse to create a chaotic horror hellscape."
The replies to this one seemed to really mourn the concept, as many think it's an interesting premise and world that got lost in the genre.
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Fantastic comic series with almost unlimited potential, and they made an abysmal film out of it. It was bad enough that even though the film made money, they knew a sequel wouldn't."
There were some people who argued this one, saying if you don't compare it to the source material, it's a very fun movie all on its own.
"The Room (2003): Same script, same cast (depending on Tommy’s wishes), and still directed by Wiseau. The only difference is that he’s given hundred of millions of dollars and unlimited access to any technology, resources, and/or whatever else Tommy may want to carry out his vision."
"Dune. They're about to do it, with an incredible cast directed by Denis Villeneuve. The original was okay, a David Lynch cult classic [...], but the new one? It could be the greatest remake of all time."
