7 Films With Terrible Stories That Were Saved By Great Directing

We all know making a movie is tough. It takes blood, sweat and tears and a crap ton of money spent on the gamble that it will do well. If it doesn't, fingers are pointed everywhere, from the director to the screenwriter, and even the critics who "don't understand what the movie actually was." That last statement is made all too often and in my opinion, is complete bullshit. Making movies and releasing them to the general public is all about money. How do you get money? By making people watch. Why do people watch? Because it's a good movie that is geared towards a general fondness by the public. Saying the public doesn't understand it is a cop-out for the fact that the filmmakers didn't understand what the public wants, and it's what the public wants that is the most important. In comes the screenwriter, who is tasked with writing a script that will bedazzle the audience. Their job is to be commercial in the originality, a task that is much harder than it sounds. If it gets too weird, it becomes an indie movie, which is great, but is not going to make the studio hundreds of millions. If it's all too familiar, the audience gets bored and no one watches it. In the end, it is up to the director to change the weird to familiar, and the familiar to bedazzling. On that note, here are seven films that have pretty bland stories, but were thankfully saved by great directing. 7) The Conjuring Seldom does one think of analyzing the story when it comes to horror films, as most viewers' intentions are solely to subject themselves to minor heart attacks. With such yearning of sadism, the crafting of the mood is arguably one of the most important - and difficult - aspects of the genre. Keeping that in mind, the ever-so-expected, but unexpected twist needs to be seamlessly woven in, lest it feel more like a cop out than a revelation. Director James Wan succeeded in all these points and gave us a an old-school thriller of a masterpiece with The Conjuring. The story can be summed down to a very generic logline: "A family moves into a house with a haunting past and must deal with the tormented souls within." In fact, a million other horror films could share that same logline, but it takes great directing to tear it apart and piece together just what made this cliché a cliché in the first place. The same old tactics like mirrors, odd noises, and creepy girls watching you sleep is all too familiar, and yet each of these parts show agency and hook into the story, rather than being crammed in for obvious scares. In an odd way, the viewer is able to connect to the suspense rather than just merely expecting it. 6) Gravity The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, the only thing I could muster was laughter. Yes, laughter. With the entirety of the trailer being a woman spiralling off into space, there was nothing I could attach myself to, and so I laughed because of how absurd it was. Was the film really just two hours of watching Sandra Bullock basically talking to herself? Well, yes, but in all the best ways possible. I admit that I fell for the hype after I heard the massive amount of acclaim that Gravity was receiving. And much to my pleasant surprise, director Alfonso Cuarón created a tear-spewing, fist-wrenching, emotionally overflowing epic of a film. Let's face it, the logline for Gravity is as simple as: "A woman tries to survive in space." I highly doubt that will evoke any sort of curiosity to your average viewer, as she really is just "surviving in space" with almost all the incidents being as predictable as the tenth viewing of The Sixth Sense. But what Cuarón does is hammer into the fear of all human beings on this earth, over and over and over again: the fear of being alone. We can't help but to break down at the sight of everyone leaving Dr. Stone. First her daughter, then Matt Kowalski, and finally, the lone fisherman with his innocent laughter. 5) The Avengers Now, wait a minute! Before you all lose it and call me terrible names, let me explain myself! I'm a huge Marvel fan and like many, I was counting down the seconds to when this movie was going to be released. Once it was, I almost fainted at the thought of finally setting my eyes on this beauty, and guess what? I enjoyed it! But when you really think about it, the story pretty much goes like this: a bunch of well-known superheroes put aside their differences to stop an alien invasion from destroying a city. Imagine if this wasn't The Avengers, and someone approached a producer with a logline like that. It wouldn't get made, plain and simple. It's too bland and as cliché as can be. You can't really blame Joss Whedon, though, since it's incredibly tough to write a script that features six main characters all trying to be different from one another. It almost had to be a simple story. But then Whedon added his magical touch behind the camera, and the result was two and a half hours of pure entertainment. Don't get me wrong, the writing and dialogue itself is great, but as the title of this article says, it's the story that's in question. What Whedon did is hard to put my finger on, but I'm sure it has something to do with tapping into that element of fun: a feat that is extremely difficult to do, especially over a wide audience, and especially when assembling the team of The Avengers. Nevertheless, he succeeded and delivered one of the most satisfying blockbusters in recent memory. 4) Pacific Rim Out of all the movies in this list, Pacific Rim takes the cake for having the single most cringeworthy story. Logline: Giant robots attack the giant monsters from another world that were sent to destroy us. If that's not the least innovative story to "grace" our screens this year, then I don't know what is. What was even more disgusting was the god-awful dialogue: I'm not sure how many times I can hear someone scream, "Mako!" But I digress, this isn't about the writing. Really, not much else needs to be said about the story, since, you know, there wasn't really much of one. But then you get the rave reviews that all say one thing: who cares that there was no story, it was entertaining as hell! I'm not sure about you, but a giant robot using a ship as a weapon was pretty damn awesome. It was such a throwback to the cartoons of old that it was hard not to enjoy the explosive fights that usually ended up with either a Jaeger or a Kaiju revealing another asset of their system that had the audience cheering. What director Guillermo del Toro did behind the camera more than made up for the lack of story and ensured that audiences would be having way too much fun to even realize how thin the narrative was. Don't believe me? Just watch the video above. 3) Avatar I'm sure you all saw this one coming. The highest-grossing movie of all time - unadjusted for inflation - was truly a cinematic experience. I ended up journeying into the world of Pandora three times in theaters, which I hadn't done for any movie up until then. But when you strip away the visuals and when you take away Pandora, what's left is basically Pocahontas or Tarzan. The movie was incredibly predictable until the very end, when Jake opened his eyes and the screen went black. Sure, the world that Cameron built was mesmerizing and in a sci-fi movie, that's the most important thing, but the use of the world was very bland - and the hair tentacles were just weird. Not much else to say on Avatar, but kudos to James Cameron for building this epic of a movie though, no matter how cliche the story ultimately was. Here's hoping that the sequel will have a plot that's a bit more engaging. 2) Warrior One of my all time favorite movies is one that was unfortunately overlooked by many, including myself (originally). I really didn't care and don't care for sports-themed film, as they all end up being a little too sappy on the inspiration. Was Warrior any different? Not really. Logline: Two estranged brothers compete for the ultimate prize that will change their lives. Not much promise, is there? Well, you'd be surprised at just how heart-wrenching the movie is. In this particular case, I would have to give all the credit to director Gavin O'Connor and the performances that he was able to get out of his actors. Their ability to tap into that raw emotion and punch you in the face with it was unparalleled. Nick Nolte's chilling performance as Paddy Conlon earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, which was well-deserved, especially for his drunken confrontation with Tom Hardy's character, Tommy Riordan. I can't recommend this movie enough, and everyone who I've forced to watch it has been singing praises. Of course, they were all reluctant at first seeing as how uninspiring the story seemed, but they all shut their mouths and were put in their place after finishing this masterpiece. Seriously, go watch it, you won't be disappointed. 1) Titanic Oh, yes. The juggernaut of them all. Titanic, the movie whose heart will go on and on for generations to come. I really do hope you saw this one coming. If you didn't, well, I guess you're still bathing in "Leo-mania" and can't admit that this movie was just a glorified version of the same old tale of true love. Logline: Two star-crossed lovers brave the impossible in a relationship that is doomed to sink - see what I did there? I will commend James Cameron once again on doing one thing that many screenplays don't do, which often results in a movie that coasts on tickling the audience's interest instead of piquing it: he raised the stakes to a monstrosity of a level. Both Jack and Rose had everything to lose, not just from the get-go, but everything they risked to develop. And unlike most love stories, the chance they would escape the calamity that befell them was slim, and the audience knew that, resulting in a heartbreaking ending. Much like Avatar, I'm praising the setting that this movie takes place in, which Cameron seems to have a knack for: giving us age-old tales, but writing them in unforgiving environments and situations, which is a feat that is easier said than done. There we have it, my short list of movies with stories that beg for some creative juice - and get it. You might not agree, but that's all in good spirit. Let me know what movies you think should go on this list in the comments section below.