When a sci-fi movie with a smart script, engaging premise, and strong performance is bolstered by great special effects, you get some of the greatest science fiction films ever captured on screen. However, special effects alone are not enough to make a great movie, and without a strong narrative foundation and compelling performances to back it up, you end up with movies that look great but still feel ultimately disappointing. While studios may put hundreds of millions of dollars behind expensive big-budget releases, if the story’s not compelling, audiences will reject the film.
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Plenty of the best sci-fi movies of all time were characterized by having great visuals and awe-inspiring special effects. While the groundbreaking CGI in films like Jurassic Park embodies everything that’s great about cinema, the fact that this same franchise has so many lackluster releases proves that visuals alone can only get you so far. While all these films featured great special effects, that was not enough to save them.
You are watching: 10 Sci-Fi Movies That Couldn’t Be Saved By Great Special Effects
10
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Directed by The Wachowskis
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The Wachowskis revolutionized Hollywood with the release of The Matrix in 1999, and although the sequels have their supporters, it’s clear that the follow-up films did not have nearly the same impact. While there was philosophical depth to the continued story of Neo and the war between humanity and the machines, the series became increasingly convoluted as it continued, and the original trilogy ended with the lackluster The Matrix Revolutions.
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The Matrix Revolutions
r
Sci-Fi
Action
3/10
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8.0/10
Release Date
November 5, 2003
Runtime
129 Minutes
Cast
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Keanu Reeves
-
Laurence Fishburne
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As a disappointing conclusion, The Matrix Revolutions was more interested in showing off its impressive special effects than in focusing on a compelling story or engaging character arcs. While it was still impressive to see how well the series perfected its use of CGI, bullet time, and its imaginative depiction of the real world outside the Matrix, the harsh truth was that we’d seen it all before, and this installment lacked the creative spark of the original.
9
Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets (2017)
Directed by Luc Besson
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Expectations were sky high for the release of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, as it was not only an adaptation of the acclaimed French comic book series but also came from the man behind The Fifth Element, Luc Besson. As a director known for creating vast, richly imagined sci-fi worlds, it was so disappointing to see this movie fall flat on its face and squander its potential. With a weak cast, disappointing storytelling, and a haphazard plot, what could have been a hugely successful cinematic event was instead a devastating letdown.
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
PG-13
Sci-Fi
Action
Adventure
5/10
5.7/10
Release Date
July 21, 2017
Runtime
137 Minutes
Cast
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Dane DeHaan
-
Rihanna
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While there were plenty of impressive visuals and imaginative worldbuilding in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Dane DeHaan felt totally miscast as Valerian and had zero chemistry with his supermodel co-star Cara Delevingne. The great special effects stopped this film from being a total disaster, but audiences were craving a character-driven adventure, and that was not what they got. Sadly, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was yet another disappointment in the latter part of Besson’s career, and viewers would be better off just rewatching The Fifth Element instead.
8
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Directed by Roger Christian
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From Grease to Pulp Fiction, John Travolta has had some incredible roles over the years, although Battlefield Earth was not one of them. This notorious box office flop was such a failure that its production company, Franchise Pictures, was sued by its investors and went bankrupt (via Slash Film) after it emerged they had overstated the film’s budget by $31 million. As a passion project for Travolta, Battlefield Earth was an adaptation of a novel by the controversial Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
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Battlefield Earth
PG-13
Sci-Fi
Action
Adventure
Release Date
May 12, 2000
Director
Roger Christian
Cast
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John Travolta
-
Forest Whitaker
-
Barry Pepper
-
Kim Coates
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With its questionable religious associations and a story about a rebellion against the alien Psychlos who ruled Earth for 1,000 years, despite its poor reception, Battlefield Earth contained brief glimmers of greatness when it showed off some impressive special effects. But the issue with this was that even the effects were inconsistent, as some scenes looked great and others looked like poor PS1 video game cutscenes. With an abysmal 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, Battlefield Earth sadly does not even meet the criteria for a so-bad-it’s-good movie and should just be forgotten about entirely.
7
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Directed by Alan Taylor
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The Terminator franchise started with two all-time great sci-fi movies and has continually tried and failed to reach those heights ever since. While releases like Terminator Salvation lacked the star power of Arnold Schwarzenegger, there was hope that the reboot sequel Terminator Genisys could right the wrongs of the past and recapture the appeal of this beloved franchise. While Terminator Genisys definitely got the special effects right, everything else felt like a convoluted retread of all that came before.
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Terminator Genisys
PG-13
4/10
33
5.4/10
Release Date
July 1, 2015
Runtime
2h 6m
Cast
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Emilia Clarke
-
Jai Courtney
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With Emilia Clarke taking over Linda Hamilton’s iconic role of Sarah Connor, this Game of Thrones star even later expressed her disappointment with Terminator Genisys. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Clarke stated that director Alan Taylor was “eaten and chewed up on Terminator” and that “no one had a good time” on the film, even going as far as to say she was “relieved” that they didn’t make a sequel. Instead, the franchise was retooled once again with Hamilton back as Sarah in the box office bomb Terminator: Dark Fate.
6
After Earth (2013)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
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Director M. Night Shyamalan has one of the most inconsistent careers in Hollywood, as his filmography includes truly iconic releases like The Sixth Sense and woefully misguided failures like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Among Shyamalan’s most egregious disappointments was After Earth, the big-budget sci-fi starring Will Smith and his son Jaden set 1,000 years in the future after humanity has evacuated Earth for another planet due to an environmental catastrophe.
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After Earth
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
4/10
4.0/10
Release Date
May 30, 2013
Runtime
100minutes
Cast
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Isabelle Fuhrman
-
Daha Mohamed
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While Will and Jaden’s previous film together, The Pursuit of Happyness, remains a beloved, uplifting biographical drama, After Earth did not have the same appeal and felt like a dull rehashing of the same uninspired ecological sci-fi themes we’ve seen countless times before. As a shockingly uninteresting movie, After Earth proves that good special effects will never make up for lackluster storytelling.
5
Jason X (2001)
Directed by Jim Isaac
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The Friday the 13th franchise is an unusual example of a horror series straying ever further from its grounded origins into the realm of absolute absurdity. With the central villain Jason Voorhees slowly transforming into a supernatural foe, by the time Jason X had come around, he had turned into an immoral being who was still hunting his victims onboard a spaceship in the year 2455. With a story that saw Jason cryogenically frozen, Jason X told a disappointing sci-fi horror tale that could not be saved by impressive special effects.
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Jason X
R
Horror
Sci-Fi
7.8/10
Release Date
April 26, 2002
Runtime
93 Minutes
Cast
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Kane Hodder
-
David Cronenberg
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With interesting visuals that made use of its outer space setting, Jason X can be enjoyed as a campy, over-the-top offshoot of this slasher franchise. However, the fact that Jason X strayed so far from the series’ origins was an indication that this long-running slasher series had run out of steam. As the final Friday the 13th movie, excluding the spin-off Freddy vs. Jason and a disappointing remake, it seems like the creative forces behind the series might agree that there’s nowhere else to go with this IP.
4
Tomorrowland (2015)
Directed by Brad Bird
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Coming from Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles, Tomorrowland had the potential to repeat the appeal of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and successfully adapt a Disneyland attraction for the big screen. However, this story about a genius inventor and a teenage science enthusiast entering an alternate dimension called Tomorrowland was an ambitious failure. While the visuals were truly spectacular, everything else about this sci-fi adventure felt disappointing and unmemorable.
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Tomorrowland
PG
Mystery
Adventure
Sci-Fi
5/10
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8.0/10
Release Date
May 22, 2015
Runtime
130 Minutes
Cast
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-
Hugh Laurie
-
Kathryn Hahn
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Although Tomorrowland conjured up futuristic imagery the likes of which we’d never seen on screen before, the creativity of its visuals only served to compound the muddled nature of its story. There’s passion behind this project, and Bird is clearly trying to imbue this world with a hopeful sense of optimism, but it was tonally uneven and felt too complex for kids yet too juvenile for adults. Sadly, Tomorrowland had a lot of competition in 2015, as viewers were more interested in movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Jurassic World, and the movie flopped.
3
Jurassic Park III (2001)
Directed by Joe Johnston
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The groundbreaking power of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was both a blessing and a curse for this dinosaur-centric franchise. On the one hand, the awe-inspiring power of seeing realistic CGI dinosaurs on screen for the first time meant that viewers will always hold a special place in their hearts for this sci-fi adventure series. However, this audience appreciation also means that there was no stopping the sequels from coming, and the first non-Spielberg release, Jurassic Park III, was a dino-sized disappointment.
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Jurassic Park 3
PG-13
Adventure
Action
Thriller
Science Fiction
5/10
6.3/10
Release Date
July 18, 2001
Runtime
92 minutes
Cast
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-
Sam Neill
Dr. Alan Grant
-
William H. Macy
Paul Kirby
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With a weak story and poor character development, it felt like Jurassic Park III was content to let the special effects stand on their own, but this movie was always going to be let down without a compelling narrative. With a story about a couple trying to find their missing son on Isla Sorna, Jurassic Park III offered nothing new to the franchise and served as a strong indicator that it was time to let the series go extinct. The fact that the franchise remained dormant for the next 14 years until the release of Jurassic World proves this.
2
Planet Of The Apes (2001)
Directed by Tim Burton
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It’s always a gamble when a director agrees to remake an undisputed classic, and that risk did not pay off for Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes. This 2001 reimagining of the Charlton Heston classic adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s satirical sci-fi story had incredible special effects for its time, yet its confusing narrative and unusual creative choices meant it’s been mostly forgotten and is now considered a weird offshoot that’s best ignored entirely.
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Planet of the Apes
PG-13
Sci-Fi
Action
Adventure
4.8/10
Release Date
July 27, 2001
Runtime
120 Mins
Cast
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-
Mark Wahlberg
-
Tim Roth
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Despite incredible prosthetics and a stacked cast including Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, and Paul Giamatti, most critics were left unimpressed, and it was striking just how inferior this was to the original 1968 movie. Even Tim Roth, who played Thade in the film, couldn’t hold back on voicing his problems with Burton’s Planet of the Apes, stating (via Games Radar): “I cannot explain that ending. I have seen it twice and I don’t understand anything.”
1
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Directed by The Wachowskis
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On paper, Jupiter Ascending looked like a surefire hit, as this space opera story being described as a mix between Star Wars and The Matrix felt like it had major franchise potential. Written and directed by the Wachowskis and starring Channing Tatum with Mila Kunis, Jupiter Ascending told the story of an interplanetary warrior teaming up with an ordinary cleaning woman to help her fulfill her universe-spanning destiny. With state-of-the-art special effects and a budget estimated to be over $200 million, it’s almost impressive how much this film faltered.
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Jupiter Ascending
PG-13
Sci-Fi
Action
5/10
See more : Physical Season 3 Episode 5 Release Date and Time, Countdown, When Is It Coming Out?
8.0/10
Release Date
February 6, 2015
Runtime
127 Minutes
Cast
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-
Eddie Redmayne
-
Sean Bean
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Jupiter Ascending was one of the most infamous box office bombs of all time that signaled yet another letdown from the Wachowskis after their adaptation of Cloud Atlas failed to make much of an impact. With incoherent themes relating to indulgence and consumerism, Jupiter Ascending was the recipient of six Razzie nominations, with Eddie Redmayne taking home the award for Worst Supporting Actor. While Jupiter Ascending was bursting with potential, it just never lived up to it.
Sources: Slash Film, Vanity Fair, Games Radar
Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment