Eh....*shrug*: Movies That Didn't Live Up to the Hype

[Jeebus Cripes]

I find that Nolan's Batman movies absolutely, categorically do not live up to any of the hype that they've received. The last two, in particular, are boring, sterile and lacking anything approaching charm and wit and fun. Just tedious treks through one director's repertoire and one actor's increasingly tiresome performances. The third movie didn't even have a charismatic villain to enjoy. Bane was a joke.

 

I feel the same, only I find the first film to be the absolute worst in terms of boring. I enjoy Ledger's Joker in the second, but overall, it's such a bland take on the franchise.

[Athena]

I feel the same, only I find the first film to be the absolute worst in terms of boring. I enjoy Ledger's Joker in the second, but overall, it's such a bland take on the franchise.

 

I ran out of likes so yes, I agree that there are little bits of the franchise I don't mind namely Gary Oldman, JGL, and the Joker. The last film gave me a headache; it was beyond bland and went into annoying for me. All that hype for nothing. I didn't like Bale's Batman in the end, but I don't mind the ending too much. Still, it didn't make up for those three films of emo.

[KatWay]

Star Trek 11, actually, the first reboot. Into Darkness was meh but everybody seemed to agree on that. But the first one was pretty much praised everywhere and I thought it was okay at best. I had the feeling they really wanted Spock to be the main character but were stuck with Kirk so they just wrote him as this one note douche getting beaten up for the most part while Spock got the storyline, the emotional resonance, the love interest and the big climax. And I love Spock, but I also found this new version not even close to Nimoy's awesome original. He just seemed like a stuck up dude with anger issues, there was nothing alien or mysterious about him whatsoever. 

 

The plot also made no sense. I mean, time travel is fine with me, but so much of it just was so poorly explained I still scratch my head over the logistics of that plot. Really, there were no ships at all near earth? They were all, what, hanging out somewhere else in space? And yet Spock thought it was a great idea to head there and just leave earth totally defenseless anyways? Not to mention this ship has a brig (which we saw in STID), and yet the obvious choice is to throw off Kirk to a random planet in the middle of nowhere? That's starfleet regulation now?

It's like everyone involved just came up with ways to get from point A to point B, any sense of logic or coherence be damned. Which is exactly what they continued in STID, so no big surprises there.

 

I'm not even gonna get into the writing for the female characters.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Count me in as well for not liking Star Trek Into Darkness. After the first movie, I was looking forward to it... but then I saw it and was totally disappointed. It was just bad period.

 

Same goes with Stargate The Arc of Truth. I could only watch around a half an hour of it, the acting was so bad. The secondary actors were ok, it was just the main actors who weren't.

[Julia]

I think the Stargate actors were pretty good. Unfortunately, the worst of the writers and producers made the movies (hard to believe the people who took over the series were only the second worst, I know).

[TheGreenKnight]

One that most easily comes to mind is Brokeback Mountain. I just heard all about it was this great romance between two gay characters that we'd all been waiting for, and it just was not that for me. That may just be a case of bait-and-switch though, because it is a good movie for what it is. I just don't see a great gay romance where both characters are adulterers and everything's tragic at the end. It might be that I'm just tired of sad gay movies.

 

More recently, I'd say The Lego Movie. I did think the movie was funny in ways and I liked the animation, but I was not hugely impressed the same way so many other people were, apparently. I was also a little disappointed in Avatar. It was definitely beautiful, only the story/characters were uninteresting.

[BooBear]

I do not get Scent of a Woman. Apparently Charlie witnesses who commited an act of vandlism and refuses to tell on them...and somehow this is a good thing? It is integrity?  So it is a good thing to protect rich boys who have destroyed someone's property? So if tomorrow those same rich brats kill someone will then it also be integrity for Charlie to say nothing? Do not get!!

[proserpina65]

The Age of Innocence.  Or as the friend with whom I saw it likes to call it: "The Age of Ennui".  So boring it was physically painful to sit in the theater seat watching it, but neither one of us wanted to admit that we were bored and so we suffered through to the end.  Stuart Wilson's character was the only one worth watching so naturally he was only in it for a few minutes here and there.  Daniel Day Lewis wasn't portraying Victorian uprightness; he was just constipated.  And the less said about Winona Ryder's dreadful performance, the better.  I will, however, still look at the opera scenes when it shows up on tv because they were filmed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia (being one of the few surviving opera houses of the correct period whose interior hasn't been irredeemably modernized) where I used to have season tickets to the opera.

There were no Star War films released after 1983; that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

Preach on, brother/sister!  The saga started with Star Wars and ended with Return of the Jedi - nothing else.

[QTBlueMoon]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ultimated let down Star Wars Episode I.  It's almost a cliche' joke how hyped it was and how bad it turned out to be.  "I haven't been this dissapointed since Star Wars Episode I".

::waving hand slowly in front of you::  These are not the Star Wars movies you've been looking for...

[Dirtybubble]

::waving hand slowly in front of you:: These are not the Star Wars movies you've been looking for...

Ha!  If only it was that easy to erase that movie from my mind.  My husband & I saw all 3 of the prequels thinking surely it's going to get better.  And I know people who saw each of those movies 7 & 8 times thinking the this time it will be different.  This time I won't hate it as much as I did the first time.

 

As far as recent movies go Godzilla stands out as one I was really looking forward to seeing this summer.  I'm such a fan of the original Japanese movies and everything I heard said that this movie was going to be better than that God awful remake that came out in the 90s.  No such luck.  I was just so bored with everyone else's storyline and not enough monster.

[midge]

Ha!  If only it was that easy to erase that movie from my mind.  My husband & I saw all 3 of the prequels thinking surely it's going to get better.  And I know people who saw each of those movies 7 & 8 times thinking the this time it will be different.  This time I won't hate it as much as I did the first time.

 

As far as recent movies go Godzilla stands out as one I was really looking forward to seeing this summer.  I'm such a fan of the original Japanese movies and everything I heard said that this movie was going to be better than that God awful remake that came out in the 90s.  No such luck.  I was just so bored with everyone else's storyline and not enough monster.

Yeah that one is a good example of something that was disappointing rather than bad.  It's a monster movie, it should have been FUN!  I wasn't expecting the Godzilla Dance, but it went the other extreme and was just depressing.   

 

I also agree about ST: Into Darkness being meh.   Again, this just totally missed the mark in tone.  I don't think anyone involved bothered to watch the Khan episode from the original series.   Ricardo Montalban purred through it.  He was super intelligent, dangerous and sexy.  In Into Darkness Khan was an over-enunciating, emo-boy with no real direction.   What a waste of Cumberbatch, it could have been a characterization that had his female fans flocking to the theater. 

[wanderingstar]

The Dark Knight Rises just fell flat and left me rolling my eyes a lot. There was a movie that was way too impressed with itself and it's allegedly big ideas. 

Edited July 24, 2014 by Gillian Rosh

[ribboninthesky1]

By the time I saw Taken, my reaction was, "That's it? Maggie Grace running weirdly, and Liam Neeson punching people in the throat?"  I like him as an actor and all, but I was completely underwhelmed.  I'm pretty sure the film wasn't a comedy, but I laughed during most of it.  

Edited July 24, 2014 by ribboninthesky1

[OakGoblinFly]

By the time I saw Taken, my reaction was, "That's it? Maggie Grace running weirdly, and Liam Neeson punching people in the throat?"  I like him as an actor and all, but I was completely underwhelmed.  I'm pretty sure the film wasn't a comedy, but I laughed during most of it.  

 

 

I had the same reaction; though my love of all things Liam Neeson prevented me from actively disliking the film.  Between his rugged good looks and that awesome mellifluous voice I think I can forgive his appearance in a less than stellar film.

 

Heck I watched the awful, awful Austenland (twice!) just because of JJ Fields.  

[BizBuzz]

For me?  I kept hearing how great The Spanish Prisoner was.  All my friends around me said, Biz, this is your type of movie, you need to see it.

 

When I saw it finally, I was wondering who my friends thought I was exactly. 

 

I felt most of all that whoever did the casting of this film needed to find another job.

[Athena]

Heck I watched the awful, awful Austenland (twice!) just because of JJ Fields.  

 

I've wanted to watch this for JJ too. Is it really that bad? Can I grin and bear it while looking at the pretty?

[OakGoblinFly]

I've wanted to watch this for JJ too. Is it really that bad? Can I grin and bear it while looking at the pretty?

 

It's bad  -- I thought the writing was clunky, the plot obvious, and Keri Russell was disappointing (which is a shame because I usually like her).  Just watch for the pretty of JJ Fields in period costume and the silliness of James Callis (who was quite delightful).

[Crs97]

Lost in Translation. Actually, just about any movie that gets raves for being "quirky."

[j5cochran]

Don't hate me for it, but . . .

 

The only movie I've ever walked out of was Taxi Driver (1976).  I saw it years later, at a university film festival, but I couldn't make more than about 30 minutes into it before I had to leave.  De Niro's taxi driver Travis Bickle has no redeeming characteristics.  I enjoy a good anti-hero sort of character, but Bickle was the sort of person I'd hate to talk to for five minutes in real life.  I don't want to spend money to be stuck with him for two hours in a theater.

[nerdyduck]

I have also come the conclusion, after much forced exposure to the genre, that I cannot find it within myself to give a flying fuck about anything mafia related.

OMG, I think I found my soulmate!  I hate mafia movies (it might have something to do with the fact I lived in NJ for a bit) and my husband doesn't get why I refuse to watch The Godfather movies, even if my life depended on it.  To be fair, a lot of it has to do with the fact I find Al Pacino overactting in every movie annoying.

 

I liked Gravity but it wasn't as mind-blowing as a lot of it made it out to be.

 

I hate Citizen Kane with a passion of a thousand suns and I don't understand why the industry keeps saying it's the best movie ever.

[Ubiquitous]

I happened to catch The Happening on TV thos weekend. Wow, I really dodged a bullet when it first came out! I would have been really pissed off if I had to pay to watch it.

[Brn2bwild]

Saw Cabaret last weekend and was very underwhelmed.  The pace was glacial.  The songs were forgettable except for "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."  Liza Minelli was good, but not THAT good.  And the message was off -- "Stupid people, how dare you have fun!  Don't you know that a great evil is rising to power around you?"  Like they're supposed to drop everything and cower?  I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, except perhaps that poor Jewish heiress who lost her dog.  

[Jeebus Cripes]

That first Hunger Games movie. Uh.... that was it? That was what all the fuss was about? The plot was dumb, the action was lacking, and none of the characters were memorable to me. I'll skip the next one, no thanks.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

In The Heat, she played the romantic interest.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. I liked The Heat (leave me alone), but it would have made me like Sandra Bullock's character better if McCarthy had beeen interested in her.

[Sweet Tee]

There's no shame in liking The Heat. I'm a sucker for buddy cop movies and I thought that was one of the better ones in recent years.

[ribboninthesky1]

That first Hunger Games movie. Uh.... that was it? That was what all the fuss was about? The plot was dumb, the action was lacking, and none of the characters were memorable to me. I'll skip the next one, no thanks.

 

Good for you for watching the whole thing.  I gave up after about 15 minutes.

[Rick Kitchen]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. I liked The Heat (leave me alone), but it would have made me like Sandra Bullock's character better if McCarthy had beeen interested in her.

 

I never said McCarthy was a romantic interest for Sandra Bullock, she was the romantic interest for men, none of whom had any interest in Bullock.

[DrSpaceman]

Lost in Translation I agree, didn't live up to the hype. It was interesting, but boring

Felt the same way about The Hurt Locker. Its not that I thought either was a bad movie, just didn't find them as great as what they were made out to be.

And Rushmore. Exact same way.

[Mystery]

Les Miserables. And I was really excited to see it. 

 

I don't care much for mafia movies, but I love everything about The Freshman. 

[ToxicUnicorn]

The shaky camera work on The Hunger Games literally made me feel carsick.  After about 20 minutes, I had to close my eyes for the rest of the movie.

 

Everyone is correct about the first Star Wars prequel.  I'm not sure I remember the story.  I basically only remember Natalie Portman's very odd makeup.  

 

I agree with everyone about the Batman movies, Star Trek Into Darkness, and  Avatar, and I'll toss in all the Wolverine and X-Men movies for good measure.

 

Phantom of the Opera was a HUGE disappointment.  It seemed pretty awful to me.  I also have made a lot of mistakes by going to a movie to see a particular actor's critically acclaimed performance, and felt completely let down by:

 

Everyone in The Grifters

Geoffrey Rush in Shine

Everyone in Silver Linings Playbook                 (I thought Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were extremely overrated)

 

I also finally watched Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot about two years ago.  He was convincingly real, but his character and his life were so unappealing that, instead of being impressed, I was bored silly.

 

On the positive side, I ended up liking Lost in Translation by the time it reached the end.  However, it reminds me a lot of Leaving Las Vegas which never went anywhere.

Edited May 10, 2015 by ToxicUnicorn

[methodwriter85]

One that most easily comes to mind is Brokeback Mountain. I just heard all about it was this great romance between two gay characters that we'd all been waiting for, and it just was not that for me. That may just be a case of bait-and-switch though, because it is a good movie for what it is. I just don't see a great gay romance where both characters are adulterers and everything's tragic at the end. It might be that I'm just tired of sad gay movies.

 

Yeah, I've never really gotten it, either. The scenery is beautiful, and Anne Hathaway's phone call scene is a masterclass in acting, but other than that, I really don't get it.

 

I think what made it famous was that it was the first mainstream gay film that featured the guys do more than just chastely peck on the lips and then immediately cut away before any real business happens.

 

I was disappointed in Divergent. Shailene does her best and I loved watching Theo, but I was so thrilled reading the book and none of that translated on-screen.

 

Apparently most people agreed with me as the domestic box office for the second film has declined by twenty million.

Edited May 10, 2015 by methodwriter85

[harrie]

The King's Speech.  

 

Also echoing the sentiments regarding Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Bridesmaids.  Also Atonement.

The shaky camera work on The Hunger Games literally made me feel carsick.  After about 20 minutes, I had to close my eyes for the rest of the movie.

 

  I also have made a lot of mistakes by going to a movie to see a particular actor's critically acclaimed performance, and felt completely let down by:

 

Everyone in The Grifters

 

Perhaps I am not particularly underwhelmed by The Grifters; but I have a tough time taking this downbeat film as seriously as we're supposed to.  What kind of ruined it for me was when Pat Hingle beat Anjelica Huston with the bag of  grapefruit. I dunno, maybe it's harmful, but it just cracked me up, like the Monty Python bit where Torquemada has his men torture someone with sofa cushions; so during what's supposed to be a very dark, ugly scene, I was giggling as quietly as possible in the theater.  In that way, I definitely find the flick underwhelming.

Edited May 10, 2015 by harrie

[blixie]

 

dunno, maybe it's harmful,

 

I'm sure they are, but pretty sure the cigar burn was the kicker to that scene. You're supposed to think she's getting away relatively unscathed and then he fries her hand, which is shot in close up.

[harrie]

I'm sure they are, but pretty sure the cigar burn was the kicker to that scene. You're supposed to think she's getting away relatively unscathed and then he fries her hand, which is shot in close up.

 

Somehow, I've totally blocked out the cigar burn part; that makes more sense in the scene.   I just recall him talking up how she'll never crap right again, etc. and not being all that frightened about it all. 

[raezen]

I liked Bridesmaids, but then I was dragged to the theatre and I went in expecting to hate it. That made a HUGE difference.

[FurryFury]

Guardians of the Galaxy. Such a shallow movie with one-dimensional characters. Some of the jokes were funny, but nowhere close to The Avengers (the first one), even if more numerous. But really, the characters usually make the movie for me, and they were simply bad, way worse than I've come to expect from MCU by that point.

Also, the worldbuilding was way too simplified. I do expect something of Star Wars caliber from a wannabe space opera, so my expectations are high, but what I've got was simply ridiculous. So unconvincing.

 

This is my least favorite MCU movie, ranking even below Iron Man 2 & 3. At least they had Tony and Pepper, who both were on their own much better than any GotG character. The only one I was even remotely interested in was the raccoon.

[harrie]

Guardians of the Galaxy. Such a shallow movie with one-dimensional characters. Some of the jokes were funny, but nowhere close to The Avengers (the first one), even if more numerous. But really, the characters usually make the movie for me, and they were simply bad, way worse than I've come to expect from MCU by that point.

Also, the worldbuilding was way too simplified. I do expect something of Star Wars caliber from a wannabe space opera, so my expectations are high, but what I've got was simply ridiculous. So unconvincing.

 

This is my least favorite MCU movie, ranking even below Iron Man 2 & 3. At least they had Tony and Pepper, who both were on their own much better than any GotG character. The only one I was even remotely interested in was the raccoon.

 

I agree.  A friend of mine recommended it highly, though it's not my usual genre. Said friend is a grad of film school, so I believed him and watched it recently when it played on my cheapo cable package.  It was just so not interesting, even the chases were like "yeah, okay."

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Soylent Green.  I typically enjoy dystopian movies, too.   The big reveal was such a nothingburger I still can't believe it was thought to be revolutionary. 

[proserpina65]

Soylent Green.  I typically enjoy dystopian movies, too.   The big reveal was such a nothingburger I still can't believe it was thought to be revolutionary. 

To be fair, at the time, the notion of turning surplus population into food and basically promoting cannibalism on such a large scale was kind of revolutionary.  The film itself, however, has not aged well.

[DeLurker]

But the quote "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!" will amuse me forever.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Any Cohen Brother's film except True Grit.  I didn't make it through Raising Arizona or Oh Brother Where Art Thou and barely made it through Burn After Reading and Fargo (dear God, it took all my husband and I had not to leave the theater on that one--we stayed because it was getting so many rave reviews that we thought for sure it would eventually get better).

 

All my male friends thought Raising Arizona was hilarious.  Didn't matter who I asked, low brow, high brow, they all loved it.  I took a long break, then finally relented to watch Fargo because I like William Macy and it got so much hype.  Ug.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

Thought of another one: The Perfect Storm.  I don't understand why anyone ever thought that was a story I wanted to see.

[proserpina65]

All my male friends thought Raising Arizona was hilarious.  Didn't matter who I asked, low brow, high brow, they all loved it.

 

I watched Raising Arizona (based on a friend's recommendation) and Big Trouble In Little China during the same weekend housesitting gig.  Big Trouble was hilarious in a low brow, stupid kind of way.  Raising Arizona had a few slightly amusing moments.

[harrie]

I'm female and find Raising Arizona hilarious, too - or at least really, really funny in many ways.  I wonder if the gender divide can be explained as easily as the fact that many parts of the movie are like a live-action cartoon, and - if I'm generalizing incorrectly or inappropriately here, I will gladly retract this observation - guys seem to watch/like cartoons more than gals. 

 

Big Trouble in Little China is a joke in my house because it is guaranteed that I will fall asleep during it.  I don't dislike the movie and want to like it - but every time I've started watching, I've fallen asleep. 

Edited May 12, 2015 by harrie

[Janet Snakehole]

Captain America, the Winter Solider.

I liked Black Widow in it, and thought Sam was fun, but I just thought it was kind of boring overall. I am not a huge Steve fan, and saw like a LOT of fawning over Bucky before the movie. I just didn't get it. Also, for all the hype that Marvel movies get for being fun compared to dark DC movies, TWS was pretty bleak.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Janet Snakehole

[ribboninthesky1]

I like Steve a lot, but he got on my damn nerves in the latter half of the film. Most of my affection for Sebastian Stan is due to The Covenant (don't judge me), but he didn't have much to do in the film as Bucky/TWS.  Beyond some cool action sequences, I never got the Bucky fawning.  

 

Don't even get me started on the Marvel is fun vs DC is grim stuff.  It's all so silly to me in general.    

[Julia]

I thought the new, more cynical Cap and the new, less cynical Tony of Iron Man 3 were interesting developments, but I'm told they were both Jossed?

[ribboninthesky1]

I'm fine with the cynical nature of Steve Rogers, but he veered over into annoying self-righteousness for me during the latter part of TWS (directed by the Russos).  I've never cared enough about the Tony Stark character to notice his evolution, though. 

[Hybridcookie]

Captain America, the Winter Solider.

I liked Black Widow in it, and thought Sam was fun, but I just thought it was kind of boring overall. I am not a huge Steve fan, and saw like a LOT of fawning over Bucky before the movie. I just didn't get it. Also, for all the hype that Marvel movies get for being fun compared to dark DC movies, TWS was pretty bleak.

 

Yes this! This is exactly how I felt about the movie and the characters

[ellenr33]

Where The Wild Things Are- From the second I saw the trailer I couldn't wait to see the movie. I thought the trailer was so touching and the movie looked so good... Then I saw the movie and it was the most boring thing I've ever seen.

[raezen]

Now You See Me. Yeah, I know, I should have listened to the reviews.