Wasted opportunities in media.

[Mister K]

I think that many of us have encoutered a situation when a movie, or a comic, or anything else had, for example, a great idea or mechanic that was wasted.

For instance, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has one. For those who don't know, it began as a martial arts manga (with a spoonfull of vampires, ghouls, etc.), but starting from the 3rd story arc all major and secondary roles were given to characters who could summon Stands (basically, a familiar with an ability. It's a bit more complicated than that, but lets roll with this description).

The BIGGEST waste of opportunity are physical features of Stand users. When characters have to use their body for the fighting, than it's understandable that they are designed to be athletic. But when they are made to be a Stand users, author gains a HUGE advantage is design department. Skinny tall people, chubby people, handicaped people... Author could have created many different variations of looks. Yet, most of the characters are young, slim or muscular guys. I can name only a handful of characters that are not like this.

I lke JoJo, I like most design choices in this manga, yet I also think that Araki missed an opportunity to move away a bit from standarts of the genre.

Do you guys know any wasted opportunities? Share your thoughts.

 

[tippy2k2]

The Purge

Now I suppose in fairness to it, I did not bother seeing it after everyone stated what I thought it looked like; a generic "A KILLER IS IN THE HOUSE!!!!!" slasher flick with an incredibly awesome backdrop that is completely wasted to explain the "why don't they call the cops?" problem of most slasher films. Maybe every single person who saw it is wrong but everything in the trailer screams shitty...

I really hope someone can take that concept (24 hours law free) and runs with it. There's a good movie in there somewhere, we just need the right hands to draw it out.

 

[Mangod]

Tying back to the recent "Is Naruto hated?" and "Masashi Kishimoto is a hack writer" threads, Naruto.

It's a series about ninjas... why in the flying f*** does everyone act like they're in an episode of the Adam West Batman series? You're ninjas! Assassins, spies and saboteurs! Act like it!

 

[TheRiddler]

I think Arkham Origins would have been a lot stronger (at least in the story department) if it had given us its own take on the [b/]origins[/b] of the villains we actually gave a fuck about (The Riddler, Scarecrow and/or Two-Face), and showed us the sort of pre-lunatic, mob-based Gotham we saw in Batman Begins.

I mean, it tried a bit. We saw the whole Enigma thing, the Joker dream sequence, etc. Still, all of the more interesting bits were stripped away for C-list Arkham maniacs and more Joker emphasis (not that there's anything wrong with the Joker, but would the Arkham team please focus the limelight on somebody else? The Riddler, maybe? Or even the Penguin or Two-Face?).

Honestly, I was kinda wishing for a videogame reminiscent of Batman: Year One. Or, failing that, at least The Long Halloween.

 

[Someone Depressing]

A Pokemon MMO, an official one, but Nintendo just aren't going to do it. Then again, the fan one is probably better than whatever Nintendo could churn it, so whatever.

 

[sanquin]

Star wars the old republic was a huge missed opportunity imo. If they had made a single player game instead of an mmorpg out of it, it might have probably been a huge hit.

 

[CommanderL]

The tv show merlin every so often there was a hint of something greater but it was never realized
also Tor

 

[AustinN]

Way back when it was airing, I thought the Teen Titans cartoon had a lot of wasted opportunities. I don't think it did a very good job of switching between humor and serious plots, and I think a lot of the darker elements of the show were half-assed. It doesn't help that many of the season finales were resolved by a deus ex machina.

Bleach is a fantastic example of a series that had a lot of great ideas, but very poor executions. But Bleach's problems are too numerous for me to get into here.

As much of a cult classic as it is, I was disappointed with The Warriors. I think it needed more action. I love the idea of a gang having to fight their way back home, but there are only two full scale fights in the movie, with them just running away from all of the other encounters.

 

[Robot Number V]

The Walking Dead. The first episode was the best part of the show by far, so...That was the missed opportunity. The show would've been about a thousand times better if it had just been about Rick, the crazy sheriff traveling the country, searching for his family. (Who is obviously dead, but he's in denial and like I said, a bit crazy) He could meet different people over time, but eventually he'd always end up on his own again.

Yeah, I know that doesn't happen in the comics. Well, so what? The show already diverges from the source material anyway. Might as well do it in a way that makes it better instead of worse.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Corvo's right hand in Dishonored.

 

[Queen Michael]

In the third League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book, there's a short story written as a factual account of actual events that describes a meeting between The League of Etc. and a French group called Les Hommes Mysterieux consisting of Arsène Lupin, Robur, Fantomas, and a few others. It would have made an excellent comics story if Alan Moore had bothered to write it that way instead of turning it into a three-page text account.

 

[Orks da best]

Halo 2. It offered a really unique narrative opportunity - it branched along both sides of the conflict, and we see a glimpse of Covenant society and their holy crusade, instead of just having the typical "Me marine. *grunt* Me go kill aliens. *grunt* Me thump chest 'cuz me big and strong human. *grunt*"[footnote]Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with those types of games, Doom and the likes are awesome titles, but games can, and have, offered more than just that.[/footnote] storyline. The opening cutscene gave me very high hopes for the game. And then I started playing, and then I got halfway through, and the game had toyed with the idea a fair bit, but not nearly enough to satiate me, and then the game ended (and without a third act) and I was bewildered, and then Halo 3 came along and mostly shat all over the premise.

Homefront. The amount of Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq allegory could've been off the charts, and give perspective to many Americans as to what it feels like in that situation, and could've been an extremely culturally relevant game, given its premise. Instead, its a poorly done, chest-thumping, flag-waving shooter crossing into jingoistic spunkgargleweewee territory and toeing the line of outright xenophobia.

for Halo 3, from what I heard the lack of the Covenant society story was scrapped since many fans surprising did not like it in Halo 2. Way to go people! Lets have the story be generic in games and only expand on it in the books! At least the gameplay is good, and the memories playing with my sister.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yes, DC movie properties that aren't Batman.

Batman has been done well. Several good movies, a stellar cartoon series... they know what to do with Batman. But they take a half step away from Bats... yikes. Green Lantern was probably the worst, but they have even faltered with Superman, the ONE thing that NEEDS to be established before they can try any kind of shared DC movieverse. I'm kind of torn, some people liked Man of Steel... I hated it. But I would not mind using it as the genesis of the DC Movieverse provided Snyder get his ham-fisted mitts off of the freaking shaky-cam.

But I'd rather they just reboot and try again. I wanna see it do well, and right now the comparison is not flattering. But they seem to be forging ahead to keep the money rolling in... which they wouldn't have to do IF.

They established some of the lesser characters while waiting for one of the big Marvel movies to falter... then pounce with the most popular of the lesser characters they just established, joining one of the bigs (preferably Supes or GL in an origin story) to set up the new Justice League. That way the money would keep coming in, you could get feedback on characters BEFORE including them in the shared storyline, and they'd be counter-punching Marvel instead of wildly flailing around.

Here's an easy idea to start. Dr. Fate. His story, origin, and powers have been retconed so many times in the comic that he's just WIDE OPEN to get a great writer and turn him loose.

"Write a great superhero story, all you have to do is make sure he wears a cape and has this mask and helmet."
"Allright, What's his origin?"
"Weren't you listening, that's up to you, go nuts."
"No, if I don't get this right the fans will go ape."
"Dude, seriously... at one point this guy was some kind of alien, and in one of the alternative universes one of Batman's Robins was Dr. Fate. Seriously, anything goes."
"Ok, what are his powers?"
"Anything you want, he's magic, that explains everything. Make sure he can fly and throw some kind of Ankh shaped beams around and other than that anything goes."
"Any big story points we're working toward?"
"His brain and personality have a tendency to take a backseat to some kind of ancient Egyptian magic spirit, but the entity usually seems like a decent dude so it's kind of a long term hazard you only have to hint at."
"Any good arch-villains?"
"Hit the internet, check the wiki, pick one and do whatever you want with him. No one will care."
"What if I screw it up?"
"Well, you won't get to write his part in the Justice League movie. The JL will have to do without Dr. Fate... trust me there's no pressure on you. We'll be happy with any kind of positive profit."

Seriously, there's no downside to giving that a try. Oh another quick idea (although you can't link it to JL very easily.) Jonah Hex. Do it right this time. Joe R. Lansdale wrote some Hex, and Don Coscarelli turned one of Lansdale's short stories into a great movie (Bubba Ho-Tep.) There's your creative team right there, and neither one demands top-tier type money (I don't think so anyway.) And it couldn't be any worse than the last Hex film.

 

[Dalisclock]

Saints Row 4. I'm cool with the President fights Aliens thing. I'm a little disappointed by the "it's in the matrix" because then it feels like things don't really matter(killing computer programs that look like aliens feels a lot less meaningful then killing actual aliens). Though really, the thing that bugged me the most is using steelport once again.

I would have much preferred if the game centered around fighting off the Aliens around Washington DC, while driving around in a pimped out presidential limo that shoots lasers. You know, kind of like what was on the box art(well, no lasers on the limo but still). You know, make it feel like they put some effort into it.

I liked the beginning, I liked the end and I liked homie missions(both to rescue and to get their loyalty). However, it felt like a big chunk of the game that invovled running around the city collecting powerups felt really tedious.

 

[schrodinger]

Corvo's right hand in Dishonored.

i guess for spoilers for those who havne't heard about it yet:


Arkham Origins, and the recycling of the joker. Like a lot of people i do like the Joker and his insane character, but the reusing of him as the main villain was a huge waste. There are MANY villains in the batman universe, many who would make compelling MV's and to give the joker a break for a while.
I get if the studio wanted to take the safe route with dealing a popular franchise, but they should have taken the risk of using any other villain than joker as the MV.

 

[Nouw]

Just because I love it that much, I'm gonna have to mention Fate/Zero. Watch this spoiler-free ending song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzzbhzC-Iow] for the anime and I dare you to tell me you don't want to know more about the characters depicted. The knight with his back to us gazing at the lake, the man with the mask in front of the castle. It felt so compelling to me, still does, and it really annoys me that they decided to instead give up two episodes to emphasize how dark, moody and tortured the main character is but I've already ranted about that in a different post. Oh well, this way I can fill in the blanks.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I have problems with James Cameron. The long and short of it is that I think he's every bit as guilty of confusing special effects for plot and character development as George Lucas and Michael Bay and almost every movie of his that I see screams of wasted potential.

None more so than Terminator and Terminator 2.

Hey here's an idea, let's create an awesome story about a robotic uprising and a human led revolution to overthrow their robot overlords and then just sweep it under the rug in favor of watching a leather clad Austrian blow shit up for 120 minutes.

That's like making an X-Men movie that spends it's entire run time just watching Professor X run the school. Yeah sure there's cool looking shit all over the place but we all know there's something better and more interesting going on somewhere else.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

The Star Wars prequels.

The CG looks really plastic and fake nowadays - the lack of practical effects certainly removes it visually from the original trilogy. But that aside - man, those films have such stellar production value, such great actors, such interesting designs and concepts and a really great universe at its disposal and it's all ruined by the fact that the scripts are garbage. So much time and money and work and some genuinely heartfelt effort went into those movies and George Lucas' rushed, dogged scriptwriting absolutely put it all to waste.

A lot of people decry the films are being terrible, fake-looking CG shit, instead of being more similar to the gritty, grungy, and tangible original trilogy. But it could have worked. The films have a pleasing aesthetic in a way - it isn't "Star Wars"-y but there's an artistic talent there. The biggest issue is that the dialog and stories are pathetic. Those films truly could have been modern classics otherwise.