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First Impressions: 6 Films With Great Premises That Didn’t Deliver

Everyone is saying that the film industry is dying, well, more like the heart of the film industry is dying. Long gone are the days of original movies taking the box office by storm. Now, sequels, re-imaginings, and remakes dominate the ever-greedy industry by finding the most obscure and irrelevant token of days past in hopes that the feeling of nostalgia will make hundreds of millions in profit. So far, the only type of movie this has worked with is the superhero movie, something that Marvel - Disney, now, I guess - has found the most success in chasing.

3) The Invention of Lying

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The Premise: Imagine a world where lying did not exist, where we would blurt out our deepest thoughts and secrets, resulting in a very blunt and quite dull society. Even movies, books, and all sorts of creative media show actual events as imagining a story would be lying itself.

The Failure: It wasn’t nearly as witty as it thought it was. Once again, I did enjoy this film, and was dazzled by the premise, but I ended up only chuckling a few times. When it comes to making an effective comedy, the one real rule is to twist the expected. The Invention of Lying twisted the perspective in the concept, but nothing else. Everything that was done was what any normal person would have done under the same situation. We would lie to get what we want. In fact, we already lie to get what we want. So what’s new with the story? Nothing.

The Fix: Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a fix. The film is the premise and without the premise, there wouldn’t be a film.