When A Movie Disappoints You

[Mr.Evil]

A few weeks ago, I went and saw a movie that I had really been looking forward to for some time. The reviews were kind, the trailer was exciting, the cast and director were all people I had confidence in. Seemed like a sure thing to me. I ended up leaving the theater disappointed... and I realized how shocking that was to me. Actual disappointment with a movie.

I've thought about it since then. Most movies I want to see I tend to do a little research on before I watch. Looking at Rotten Tomatoes, reading/watching a few online reviews, even getting spoiled if I feel the need to do so. I rarely watch a movie unarmed. It's not a bad thing to go into a movie knowing nothing, but I'm older and I've had too many disappointments to base my sole judgment on trailers and supposedly reliable film crews. So I dig a little, get an idea of what I'm in for, and adjust my expectations accordingly. Sometimes I still feel the urge to go see a movie panned by critics, but then again I go into such movies not expecting much. Typically, I get exactly that, and even then I'm occasionally surprised at how bad something was. In other words, the Internet has allowed me to armor up against false expectations, and yet there are moments when a film pierces my defenses and catches me off guard. Occasionally, it's a good thing, but generally it's not.

What I'm curious about learning from other people are the moments when you were really looking forward to a movie (not other stuff this time out, only movies) but left disappointed. Maybe you heard nothing but good things from your friends. Maybe the movie got great reviews. Maybe something about the movie trailer attracted your eye. Point being, you were hyped up before going into a viewing and were expecting great things, only to have your hopes dashed. The movie may not have been bad, but it definitely wasn't what you wanted, and your sentiment toward the film now ranges from not caring whether you watch it again or not to outright hatred.

That's my question to you: what movie did you want to love but couldn't, and what did it in for you?

 

[Zhukov]

Pacific Rim

Giant robots and giant monsters beating the crap out of each other, directed by Gilhoweveryouspellit del Toro?

Sign me up!

Well, I did in fact get that. About 20 minutes of it. The rest was a whole lot of really cliche one-note characters spouting dialogue that ranged from iffy to godawful.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Evangelion 3.0

I loved the first two films, but the third one kinda killed my enthusiasm for the Rebuild movies. It felt short and rushed out, like it was only half a movie, and about 2/3 of the movie is spent on action and spectacle rather than character development. The only good parts were the middle part of the film dealing with Shinji's and Kaworu's relationship, and the soundtrack.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Probably going to annoy a lot of people, but, the Avengers.

Wasn't expecting much, maybe some nice CGI. Now, sure, they did have that, but not used well, the final fight went on forever, for example.

But, the rest of the movie seemed to be nonstop whinging and painfully bad jokes.

One really glaring part of this was the shocking realisation that:

Spoiler

The US government is having weapons made. They are on a flying invisible aircraft carrier. Tony Stark is there, who makes/made weapons for the US, and whose dad worked on the atomic bomb.

But suddenly finding out that the US is interested in weapons is a terrible shock, and they stop trusting each other.

Is it ok for the US to have weapons to kill other humans, not to defend the planet against alien invasion or something?

So, back to whinging. Generally speaking, even if you don't personally like someone, if you need to work together to stop the destruction of the planet you are standing on, it's a good idea to work with them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Frozen

It seemed to be in the same vein as Tangled which I loved, and I heard nothing but good things about it. But apparently the only thing that made it special was that it wasn't the typical 'love conquers all' between a woman and a man. That was it's entire shtick, because beyond that the characters are flat and have zero chemistry with one another, the two male characters have no impact on the story other than to serve as red herrings, we have not one but two completely useless comic relief characters, the songs are the most hokey Broadway trite, The character designs and animation are uninspired, and the environments feel empty and lifeless.

Also Gravity.

Just ugh...

 

[Scarim Coral]

Iron Man 3, it was still good in its own right but it went differently to how I expect it to be (also no it has nothing to do with the twist)

Spoiler

Overall I hated the detective Tony Stark part. Yes I get it shows what Tony can do using his wits and without his suit but I just find it dull that it seen he is capable of being a detective!
I was also disapointed with the final battle. Sure it was cool seeing his suits vs the extremist but I wanted the usually one on one with the big bad villain (well ok two on one in the second film)!

 

[Queen Michael]

Green Lantern.

It was even worse than I'd been told.

Pacific Rim

Giant robots and giant monsters beating the crap out of each other, directed by Gilhoweveryouspellit del Toro?

Sign me up!

Well, I did in fact get that. About 20 minutes of it. The rest was a whole lot of really cliche one-note characters spouting dialogue that ranged from iffy to godawful.

Okay, you're gonna have to provide some explanation. If you didn't like the dialogue then you didn't, but what was cliché about the characters? I mean, Hannibal Chau and cane-guy were pretty original, and the leader-guy wasn't cliché (apart from being a strong leader, which isn't a cliché so much as a job description) except for being a bald black guy who's also a leader.

 

[Zhukov]

Okay, you're gonna have to provide some explanation. If you didn't like the dialogue then you didn't, but what was cliché about the characters? I mean, Hannibal Chau and cane-guy were pretty original, and the leader-guy wasn't cliché (apart from being a strong leader, which isn't a cliché so much as a job description) except for being a bald black guy who's also a leader.

To be fair, I should have deleted "cliche" from that sentence when I added "one note".

Thing is, most of Pacific Rim's characters barely had enough meat to them to count as well realised cliches, let alone distinct characters. I mean, you've Hardass McMilitary Man, Hardass McMilitary Mayte, Mako For My Family Mori, Jerkass Man (for no real reason other than someone needed to do it), Dweeby Scientist, Guy Who Admires the Monsters, and Ron Perlman.

I can't even think of any attributes for the main character. I mean, what kind of person was he supposed to be? As someone who liked the movie (I presume), can you describe to me one aspect of his personality? Maybe two aspects? Dare we shoot for three?

Now, the obvious counter to this is, "Dude, it's an action movie about giant bloody robots biffing giant monsters in their giant monster hooters. It doesn't need to be fucking Tolstoy."

Which is totally true. But that just brings me back to my original disappointment. If the characters are taking a back seat to the bombastic action, why is there so little bombastic action and so much cardboard cutouts having a chinwag?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Green Lantern.

It was even worse than I'd been told.

Don't worry, they got the same people to make an Aquaman movie. That should be much better.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Pacific Rim

Giant robots and giant monsters beating the crap out of each other, directed by Gilhoweveryouspellit del Toro?

Sign me up!

Well, I did in fact get that. About 20 minutes of it. The rest was a whole lot of really cliche one-note characters spouting dialogue that ranged from iffy to godawful.

Okay, you're gonna have to provide some explanation. If you didn't like the dialogue then you didn't, but what was cliché about the characters? I mean, Hannibal Chau and cane-guy were pretty original, and the leader-guy wasn't cliché (apart from being a strong leader, which isn't a cliché so much as a job description) except for being a bald black guy who's also a leader.

To be fair, I should have deleted "cliche" from that sentence when I added "one note".

Thing is, most of Pacific Rim's characters barely had enough meat to them to count as well realised cliches, let alone distinct characters. I mean, you've Hardass McMilitary Man, Hardass McMilitary Mayte, Mako For My Family Mori, Jerkass Man (for no real reason other than someone needed to do it), Dweeby Scientist, Guy Who Admires the Monsters, and Ron Perlman.

I can't even think of any attributes for the main character. I mean, what kind of person was he supposed to be? As someone who liked the movie (I presume), can you describe to me one aspect of his personality? Maybe two aspects? Dare we shoot for three?

Now, the obvious counter to this is, "Dude, it's an action movie about giant bloody robots biffing giant monsters in their giant monster hooters. It doesn't need to be fucking Tolstoy."

Which is totally true. But that just brings me back to my original disappointment. If the characters are taking a back seat to the bombastic action, why is there so little bombastic action and so much cardboard cutouts having a chinwag?

I couldn't agree with you more. I went into PR expecting what the trailers had been front loading since the beginning: mechs vs godzilla. I walked away feeling lied to, because as you said there's only about 20-30 minutes of it in a 2 hour film. The rest was pointless drivel, bland characters and a convoluted narrative.

When people go on about how incredible it was, I wonder if what I saw was a cut down version or something.

 

[McElroy]

I usually know what I'm getting into... but that's the thing really. I know what I'm getting, but I almost always have hopes that I'll enjoy it for whatever it is. A good example would be the first Hobbit movie which was long, boring, and filled with uninteresting action. I knew it was a Peter Jackson LotR fan fest, but it took the sequel to get my expectations properly adjusted.

A movie I wanted to like but didn't: Dredd. Started off pretty good, but got into the deep end of bullshit later on. Though a part of the reason why is that I watched it on a shitty laptop with less than DVD quality. Did the same to Looper before I realized I shouldn't.

 

[Evonisia]

I'm not sure what my expectations were other than "I guess I'll like it" but I watched The Fault in Our Stars yesterday and... ugh. I just didn't like it.

There's no conflict in the film until the halfway mark (which I won't spoil 'cause it's the best part of the film). Everyone is way too nice to each over. Any problem is usually solved in the very next scene and it relies too much on us caring about these people who are too articulate and too mature to be believable. Only the male lead and the comic relief get any type of character development and that's near the end so it's all just wasted effort. The ending is given away by the title and every single plot point is predictable. In fact I won't rant, all I can say is that every element is either bland, boring, forgettable or just out right weird.

The only thing the film has going for it is that it's at least watchable. Not in any special way, but I wasn't bored until just before the best part of the film so it managed to hold my attention.

Oh I'd like to make one nitpick though. At one point the male characters are playing Halo 3, you can see their actions and yet the sounds are not from the actual game. Film, if you're having the actors play the damn game, use the noises coming from the television. Oh and nobody presses quit game or pause but apparently they quit the game.

Recently somebody told me to read the book (this was before I watched the film) and if the book has the same story with the same characters then that'll probably be not good as well.

 

[Mr.Evil]

I don't remember a lot of the movies I saw in theater. I suppose Hitman was one that I hated after I saw it. There's also been some really lame horror movies that I saw in theaters that I was disappointed in. There's more for sure, just can't think of them.

Also, The Dark Knight Rises. The reason why is because it had so many dumb problems and unanswered questions.

 

[happyninja42]

The movie 9. The one about the little puppets at the end of the world.

Damn that trailer was awesome. The music, coupled with the imagery was just so powerful to me personally. It hit all the little Awesome Buttons in my brain, and I was really, really looking forward to it.

Sadly the movie I got wasn't anywhere near as intense and action packed as the trailer made it out to be. It was ok, wasn't terrible, but wasn't great. Me and my friends, who were all very jazzed to see it, looked at each other after it was over and were like "...well...that was a movie I guess."

 

[Parasondox]

Prometheus

Just awful. Okay I have to write more before I get a warning. The writing was piss poor, the characters were so unrelatable and annoying that I just wanted them all dead. DEAD!! For a bunch of very intelligent scientist, they are FUCKING STUPID when it comes to common scene. Hey look, a fast moving penis vagina alien creature, I must touch it when it shows teeth. *Sigh*. Fassbender, Theron, Elba and you WASTED that cast away on shitty dialogue, plot and EVERYTHING.

Great effects though but you aren't Avatar. You can't pull that shit off like they did with a generic storyline hidden behind great effects.

 

[ryukage_sama]

The Amazing Spider-Man

Movie-Bob has been a pretty reliable proxy for me to figure out whether a movie is worth the cost of a ticket for me, so I took Bob's negative review of the film to heart. In the months following the DVD release of the movie I kept hearing from friends and other internet critics that earnestly enjoyed the reboot, so I thought, "Okay, maybe there's some fun to be had if I temper my expectations. I hear the romance is better this time around." I hated it. I didn't hate all of it, it had some great ideas and a polished production(great web-swinging, mostly). I couldn't stand the dialog and character interactions. I could tell that Gwen Stacy and Peter were very attracted to each other physically, but Peter was soooooo awkward that there was only 1 scene (on the football field) where they actually seemed to be communicating. Ugh. I'm not going to waste my time with the second.

The Dark Knight Rises

The more I think about it, the less the film works. I walked away feeling "meh", but now I've grown dislike the film. I think it demonstrates the limitations of adapting comics to movies when you try to leave the camp and energy at the door.

 

[Mr.Evil]

Lots of good responses so far. I suppose it's fair for me to say which movie disappointed me this summer. The answer might surprise you:

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Honestly, I really enjoyed the first one, and based on the 92% RT rating I expected to enjoy the sequel just as much. But something went wrong here. Everyone calls this movie "darker and edgier than the first" but they don't seem to get how shallow all the "dark and edgy" stuff is. Plot lines are resolved way too easily, and the surprise death at the end of the second act, while itself memorable, is botched in the aftermath, whitewashed and forgiven way, way, WAY too quickly. This movie wanted to have its dark side and its happy ending too, taking thematic and emotional shortcuts just so we don't leave our characters in a sad place. It comes off forced and rushed, and while I wouldn't say HTTYD 2 is a bad movie, it's definitely nowhere as satisfying to watch as the first one.

Also, Man of Steel... ironically, for many of the same reasons.

 

[Zakarath]

Probably going to annoy a lot of people, but, the Avengers.

Wasn't expecting much, maybe some nice CGI. Now, sure, they did have that, but not used well, the final fight went on forever, for example.

But, the rest of the movie seemed to be nonstop whinging and painfully bad jokes.

One really glaring part of this was the shocking realisation that:

Spoiler

The US government is having weapons made. They are on a flying invisible aircraft carrier. Tony Stark is there, who makes/made weapons for the US, and whose dad worked on the atomic bomb.

But suddenly finding out that the US is interested in weapons is a terrible shock, and they stop trusting each other.

Is it ok for the US to have weapons to kill other humans, not to defend the planet against alien invasion or something?

So, back to whinging. Generally speaking, even if you don't personally like someone, if you need to work together to stop the destruction of the planet you are standing on, it's a good idea to work with them.

Eh. I liked the bantering and the action, but yeah, the 'guns, autocannons, lasers and rockets are all kosher but plasma cannons ARE IMMORAL' bit was super weird.

 

[Zakarath]

The movie 9. The one about the little puppets at the end of the world.

Damn that trailer was awesome. The music, coupled with the imagery was just so powerful to me personally. It hit all the little Awesome Buttons in my brain, and I was really, really looking forward to it.

Sadly the movie I got wasn't anywhere near as intense and action packed as the trailer made it out to be. It was ok, wasn't terrible, but wasn't great. Me and my friends, who were all very jazzed to see it, looked at each other after it was over and were like "...well...that was a movie I guess."

I still listen to that Coheed and Cambria song (Welcome Home) every so often thanks to that trailer.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Man of Steel is probably the last theatrical release flick I've been genuinely disappointed in in recent years...well that and Amazing Spider-Man.

Man of Steel disappointed for pretty much all the standard reasons. Insulting flashback sequences, Pa Kent is kind of a dickhead, plot holes regarding superpowers, the consequence free destruction of a major metropolitan city, the quite frankly exhausting fight sequences, and the tacked on Lois Lane romance.