Biggest Disappointments...

J

John Wesley Norton

Active member
I'm sure I'm not alone (especially here) in saying that few topics of conversation get my brain spinning more than talking about movies. I could go all night, as I'm sure most you could as well.

This is what I propose, we each name a film that we saw that we had high expectations for, and was sorely disappointed. What is your BIGGEST disappointment?

Let's also do the same thing with a film you weren't expecting much from, but came away thinking it was very good.

Now I've already mentioned a few in another thread that were heartbreakingly bad, in my opinion. Namely, The Hulk, Godzilla, and Alien 3.

However, I must say that the worst I've ever felt coming out of a theater is when I walked out of Highlander 2. It was a while ago, yes, but the disappointed feeling has stayed with me. I was a huge Highlander fan, but part two ripped the guts out of the first one and created a silly, nonsensical mess.

My wife watches a show called The 4400, and she is always trying to get me to watch it. I always pass, being not much of a TV watcher. But she got the first season on Netflix and threatened to make me sleep on the couch if I didn't at least give it a try. I watched the first season, then I went out and rented the second season at Blockbuster, and now I cannot wait for the third season to come out . I really, really like it. I haven't been into a TV show like this since The X-Files.

(Now she's trying to get me to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not sure about that one either)

Please share.

John
 
Nice topic John !

Planet of the Apes -

Just unthinkably worse than one could imagine. Burton just falls on his face and I lose all respect for him in one sitting

Escape From L.A. -

How do you mess this up ? My 6 year old could do better than this ?

Dee Blue Sea -

I should have guessed this would have sucked for 2 words: Renny 'The Hack, I suck and am sleeping with a big producer to get my gigs' Harlin. Has this guy ever made a good film ?

Resident Evil -

The game may be singulary responsbile for bringing the undead genre back to life and they make pure crap. How did P W.S.A get into this business anyway ?

Land of the Dead -

I called it waaay before the film came out. I knew Romero could not make a film. He just is not a good filmmaker. He gets far too much credit for inventing the genere. A complete let down

King Kong -

Maybe it was time for PJ not to have a killer film. He was on a role in my eyes:

Bad Taste, Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings 1, 2 and 3 ...

and then this just really bad and inplausible scenario called the 8th Wonder of the World.


But the winner and taker of all the cake is:

Star Wars 1, 2, 3 (The new ones)

Ruined an entire franchise and destroys the magic that was once Star Wars
 
John_Hudson said:
Nice topic John !

Planet of the Apes -

Just unthinkably worse than one could imagine. Burton just falls on his face and I lose all respect for him in one sitting
Click to expand...

REALLY? I loved the film! Totally loved it.

I will completely agree with you about Star Wars though... what was Lucas thinking?
 
George Lucas is a great producer.
I just wonder what the final (first) three films would have been like if he had written the basic story, then turned over writing and directing chores to other talented filmmakers, like he did with two of the original films.

Anyway,
Mr. Hudson, I agree with you whole heartedly on several of your choices.

Planet of the Apes: Who would have thought that Tim Burton could take a movie with the serious themes of the original and turn it into a warning against... Animal Testing!

Escape from L.A: Veeeerrrrry disappointing indeed. I'm a huge fan of Carpenters early work, but this... This was just not taken very seriously at all.

Deep Blue Sea: I didn't have great expectations here, so not very disappointed. Renny Harlin = a bad joke. If you asked him to direct traffic someone would get killed.

Resident Evil: Again, Zero expectations, and rightly so.

Land of the Dead: Although I don't agree that Romero isn't a talented Director, Day of the Dead and Creepshow being my two favorites of his, Land of the Dead was a let down, for sure. Not scary, No Disturbing, Not Entertaining, Not going to buy it.

King Kong: I kind of liked this one. Although again, a computer generated beast was out-acting every human in sight. Jack Black, totaly mis-cast, Adrian Brody, dull dull dull.

I thought of another one:

Alien Vs. Predator: Again, who gave Paul W.S. Anderson this project? The potential was nearly unlimited here, but man, he embraced every limit he could reach. A missed opportunity. Very sad about this one.

On a cheerful note, Snakes on a Plane was much better than I expected. Maybe because I wasn't expecting much.

Later.
 
The Matrix sequels - Especially the 3rd one. I could have lived with Reloaded (and the awesome freeway sequence) if Revolutions had been something amazing. The last fight between Neo and Agent Smith was a blow for blow ripoff of the kind of aerial kung fu fights that hallmarked the latter episodes of Dragonball Z for christsakes.


Gangs of New York - One of my favorite periods of American history set in my hometown and directed by my hero. I can't describe my crushed spirit when i walked out of the theater that night. I've seen it since and it wasn't as horrible as i had first thought but i think my expectations were set too high.

I'll try to think of more.
 
House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark, all of them have something in common, Uwe Boll!!!:furious3:

I didn't like Resident Evil very much when Paul W.S. Anderson made the first one but the second one made me realize that things weren't going to get better so I may as well stick with it.

Ultraviolet was a big letdown, how the heck do some of these movies get made?

Stolen Summer and Battle of Shaker Heights (the Project Greenlight movies) were big letdowns too, there were better directors and scripts to choose from and the crew chose those two movies to make? I hope Feast will do better, which is a failure in its own right as it's taken forever to come out and has basically canceled the show or at the very least put it in limbo.

Aliens Vs. Predator was bad on so many levels, why couldn't they have followed the comic books? Not original, sure, but honestly, would it really have mattered if it was the comic book made into a movie? It's freaking Aliens Vs. Predator!!!
 
Ultraviolet was horrible. I was wondering the same thing.

Little Miss Sunshine was a good surprise, I thought it'd be a run-of-the-mill comedy like Taladega Nights but it was actually really good.
 
John_Hudson said:
Nice topic John !

Planet of the Apes -

Just unthinkably worse than one could imagine. Burton just falls on his face and I lose all respect for him in one sitting

Escape From L.A. -

How do you mess this up ? My 6 year old could do better than this ?

Dee Blue Sea -

I should have guessed this would have sucked for 2 words: Renny 'The Hack, I suck and am sleeping with a big producer to get my gigs' Harlin. Has this guy ever made a good film ?

Resident Evil -

The game may be singulary responsbile for bringing the undead genre back to life and they make pure crap. How did P W.S.A get into this business anyway ?

Land of the Dead -

I called it waaay before the film came out. I knew Romero could not make a film. He just is not a good filmmaker. He gets far too much credit for inventing the genere. A complete let down

King Kong -

Maybe it was time for PJ not to have a killer film. He was on a role in my eyes:

Bad Taste, Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings 1, 2 and 3 ...

and then this just really bad and inplausible scenario called the 8th Wonder of the World.


But the winner and taker of all the cake is:

Star Wars 1, 2, 3 (The new ones)

Ruined an entire franchise and destroys the magic that was once Star Wars
Click to expand...


Yes! I completely agree with the Star wars. I always thought they sucked, but thought Id get hissed at if anyone found out :)

The original Star Wars was the best, one of my favorites.
 
FilmMakerr said:
Yes! I completely agree with the Star wars. I always thought they sucked, but thought Id get hissed at if anyone found out :)

The original Star Wars was the best, one of my favorites.
Click to expand...

Yes

The typical conversatoin goes something like this:

George Lucas is a *****.

What do you mean ?

The man ruined the franchise. Ever since the Ewoks were introduced it has catered to the lowest common denominator. He is obsessed with CGI and forgot about storytelling. The new films lack any substance or creativity. His constant tinkering of the original trilogy has muddled it into mediocrity. The mutation of a walking Jabba, Han stepping on his tail, Yoda becoming Bruce Effin Lee samurai warrior, droids smacking each other into slapstick, again with Jedi, Han became a P*ssy in that one. It signalled the demise of the franchise right there.

People chalk up it being a let-down to it being overhyped. No. Like the last ever episode of Seinfeld, it just sucked.

Once, the Star Wars universe was something we could touch. It had metal and sand and wood and all sorts of organic tangible qualities like Snow and swamps. It was real. Now it has become a commercial. It's like a live action video-game with it's bullshite CG world. Am I watching Final Fantasy or Star Wars ?

Star Wars used to be cool, and now it caters to the geek Jedi worshippers. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to be Han Solo, now, everyone wants to be a Jedi Master. Why do I have to sit through 3 films of some whiny Annakin 'I loooove her. They wont let me be a Jeeedi. Im reeaddyy. Waaaaaaaaaa'

It sucks, because Star Wars could be really cool.

And Han did shoot first.

And they reply with:

Lucas is rich.
 
John_Hudson said:
Yes

The typical conversatoin goes something like this:

George Lucas is a *****.

What do you mean ?

The man ruined the franchise. Ever since the Ewoks were introduced it has catered to the lowest common denominator. He is obsessed with CGI and forgot about storytelling. The new films lack any substance or creativity. His constant tinkering of the original trilogy has muddled it into mediocrity. The mutation of a walking Jabba, Han stepping on his tail, Yoda becoming Bruce Effin Lee samurai warrior, droids smacking each other into slapstick, again with Jedi, Han became a P*ssy in that one. It signalled the demise of the franchise right there.

People chalk up it being a let-down to it being overhyped. No. Like the last ever episode of Seinfeld, it just sucked.

Once, the Star Wars universe was something we could touch. It had metal and sand and wood and all sorts of organic tangible qualities like Snow and swamps. It was real. Now it has become a commercial. It's like a live action video-game with it's bullshi*e CG world. Am I watching Final Fantasy or Star Wars ?

Star Wars used to be cool, and now it caters to the geek Jedi worshippers. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to be Han Solo, now, everyone wants to be a Jedi Master. Why do I have to sit through 3 films of some whiny Annakin 'I loooove her. They wont let me be a Jeeedi. Im reeaddyy. Waaaaaaaaaa'

It sucks, because Star Wars could be really cool.

And Han did shoot first.

And they reply with:

Lucas is rich.
Click to expand...

If you wrote that, you are the most brilliant person I know.
 
Yeah, great post, John. Exactly my sentiments. George "soft and silly" Lucas. Why, oh why, couldn't he see what a mess he was making? :furious3:
 
newsflash, read all about it: Star Wars was always nerdy. They're not exactly art films. Their target audience is kids. You have to adapt to that way of thinking when you watch them. To gripe about them would kind of like going to a playground with 3rd graders to play basketball, then whining because your teammates are too short.

The originals were nerdy as hell too. I had an argument the other night with an old friend about this. How can you get any more nerdy than Luke Skywalker? How can the acting and terminology get any worse? It was always about accepting the fantasy and just going with it. I can see all the negative points brought up about the new trilogy. I just think most of it is over trying to live up to the original, and the original time period and political climate where Star Wars thrived.

The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were a major upset for me. Talk about just for $$$. It doesn't get any worse than this.

LOTR: Fellowship : This film disappointed me. I thought the color schemes were all over the place, the acting too melodramatic the most important thing is it just lacked a sense of humor JRR had. I think this was a case of a nerd trying to take something too seriously because he knows he's a nerd and better impress the cool kids by staying as serious as possible. It worked, and the oscar goes to.... Actually, Fellowship wasn't too bad. I was still let down to what I had envisioned for LOTR's.

LOTR: Two Towers : I thought maybe the franchise would get better with this film. I was so pissed off. This was no Empire Strikes Back bridge to a trilogy. It took everything I disliked about the first film and AMPLIFIED it x 100.

LOTR: Return : This movie actually did not disappoint me. I'll put this in the surprise category. I almost felt sympathy from PJ. It was almost like he realized his own errors and tried to make ammends.

Anything negative I said about LOTR you can apply my "fantasy and just going with it". I should have followed my own advice, but I didn't. I was too critical because of my own vision for LOTR's. The same goes for Star Wars bashers. I don't think I took it too seriously because Star Wars was never literature. It was always based for film and made accordingly. I took LOTR too seriously, but I can't help it. I don't expect anyone's opinion about the new star wars to change either.

Tomb Raider - I guess I should have known. I was disappointed none the less.

Terminator 3 - Idiotic, blasphemous
 
Noct said:
newsflash, read all about it: Star Wars was always nerdy. They're not exactly art films. Their target audience is kids.
Click to expand...
That was always my problem with ALL the Star Wars movies, including the original. While it was Sci-fi it just wasn't aimed at the same audience as Blade Runner and Aliens and it always felt like a kids movie to me. But then, I was 25 when it came out so I was seeing it in a different frame of reference than many here. Had I been in my teens when I first saw it, I'm sure it would have affected me differently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top