3 Cool Sci-Fi Movies I Missed Because of Bad Reviews
by Jaden
In the middle of the year, when there are not very good movies in the theatre and funds are tight, I give old movies (now on sale) a chance to show their stuff.
Below are three sci-fi movies I enjoyed recently that I didn’t watch in the theaters due to bad reviews.
Let’s talk about what went wrong with the scripts and how to make these great movies better.
*SPOILERS to follow*
The Island (2005)
Written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen (story & screenplay), Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (screenplay); Directed by Michael Bay; Starring Scarlett Johansson, Ewan McGregor & Djimon Hounsou
rates 7 Stars out of 10, from 84,000 votes
earned $12,400,000 opening weekend on 3,122 screens
CONCEPT: Humans are cloned for rich people to use the body parts to elongate their own life or procreate. What if the clones have feelings and want to live? What if they escape?
As I watched The Island, I thought, this movie is so cool and such a great story concept, how could it get such bad reviews? …And then, the end came and I understood why.
Here was this great plausible science fiction movie and yet, right at the end, it became totally unbelievable and outrageously ridiculous.
The Island is definitely worth watching, especially for screenwriters. It is a really cool concept for a movie but the execution of it is just slightly off kilter and therefore keeps it from being a sci-fi masterpiece.
For writing practice, watch The Island. Write a new ending starting from when Scarlett and Ewan’s characters are essentially free, just before they decide to go back to the facility to save the other clones. This is the point from where it just gets ridiculous. Change this ending and write a believable story that would make for a box office smash hit.
Surrogates (2009)
Written by Michael Ferris & John D. Brancato (screenplay), Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele (graphic novel); Directed by Jonathan Mostow; Starring Bruce Willis
rates 6 Stars out of 10, from 39,000 votes
earned $14,900,000 opening weekend on 2,951 screens
CONCEPTS: Surrogate robotic bodies go out and live in the world for you, keeping you safe at home from disease, crime, and hard labor. SUBPLOTS: Moral political debate, inventor’s remorse, self-image, humanity, control over society, and consumerism.
The ads for Surrogates ran all over big cities on big billboards and were very enticing… until the bad reviews came.
Again, here we have this awesome science fiction concept for a movie, so where was the ball dropped?
Sometimes graphic novels are hard to turn into movies. With movies, audiences want believable stories, no matter how outrageous or creative the concept might be. With graphic novels, it is much more about what looks cool as a visual image on the page than plausibility.
For Surrogates, there are a few major illogical points that writers missed.
Muscle atrophy! When humans are sitting still in a bed and not moving, it only takes a matter of days before muscles start to deteriorate, then a person is no longer able to walk and suffers other major health ramifications. This serious reality is not at all addressed in the film where humans don’t seem to move from their chair-bed for years.
For this movie, using surrogates cause the absolute annihilation of crime. No viewers are buying this. The first thing everyone thinks is, if these are just robots, who cares if you kill them or steal from them? Most viewers feel there would be more crime.
In Surrogates, there are no real people on the streets anymore. Everyone in public is a surrogate robot. Since surrogates cost a lot of money, viewers are not buying this either.
If no humans really interact anymore, how are people having sexual interactions, reproducing, and making babies? This issue is not addressed.
Addressing every little detail in your science fiction world is impossible, but some major considerations do have to be addressed, the ones that are immediately obvious as a problem to your average viewer.
How would you resolve these issues?
When you write a script, make sure to have several people read it and tell you if something is not believable. Have dialogs with people about your fiction world. Sort out everything that could be problematic.
Final Cut (2004)
Written and Directed by Omar Naim; Starring Robin Williams
rates 6 Stars out of 10 from 12,000 votes
earned $226,000 opening weekend on 117 screens
CONCEPT: Memory chips that record a person’s entire life are implanted to the babies of wealthy people who can afford them. When they die, the chip is retrieved and used for memorial services. This story is about a man who edits people’s lives. SUBPLOTS: Murder, politics, privacy, truth and perception.
Final Cut is a filmmakers’ film. The title is a reference to film editing software. Even though Final Cut is seven years old, there were still a lot of storytelling and filming techniques that I have not seen in any other films. Final Cut is contemplative and bizarre like French films often are — it’s not your average American Hollywood film, Final Cut is pleasantly different and unique.
Of the three films, I liked Final Cut the best and yet it did the worst financially. Why?
There was very little marketing for Final Cut and the movie only showed on very few screens. What this usually means is that producers felt the movie would not do well and therefore decided to cut their losses before even selling their product to the public. Basically, the movie went straight to video and didn’t have a chance.
What could have writers done to make this movie a success and earn the faith of producers?
The timeline is one thing about which viewers complained. The movie opens with what looks like the 1950s and closes in what looks like current time, maybe a few years in our future. Yet, there is no public use of these memory chips in our real life. Instead of accepting this invention and alternate reality for the movie, viewers were irritated and feel lost out of time. Having this futuristic technology in our past was something the majority of viewers could not accept without explanation.
One solution for the timeline issue could be a glimpse of history from this alternate realtiy, as was done in the opening of The Watchmen where they go back several decades to show the alternate life path that the public and government took.
For Final Cut, it seems viewers needed a little historical setting before accepting and jumping into this story.
The love interest was another point of contention for viewers. It comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere. No one buys it.
I enjoyed this movie despite these and other issues. My brain quickly fills in the story blanks.
As a writer, you have to accept that the majority of people might not want or don’t have the ability to fill in the blanks and that you the writer must fill in all blanks for your science fiction world. The writer must make a seamless world that your viewers can enjoy without their brain stopping and questioning everything you have set forth. Don’t leave the viewers room to doubt your fictitious world.
Pretend you are a paid writer hired to improve the Final Cut script before it goes into film production; how would you resolve issues so that this movie could be a hit?
Did you like this article? Here are some similar articles on SfH that you may enjoy as well:
A Discussion of Unusual Movie Scripts and Marketability
When Science Fiction Becomes Reality
How to Format a Script for a Hollywood Movie
by Jaden
One of the most important things an aspiring screenwriter must know to sell a movie script to Hollywood is how to format a screenplay properly.
An incorrectly formatted script may quickly land in the trash. No clever title will spare it.
Why?
A script that is formatted wrong is the first sign of a bad writer, a writer who has not taken one single hour to figure out how to properly format a script; it is the sign of a lazy and uneducated writer, and no one in Hollywood wants to work with that person.
Good for you: here you are now, taking some time to figure out how to format your script. You are on the right path and you are taking the first important step to selling your script to Hollywood.
Formatting your script is easy.
SCRIPT APPEARANCE
There should be no cover on your title page, I repeat, NO COVER. If you think getting fancy and adding pictures or protection to your precious baby is going to help you sell a script, you will be sorrily disappointed when no one calls you back. Make sure your script cover page is a simple white piece of paper with your title on it.
Use all 3-hole punched white paper that measures 8.5 x 11 inches. Do not use colored paper! Colored paper may be used later for different drafts of the script for production purposes only, not by or for you!
Use two brass metal fasteners called brads to bind your script at the top and bottom holes only. Check your local office supply store for them before making a costly online purchase. Make sure that you get the right length of the binding brads to match the thickness of your script so that they are not too long because they will cut the hands of your readers and they will be extremely irritated with you for that.
You may put a piece of hard stock paper as your very last page for extra protection, as pages do tend to rip off the back after being read a few times.
SCRIPT MARGINS
The body of the script, that is Scene Headings and Action margins are 1.5 inches from the left side and 1 inch from the right side.
Character Names are centered.
Dialogue is 3 inches from the left side and 2 inches from the right side.
PAGE NUMBERS are on the top right side of the page 1/2 inch down from the top.
SCREENPLAY FONT
Font must be COURIER size 12. Use this font for the Title Page and all the way through the entire script. Do not stray from this font. This is an exact measurement that is used to gauge the time of the movie. 1 page of script in this font generally equals 1 minute of screen time.
SCREENPLAY TITLE PAGE
Title page should be the cover of your script.
The title page should have your TITLE in capital letters centered about 1/3 the way down the first page of your script.
After the title, add a line space, following on the next line is: “by“.
On the next line add the screenplay’s author’s name with only the first letters capitalized, like “Irene Rocks”.
On the bottom left side of your first title page, add your contact information; this may be you, your agent, or your mom. Put the name, address, telephone number, and email in a block style.
On the other side, put your WGA number or Copyright year.
SCREENPLAY FORMATTING
Once you begin your feature length movie story, script formatting can vary slightly.
What is best is to keep your formatting as simple and clear as possible.
Here is an example of the script formatting I like best:
Every scene must be introduced with a Scene Heading.
EXT. LOCATION – NIGHT
or
INT. LOCATION – DAY
At the top of the page, this should be the first text on page 1 of your movie script.
SCENE HEADING describes whether we are on the Interior of a structure or sheltered area, INT. for inside, or on the Exterior, EXT. for outside. Next, tell the Location and whether it is Day or Night. Keep this as simple as possible. This information is mostly for the film crew to prepare for production. Save elaborate descriptions and details for the ACTION area underneath the Scene Heading!
After the Scene Heading comes the ACTION DESCRIPTION area; this is where you put all your creative details and should consist of only a description of what you can actually see on the screen in the movie theater.
ACTION is not a place for feelings or smells or lengthy prose descriptions. If the audience cannot see or hear it, don’t write it! Only write what can be seen and heard. Again, this is not a novel or poetry, it is a screenplay, so you want to keep it as simple and direct to the point as possible.
Screenplays are the DNA of movies, instructing how the body is going to be made.
CHARACTER NAMES should be centered and in capital letters.
DIALOGUE immediately follows the Character Name, no space in between.
FEATURE LENGTH SCREENPLAY
Short is better!
A feature length movie script is 90 to 120 pages, that is an hour and a half to two hours.
A short film is 10 to 60 pages.
Long scripts are an issue with new writers. I see it all the time.
Trust me, no one is looking for the next Shakespeare; Hollywood is just looking to slam something together to make a few million bucks. If you want to make a sale and you want someone to invest in you, the unknown writer, keep it tight and short! Agents and producers don’t have the patience or interest to read long scripts over 120 pages. Actors are busy memorizing other scripts for other movie roles.
You are not impressing anyone with your verboseness. What you are saying to producers with your long script is that you don’t know how to tighten up your script and get rid of all the unnecessary slough and that you might have a problem with writing deadlines.
You only have a few minutes to capture a reader’s attention and wow all these busy people to keep them reading, all the many many people it takes to make a movie, they all have to read your script and fall in love with it.
How many minutes do you think Brad Pitt has for you?
Ultimately, audiences don’t want to sit through long movies either. They want to be kept on their toes and entertained, not put to sleep.
Write a tight script. Only say what needs to be said to tell your story. Keep it interesting and exciting.
If you can’t say what you need to say in 120 pages, maybe you should consider writing a novel instead and let someone else adapt your story for cinema.
TIME TO WRITE
Now you know screenplay formatting basics, it is time to write!
On this site, you can find years worth of inspiring and encouraging articles to help you write. Here are some of my favorites:
How To Be Funny: List of Joke Fodder
Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week Zero
Sunday Picture Posts, Script Writing Prompts & Exercises
Click on these movie titles to read actual OSCAR award-winning SCRIPTS!
