Entertainment recommendations that you regret following

[Jute88]

Game of Thrones - I don't actually have any real problem with GoT (besides the weird obsession everyone has with it), it just... isn't for me. Tried getting into the books and show, stopped reading the books halfway through two and made it through half of the first TV season.

I also dislike the show, but I enjoy the books.

Half Life - I didn't like the characters, the story didn't make sense and honestly, the weapons felt pretty... weak. None of 'em had any meat to 'em, which led to a really disconnected experience. Even the much beloved Gravity Gun and Crowbar just felt... meh. Never ended up finishing Half-Life 2 either, which is apparently sacrilege to everyone who still prays to the altar of Gaben.

Never played the first Half Life. 2 is okay, but it didn't really blow my mind. And I really don't mind not having Half Life 3.

The Dreamers book series by David and Leigh Eddings.

I love David Eddings, buuuut... yeah, they were not his strongest books. I remember reading the first one, going 'huh, that was... alright', then reading the second one and going 'uhhhh... did you guys just Crtl+C, Ctrl+V?'. And that final ending, god damn. Granted it's theorized the last book ended in such a... weird way since Leigh died sometime during the writing of the series, but... still, jesus. An ending where everything that's happened is literally retconned just so some moody archer guy can have a happy ending is a... pretty shitty ending, regardless of the circumstances leading to it.

Whenever people ask for recommendations for his work, I kinda just skip over the Dreamers now. 'Stick to Sparhawk and maybe The Belgariad and their sequels, that's it'.

Belgariad is somewhat entertaining, mostly because of its likable cast. I also liked the parts with no bad guys, where the main character is just trying to rule a kingdom while having problems with his wife.

But the whole aspect where they're mainly just pawns in some sort of universal chess game felt unnecessary.

Was Sparhawk about some crusading knight who could cast pimples on people's nose? I remember reading the first book but I never found book 2 so I dropped it.

 

[McElroy]

Then there is Sin City: A Dame to Kill For about which I guess I had once read a good(-ish) review, but oh damn was that a crock of shit. No regrets though, Eva Green goes topless in it (once again).

I'm not afraid to admit that I like A Dame To Kill For. But some scenes are really obvious greenscreened, and there's also the fact that the Gambler storyline (forgot the guy who played the role) was unnescecary.

Well, I'm only scary in person. Also that kinda makes about half of the movie unnecessary, doesn't it?

snip

Nooo, you can't admit to it! Edit it, edit it away!

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

There's almost no exposition. You're just thrown into the midst of things and expected to get it.

That doesn't IMO excuse the outrageous waste of dramatic potential. Tattersail's lover dies in the beginning of the first, and we feel nothing, because there's no connection to him whatsoever. Paran (or whoever it was who started boning Tattersail afterwards) loses her, thinking she's dead, and we feel nothing, because nothing's been set up between them. The first and only time I realized I was actually invested in anything going on was when Apsalar and Crokus ended up having to travel together, because at least I could grasp and relate to their situation.

In the second book it's even worse. The girl who gets sent to the slave mine (I forgot her name already) and starts whoring herself had massive potential, but ends up being so one-note through most of the book she just becomes a *****. So did the priest with the tattoos. Mappo and Icarium's plot had immense potential, and when the big reveal comes, it's a huge fucking letdown. But perhaps the worst of all was when it turns out Apsalar's father is alive, and just happens to be at the exact same location. This should be gold, goddammit! A girl, possessed by a demigod only when she was a child, having lived a shadow life and only recently regained her identity, suddenly finds out someone she thought was long lost is actually alive! And the book does nothing with it!!! No moment of reunion, no inner monologue to describe either one's feelings, and even both their reactions are basically "Oh, hi."

 

[circularlogic88]

My roommate is obsessed with RWBY. I've watched it up to the last episode of the last season. The action is good, but everything else is so...blah. I don't understand the fanaticism behind this series.

Korra was a let down. They kinda blew their creative wad at season 1. And Korra and her supporting cast was constantly being overshadowed by the Aang siblings being vastly more interesting and likeable. I don't care what anyone says, there was no build up prior to one or two scenes of the last season that set up the Korra/Asami relationship.

Attack on Titan. Fuck Eren. So much. Biggest disappointment for me was him not being eaten his first encounter with Titans. I feel like this series was made with cosplay in mind first and foremost and everything else second.

 

[happyninja42]

Equilibrium: Like the OP, I found this movie terrible and dumb. The fighting was stupid looking, the acting was over the top (not a problem in and of itself), and the plot holes were gaping like goatsee. Seriously, for a society that has no emotions, the badguys in charge sure do show a lot of emotions, even the people who are supposedly on the drugs. And somehow, at the end, everyone revolts? Why? They were all still on their drugs. Killing the leader and toppling his statue doesn't suddenly remove the anti-emotion drugs from their bodies. Just, bleh.

FLCL Foolie Coolie: Just...no...nonononono. Fuck that shit, fuck it in it's anime fuck hole (in a forehead apparently) and sprout a tentacle from the orifice to continue fucking it until there are no more fucks to give to it's bleeding corpse of a story. Just....fuck that shit.

Team America: World Police : I didn't laugh once, not once in that whole fucking shit show. Stupid gags, lame jokes that went on too long. Everything about it is utter shit.

Zach and Miri Make A Porno: Filled with so many annoying ass relationship cliches, stupid plot twists, idiotic characters making idiotic choices just for the sake of "drama". It pissed me off more than anything. It had zero redeeming qualities.

Wil Ferrel: Pretty much everything he's done, with the exceptions of The Lego Movie (where I didn't dislike his work in it, but I didn't love it either), Megamind, and Stranger Than Fiction. Those 3 movies, I could tolerate his content, but I still didn't really like him.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Then there is Sin City: A Dame to Kill For about which I guess I had once read a good(-ish) review, but oh damn was that a crock of shit. No regrets though, Eva Green goes topless in it (once again).

I'm not afraid to admit that I like A Dame To Kill For. But some scenes are really obvious greenscreened, and there's also the fact that the Gambler storyline (forgot the guy who played the role) was unnescecary.

Well, I'm only scary in person. Also that kinda makes about half of the movie unnecessary, doesn't it?

Not really, his story line is barely 1/5 of the movie. Which would've been better spend on a diffirent story from the comics.

 

[Worgen]

The nolan batman movies. I guess the first one was ok, the second one bugged me cause of how stupid it was and the third one just bored the crap out of me. It was fun to make fun of for a bit then then it just kept going and going and a million hours later it finally ended.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Team America: World Police : I didn't laugh once, not once in that whole fucking shit show. Stupid gags, lame jokes that went on too long. Everything about it is utter shit.

Hey! Hey! HEY! Say what bruh? I take issue with that bruh! Don't be talkin' no shit 'bout my bae bruh! I love Team America bruh, it's got great speeches, bruh!


And it's got Arec Barrwin bruh!


See? It's fuckin great bruh!

In all honesty, I'm rather surprised to find someone with such vitriol for that movie on this site. I've understood that South Park is rather well liked here, which is basically what that movie is. Well, to each their own.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

snip

Nooo, you can't admit to it! Edit it, edit it away!

Well, that's dumb. I would understand if I went into specifics that people could take advice from. But to live in a bubble and pretend it doesn't happen?

They don't want anyone here advocating for pirating, or explaining how to do it. So the line they've drawn is admittance of the fact, the same place they drew the line on Adblock.

You can talk about piracy all you want, you just have to treat it like meth (Or any other illegal act/substance) - Can't admit you use it or describe how to make/use it.

Team Fortress 2 - WHY DOESN'T ANYONE HELP THE MEDIC. WHY. MOTHERFUCKERS.

Do you know of any multiplayer game where the healer isn't treated like trash? The stories I could tell you from FF14...

 

[Fox12]

Spoiler: Disturbing movie spoiler

A pre-pubescent teenage girl who dies after being tortured, raped by other teenagers, and being circumcised with a heated wire.

Good God, what fucking movie is that from?!

When you say The Girl Next Door, you mean the rather vapid romcom about the pornstar, right? Or is there another movie under a similar title I'm not aware of?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Next_Door_(2007_film)

It's as close as you can get to a snuff film without actually being a snuff film. Pretty horrifying on multiple levels, and I seriously recommend you don't watch it. It's... unpleasant, and there's a good chance it'll fuck you up for a couple days.

Oh boy, I'm sorry. I actually saw that on television, if you can believe it. What a weird fucking movie.

On a similar note, Lars Von Triers antichrist. Supposedly Lars is one of the best modern film makers, so I started watching his movies. Some of his other stuff is okay, but I made a huge mistake starting with antichrist.

Spoiler

In which a woman hits her husband in the groin, knocking him out. She then gives him a handjob, making him ejaculate blood. Afterwards she performs genetal mutilation on herself with scissors.

Just... Why? Nothing in the film really makes sense. I expected some smart artsy movie, and I got torture porn instead. That movie made me physically ill for several days.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Belgariad is somewhat entertaining, mostly because of its likable cast. I also liked the parts with no bad guys, where the main character is just trying to rule a kingdom while having problems with his wife.

But the whole aspect where they're mainly just pawns in some sort of universal chess game felt unnecessary.

Was Sparhawk about some crusading knight who could cast pimples on people's nose? I remember reading the first book but I never found book 2 so I dropped it.

...In his defense, Sparhawk only does that once. But basically yeah, it's about a magic knight going on a mini-crusade with his buddies. Practically follows the same story beats as the Belgariad, just with a squad of magic knights in full plate armour instead of a 'We picked these guys up in a DnD bar' feel, but the characters are still well-rounded enough that they're entertaining.

...zero threat to any of 'em though. Biggest weakness of Eddings, he couldn't write a threatening plot to save his life. At least the action scenes are written better than the Belgariad.

Team Fortress 2 - WHY DOESN'T ANYONE HELP THE MEDIC. WHY. MOTHERFUCKERS.

Do you know of any multiplayer game where the healer isn't treated like trash? The stories I could tell you from FF14...

Trust me, I know, I main healers in World of Warcraft. It's just... fuck man, everyone in TF2 would ***** and moan when there wasn't any Medics, and then when I swap to a Medic, none of the fuckers come to me when they're injured or run in ahead before the Ubercharge is ready, or just straight up abandon me when the enemy comes for my blood. Shit, I even had people get mad at me for the fact that I WASN'T pocket healing them. And don't even get me started on the sheer number of fuckers who would grab a health kit while I'm standing there ON FIRE, then ask for me to heal them up the 2 HP the medkit didn't fix...

Yeah. Only so much bile I can take before I delete the game off my hard drive, and as fun as the Medic was to play the userbase... wasn't.

 

[Rastrelly]

People kept telling me that the Honor Harrington books were good. So I read the first two.

Turns out they were not good at all.

Nerd-bait garbage with a great throbbing military fetish.

You're not into politics, aren't you?

 

[Zen Bard]

Movie: Beasts of the Southern Wild was touted as a "modern fantastic fable". But it was actually just ninety minutes of ignorant and impoverished people being awful to each other after Hurricane Katrina.

I Netflixed it. And it holds the distinction of being the only movie I did not finish. Shut it off about 3/4s of the way through when I realized it wasn't going to get any better.

Book: "Fevre Dream" by a pre-Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin. I was reading "A Feast for Crows" on a flight and the guy next to me suggested Martin's earlier book. Said it was an interesting take on vampires in a mid-19th Century American setting.

He was half right...it was definitely about vampires in the 1800s. It had some interesting concepts and that trademark Martin dialogue. But it was ridiculously slow and spent about 200 of its 400 pages on the detailed workings of river boats.

TV Show: Mad Men My wife bought me the first season for my birthday. She said it was a "slow burn character study." I say it's a show where nothing fucking happens!

Game: Half Life I know...I know...it's the Gold Standard to a lot of FPS gamers. But I just could get past the convoluted level designs, cheap jump scares and the first person jumping puzzles.

 

[happyninja42]

In all honesty, I'm rather surprised to find someone with such vitriol for that movie on this site. I've understood that South Park is rather well liked here, which is basically what that movie is. Well, to each their own.

I'm surprised you've been on this site for any length of time, and are still under the opinion that all of us posters have similar likes/dislikes. You clearly haven't seen some of the flame wars on this forum if that's the case.

Besides, liking South Park (which I don't really. It's ok, but I don't watch the show and have no desire to), doesn't mean everything they do is equally good.

And I'm glad you like the movie, I don't. I think it's terrible. But feel free to laugh and enjoy it as much as you want.

 

[RedDeadFred]

There's almost no exposition. You're just thrown into the midst of things and expected to get it.

That doesn't IMO excuse the outrageous waste of dramatic potential. Tattersail's lover dies in the beginning of the first, and we feel nothing, because there's no connection to him whatsoever. Paran (or whoever it was who started boning Tattersail afterwards) loses her, thinking she's dead, and we feel nothing, because nothing's been set up between them. The first and only time I realized I was actually invested in anything going on was when Apsalar and Crokus ended up having to travel together, because at least I could grasp and relate to their situation.

In the second book it's even worse. The girl who gets sent to the slave mine (I forgot her name already) and starts whoring herself had massive potential, but ends up being so one-note through most of the book she just becomes a *****. So did the priest with the tattoos. Mappo and Icarium's plot had immense potential, and when the big reveal comes, it's a huge fucking letdown. But perhaps the worst of all was when it turns out Apsalar's father is alive, and just happens to be at the exact same location. This should be gold, goddammit! A girl, possessed by a demigod only when she was a child, having lived a shadow life and only recently regained her identity, suddenly finds out someone she thought was long lost is actually alive! And the book does nothing with it!!! No moment of reunion, no inner monologue to describe either one's feelings, and even both their reactions are basically "Oh, hi."

Part of this is just a matter of differing experience, but I'd agree mostly with the first book: I didn't form many emotional connections with the characters. I ended up caring about the Bridgeburners. I also felt something over Tattersail's death, though not in the capacity of her relationship with Paran. I agree that their relationship wasn't really developed for the reader so much as it was just stated to suddenly be a thing. I love the series, but GotM is possibly the weakest and I feel like Erickson kind of shot himself in the foot in that he could have compromised his ideals just a bit to gain significantly more fans. Then again, if he'd compromised he might not have had to spend ten years finding a publisher whilst also improving his writing (IMO, his prose is significantly better in the second book). I liked the book, but between its Deus Ex Machina ending (it's not in the context of the series, but from a first time reader, it's hard to view it as anything but) and the lack of a strong emotional core, I do consider it the weakest.

All that being said, my experience with Deadhouse Gates was very different from yours:

Felesin's character development is intentional. You start off feeling sorry for her and gradually start to pity her less and less. When she takes up the mantle of Sha'ik at the end, you can kind of get how she's come to be someone so destructive. Plus, it makes the ending of House of Chains all the more tragic.

Mappo and Icarium I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Out of all the duos in the series (many of which I think Erickson does extremely well), theirs is one of the best. To be honest, I don't actually remember what the reveal was, so maybe it was a let down or maybe it just seems so common knowledge now to me that I don't consider it a reveal.

As for Apsalar's reunion with her father, I thought that the lack of a big moment was very intentional. It's to highlight that despite The Rope not possessing her anymore, she has been fundamentally changed as a person. Would that fisher girl from the prologue REALLY have grown up to become an assassin for High House Shadow? More importantly, why would she align herself with the people who stole her life? The Rope's possession changed her into someone who likes killing. She feels extremely guilty about this and ends up pushing away everyone close to her.

 

[happyninja42]

Legend of Korra. I liked it (at times), but it didn't live up to its predecessor. Problems?
Book 1 - The bad guy was a hypocrite and Korra didn't learn anything in the end.
Book 2 - the bad guy was boring (Unalaqq) and confusing (vaatu) and Korra was an idiot. Wan was cool, though.
Book 3 - good bad guys (for once). But they ate Bosco!
Book 4 - giant mecha seemed dumb and vulnerable Korra was boring. Also, last second romance came from nowhere.

Oh god Korra! I forgot about that show! Another one for my list of bad choices. Blech.

 

[Zhukov]

People kept telling me that the Honor Harrington books were good. So I read the first two.

Turns out they were not good at all.

Nerd-bait garbage with a great throbbing military fetish.

You're not into politics, aren't you?

Umm... I keep half an eye on politics, but no, I suppose I wouldn't say I'm "into politics".

I must say, I'm really not seeing the relevance of the question.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

For me to personally regret, it would have to something i was already pretty sure was shit, but somebody coerces me to watch it anyway, not only proving my point, but also chancing them to feel mildy insulted while i feel certainly guilty about it. Otherwise the experience is just little disappointment.

So, let's begin. I know many people with terrible taste, and that's not just my arrogance, it's that everyone that has good taste lives nowhere near me! So you can imagine the depth of troubles i have finding high class cinema buddies;

Vampire Dairies. A more ambitious twilight, stretched over entire generations of hormonal manipulation.

Dexter. Ehhh...No. Hannibal's my Porsche, Dexter is your rusty Volvo with a similar paint job.

Most anime. What is with the twee pre-pubescent girls with revealing dresses and stoic pretty boys with 80 years of experience on their C.V.? Sounds like a lot of over excited, sexually frustrated creators to me.

Fallout boy, any screamo band and whatever else is angsty teens trying to scream like Zakk Wylde but falling flat on their privileged ass.

The Remaining. I shit you not, you have to see this crap for yourselves. Agnostics, Atheists, hell, even religious people, go knock yourselves out. It's kind of unintentionally funny, but the joke wears thin pretty fast. I endured 15 minutes...How long can you last?

Hostel 1 and 2. Yeah, pretty obvious that one.

Anything by Adam Sandler ever. They keep trying, i keep giving chances, he keeps disappointing.

Defense Grid 2, FFXIIi, Knack, Scary Movie series and its inbred offspring.

Ok, none of those are edgy, are they? Fine!! These aren't technically regrets, but Tales of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Tim Minchin. *drops mic, scampers off*

 

[COMaestro]

The Blair Witch Project. It was getting great reviews and a couple of friends told my girlfriend at the time and I how scary it was so we went and saw it in the theater. We were bored throughout the entire film, found nothing scary about it and I just wanted all the characters to die because they were so annoying.