# Great ideas horribly wasted in film and literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334 "2008-09-19T17:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334/61 "2008-09-22T18:15:18Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > A good deal of the movies on MST3K. Teenage Caveman had a decent idea (brave caveman goes against authority for the good of his people) and a cool twist ending > > The cavemen are the descendants of people who survived an atomic holocaust. > > but it was ruined by wooden acting, bad special effects, and bad, repetitious writing. > > Hobgoblins was about aliens who can make one’s wildest dreams come true. With a good writer, that could have been a great movie, intend we got a mediocre 80s teen movie. I personally think that’s one of the most frustrating things about Edward D. Wood. It’s not that his ideas were _bad_–some of them weren’t. Alien invaders raising an army of zombies in a bid to take over the Earth? I would totally watch that! I also think the core of the idea behind **The Sinister Urge** is a good one. It’d make a good suspense movie–it’s got all the elements people like in a good suspense movie, and the basic idea (an illicit smut ring in Hollywood with girls turning up murdered) was used to great effect in **L.A. Confidential**. You know, in a lot of ways, George Lucas reminds me of Ed Wood. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334/62 "2008-09-22T21:28:08Z")
When someone trades their immortality for mortality, gaining the gift to see into the hearts and minds of all humans, and becomes the catalyst for a new golden age of civilization…the creative possibilities are endless. One of those possibilities unfortunately is **Highlander 2**. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334/63 "2008-09-22T21:50:50Z")
The trouble with \*\*Gattaca \*\*is that I just don’t buy the idea that genetic engineering would turn everyone into uber-conformist cookie-cutter yuppies in grey flannel suits. For instance, take the six-fingered pianist from the movie. He’s a genetically engineered freak of nature. Why aren’t there more people like him? Why isn’t the whole world of Gattaca populated by weirdos and eccentrics and mutants? If everyone were smart, healthy, handsome, and athletic, that just becomes the new normal. I understand that in today’s world everything comes easily for the smart handsome healthy people. But Jude Law isn’t Jude Law anymore if everyone in the world is Jude Law. And what’s the point of discriminating against the unengineered? It doesn’t make any sense to go out of your way to exclude the unengineered. Yeah, it’s a metaphor for elitism, or racism, or some such. But it doesn’t make sense! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334/64 "2008-09-22T22:34:07Z")
In re “The Matrix”: > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I agree with you. It was an incredibly stupid idea that was turned into a tolerable movie. > > It also seemed there was almost no point to the human revolution. Since people over a certain (undefined but young) age can’t be freed because of some kind of unavoidable psychological issues, a successful revolution would result in the death of just about every human on the planet. I enjoy the first Matrix, and really wanted to see the sequel promised by Neo in the last lines of the film: [QUOTE=Neo] I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you. [/QUOTE] I wanted to see _that_ film, rather than a giant shoot-out defending a troglodyte city of rave kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ideas-horribly-wasted-in-film-and-literature/464334.md?page=3)