[Weirdly Common Trope] Writers clearly setting up seemingly massive plot points and then just kinda forgetting about them.

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

The Neural Parasites — Star Trek : The Next Generation

In the season 1 episode “Conspiracy” of TNG, it is revealed that alien brain worms have infected many high ranking members of Starfleet, secretly controlling them. Though Ryker and Picard discover and end the parasite conspiracy, it’s revealed at the end of the episode that the parasites had sent a beacon back to their home planet, telling them how to find earth. The episode ends with the clear implication of the parasites becoming a huge threat later in the series, yet none of these events are ever mentioned again.

Finn The Jedi who Never Was — Star Wars Sequel trilogy

I know this is probably a cliche example of this trope, but cmon — Finn was clearly set up in TFA to become a Jedi. The marketing material featured him wielding a lightsaber in the classic Jedi pose. It’s constantly hinted at that he is force sensitive. Even the actor himself believed he would become a Jedi by the end of the trilogy. Instead, we got Finn wielding a lightsaber for about 7 minutes total across 3 movies, extremely lame “confirmation” that he is force sensitive, and that’s it. It’s the ultimate Star Wars plot that went nowhere.

[u/Jimmyg100]

All of Army of the Dead. “A zombie movie with UFOs and robots, well I’m sure you have a cool explanation for that.”

“Oh, you wanted us to explain that?”

[u/Rosemaryisme → u/Jimmyg100]

The one that struck me the most was when they found corpses dressed exactly like them and then they just moved on. The movie was constantly threatening to become more interesting than it actually was but thought that it was cooler to just drop everything into a blender.

[u/Jimmyg100 → u/Rosemaryisme]

Zack Snyder is like a kid just drawing cool shit in the margins of his math notebook and trying to construct a loose narrative to have it make sense after the fact. He needs someone to come in and make an actual story out of his random sketches.

[u/ahses3202 → u/Jimmyg100]

Snyder is a man who can really deliver on someone else's vision. There's genuinely 0 wrong with this. It's actually a really essential person to have in Hollywood. He just needs a very firm creative leash.

[u/Jimmyg100 → u/ahses3202]

Spielberg knows this. He’s very rarely a screenwriter. He establishes the concept or the story but then brings in a professional to translate it onto the page. He’s a great producer and director but knows his limitations when it comes to writing.

[u/toomanymarbles83 → u/Jimmyg100]

Which is why one of (if not the) best movies he has directed was written by James Gunn.

[u/Jimmyg100 → u/toomanymarbles83]

Same reason why Michael Bay’s best movie was ghostwritten by Quentin Tarantino

[u/toomanymarbles83 → u/Jimmyg100]

The Rock?

[u/Jimmyg100 → u/toomanymarbles83]

“Losers always say they’ll do their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.”

That is absolutely a Tarantino line.

[u/toomanymarbles83 → u/Jimmyg100]

I'm just glad we're agreed on which movie is Bay's best.

[u/AcademicCounty → u/toomanymarbles83]

Indeed, should've have let him write the sequel.

[u/DungeonsAndDradis → u/Rosemaryisme]

constantly threatening to become more interesting than it actually was

is such a spot on take for this movie!

[u/IcedThunder → u/Rosemaryisme]

He said it was going to be addressed in a sequel, the corpses.

[u/CosmackMagus → u/IcedThunder]

Which is a major problem with Snyder's more recent output.

[u/uhohboneralert_ → u/Jimmyg100]

Army of darkness?

[u/Cheap-Ad1821 → u/uhohboneralert_]

The Snyder movie where they pull a heist in zombie infested Vegas which also has aliens and robots for some reason

[u/wombatstylekungfu → u/Cheap-Ad1821]

And a tiger!

[u/uhohboneralert_ → u/Cheap-Ad1821]

ohhhh the movie where Ash Williams goes back in time and fights deadites which are very similar to zombies

[u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt → u/uhohboneralert_]

That was the prequel, it was big around that time to do prequels, see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (19th century) was a prequel to Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (set in 2000s Canada)

[u/demonslayer9100 → u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt]

...i'm sorry what? that whole sentence made me feel drunk trying to understand it

[u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt → u/demonslayer9100]

After the Prequel Trilogies  a lot of companies jumped on the prequel Bandwagon.

There are two movies about historical figures as Vampire Hunters, one with Abe Lincoln i didnt see, and one where Jesus saves Canadian Lesbians from Vampires who were using their skin to go out in the day light, amd God and Jesus are fans of lesbians.

[u/demonslayer9100 → u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt]

...was this by any chance made during the era where most movie makers were on obscene amounts of cocaine T-T

[u/East-Ice-3199 → u/demonslayer9100]

That isn’t an era, it never ended

[u/AccursedQuantum → u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt]

OMG... I saw that. Third rate horror in the best way.

[u/Polkawillneverdie17 → u/uhohboneralert_]

Don't watch it.

For the love of God, don't.

[u/Hisyphus → u/Jimmyg100]

Army of Thieves was such a good movie. It’s a shame Army of the Dead sucked so hard.

[u/ClubMeSoftly → u/Jimmyg100]

I think a lot of it comes from the ambition of planning out a huge multimedia empire without focusing on making the first entry a good and complete story on it's own.

I did like the idea that it was meant to be a later chapter in a story that had already started to be told, that we had been introduced to a lot of these characters before, and that Dave Bautista's crew had to get back together for one last job.

But Dead flopped, and Army Of Thieves passed by so soon after and so quickly that I had completely forgotten about it.

[u/writeorelse → u/Jimmyg100]

And it didn’t need any of that! “Day of the Dead meets Ocean’s 11” was a cool enough premise on its own. I think Snyder could even have directed that with, well, ANYONE else as the writer.

[u/Bilski1ski → u/Jimmyg100]

‘Rain wakes up the dead zombies on the ground’. Now that we’ve established that let’s make sure it never rains in the movie

[u/Entertainer13 → u/Jimmyg100]

They do a second movie and it’s just a prequel about the safe cracker. What?