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 Matt Swain wrote:
How about Fantastic four? I was incredibly disappointed that as bad as the last 2 were the reboot managed to be a xxxxton worse in every way.

I've seen this twice now. It suffers the sin of mostly being incredibly boring but the production is also obviously so cheap that I assume it was just made to keep the rights from expiring similar to the Sassone film.

 Just Tony wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Spice World

What the hell kind of expectations could you possibly have going in to a Spice Girls movie?!?!?!?!??!

That it would spice up their life, obviously.

 Pacific wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
To be fair to Deep Blue Sea, I think it was trying to go for that good-bad target so few movies ever achieve on purpose. It being predictable may have been intended as a feature.
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 Henry wrote:
No Country for Old Men.

Was really excited to see this, then got to the end of the film in the cinema and looked along the seats to see a row off people with puzzled looks on their faces asking "was that it?". It was so unimpressive the only part of the movie I can recall for certain was just how disappointing it was.

Sounds like it nailed the book, then.

I agree. I know a lot of people made a fuss about him but really not a fan of Cormac McCarthy. The Road is probably the single most depressing thing I have ever read, and not even in the manner of something like The Boy in the Stiped Pajamas (which made you sit and swallow a lump in your throat afterwards) - it was just bloody awful.

I’m a Corman McCarthy fan and I can’t really disagree. I thought the Road was brilliant, but also a painful, depressing experience. Blood Meridian is even worse. I felt nauseated reading that one.

For me, No Country for Old Men didn’t have any of the magic the other two did, though. It was just McCormac self-indulging, which he does more than enough in his good books.

The Road is one of those where you sit back after the credits roll and say "Well, that happened. Now I need something to cheer me up, because I sure as hell can't go to bed like this".

Hahahah that reminded me on The Road to Perdition.

I loved that movie up until the end scene where Hanks was shot. When the squibs go off and blood splatters on the window but the window does not break.

There is no way I can conceive of having blood splatter out of the opposite side of a gunshot wound without the shot being a through and through.

I mean I get WHY is went down like that but the HOW was disappointing.

Inglourious Basterds. It probably wasn't that the movie was objectively bad, so much as that was when I started to find the Tarantino trademarks becoming too familiar and intrusive, after that amazing opening scene. OK, so this is the bit where someone sits in a room and talks about a random tangent in an unnecessarily long monologue, this is Samuel L Jackson playing Samuel L Jackson....

Worst one was probably Men In Black II. It wasn't even amusingly bad, just a tired and low-effort retread of all the cool moments from the first, with none of the originality and none of the passion. I think the series might be like Highlander, in that the first one was lightning in a bottle that perfectly hit a zeitgeist, and they've been trying in vain to recapture it ever since then.

As the OP I'm going to exercise the right to expand the thread a bit into "the most disappointing movie you NEVER saw".

Was there a movie who's word of mouth was so awful you didn't even bother with it?

For my own part 2 come to mind.

"Alien Covenant". I had hopes for this one, I really did. Even tho I had real issues with prometheus, i had hoped this one would go in a new direction.

In the movie we find that humans are created by an alien species. Now intelligent androids were always part of the alien universe, so when it turns out humans are created by another race as well it makes you wonder how that would affect people's feelings towards androids. I was hoping the sequel to prometheus would set up a new paradigm between creators and created. with humans and artificial people learning to live with each other and confronting the engineers over their plan to destroy humanity.

Maybe shaw, objecting to the engineers plan to destroy humanity, claims they have no right to destroy humanity even tho they created them, then realizing this means humans have no right to treat androids as property either.

Instead, david goes the tired old "MUST KILL ALL HUMANS!!!" route and wastes a beautiful chance to take the whole 'creator and created" thing in a new direction.

Given how david saved shaw after his creator was dead in prometheus I was hoping there could be a new, original dynamic there. Maybe even having david reveal he poisoned shaw's lover at the command of his creators and had no choice, but regretted it, and shaw forgiving him.

But no, none of that happened. As soon as I heard about what happened in covenant I decided not to see it. Ugh, what a wasted opportunity to go in a new direction...

The Predator. Ok, once I heard they redid the predators into a 'genetic borg" species that was all i needed to know.

Sorry quick clarification.

Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

The Predator is a movie about genetic borgs and should have never been made.

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.

Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

The Predator is a movie about genetic borgs and should have never been made.

Oops! My bad. Thanks.

I actually quite enjoyed The PRedator. But as you have all seen, i almost enjoy anything lol.
But one thing that really got me was just how bad Dark Pheonix was.
The movies went down hill after First Class, but where atleast OK. But Dark Pheonix was garbage. IT proved that Sophie Turner cant act actually, that whininess IS here default mode. They shoved Magneto in who, at this point,tried to destroy the world 3 times and faces not punishment for it. Mystique gets fridged for Beasts character development, and Magnetos, but no character development happens.
The fight Between the Brotherhood and Xmen was hard to follow because you only knew of the Xmens power. The Train scene made no sense.

My understanding is they had to pay JLaw a ton of money just to come back and do what she did. She HATED being in the xmen movies. You will also notice that in each movie she is blue less and less and more often then not her clothes cover the majority of her body and don't change when she changes.

So her getting fridged... probably the actresses demands.

In fairness I've heard that some actors who use a lot of body makeup end up with Kidney problems. The actress who played Zahn in Farscape had that issue and I suspect she's not alone.

 Overread wrote:
In fairness I've heard that some actors who use a lot of body makeup end up with Kidney problems. The actress who played Zahn in Farscape had that issue and I suspect she's not alone.

Yeah but they could have ping pong balled/dotted her. They didn't because she just wanted out.

 Lance845 wrote:
My understanding is they had to pay JLaw a ton of money just to come back and do what she did. She HATED being in the xmen movies. You will also notice that in each movie she is blue less and less and more often then not her clothes cover the majority of her body and don't change when she changes.

So her getting fridged... probably the actresses demands.

A character dying isnt bad.
But it seemed she only died.....for the motivation of 2 others.

 Overread wrote:
In fairness I've heard that some actors who use a lot of body makeup end up with Kidney problems. The actress who played Zahn in Farscape had that issue and I suspect she's not alone.

Although JLaw was only in full body makeup up until Days of Future Past. From that one onwards it was a rubber suit, with just her face painted, which cut the makeup time down from 8 hours to 3.

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

 Lance845 wrote:
While appeasing the chinese might very well be a factor, Tilda Swinton is also a VERY good actress and does a great job with the part while the Ancient One was one of those 70s racial stereotype characters. There are no doubt layers to the reasons to cast the AO different and I think the product that came out was better for it.

Whilst I liked Ancient Tilda (and I'm big fan of hers in general), it's not like there's a shortage of good Asian actors who could have portrayed the character and make it interesting, too.


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 insaniak wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Nuance matters. Execution matters. Some people are less sensitive to lack of both of those than others. Two scenes that seem just as plausible to you can span a world of difference to others.

Indeed. I remember seeing Deep Blue Sea at the cinema with a friend. Out of all of the issues with that movie, the one that killed it for him was sharks swimming backwards, something that didn't phase me anywhere near as much as how tediously predictable it was. And given my rather 'brain-switched-off' approach to movie watching, if I'm finding it predictable, that's saying something...

Huh, IMHO one of the strength of the DBS is that it throws few surprises at you. Granted in lot of places it is very predictable, but by no means the worst example of the genre.
When I saw it first time, I was not bothered by backwards swimming sharks as such, just how bad they looked. All the CGI in the movie was very poor even for the time. It's one movie which definitely could use a 'special edition'.

One thing I will say about Deep Blue Sea - as much as you can claim it's formulaic and easily predictable, nobody - but NOBODY - can look me straight in the eye and truthfully tell me that they saw that one scene coming.

I strongly suspect that in order to have not seen that coming, you would need to have left the room 15 minutes prior to the film starting...

 Henry wrote:

The rest of the film was bad pacing, bad plot, poor use of characters, bad script, complete destruction of the universes verisimilitude and just everything bad about how to make a film.

I'm baffled that people bring up 'TLJ destroyed verisimilitude' when this has hardly ever been a strong point of Star Wars, some other movies of the series were just as bad. Han going through Starkiller base's shields by hyperspace is just as nonbelievable as 'Holdo maneuver' - if it was that easy, it would have been weaponized ages ago. In ESB Falcon flies to another star system without a functioning hyperspace. In Phantom Menace they simply fly through the Trade Federation blockage with a ship which is 1/100th the size of dozens of ships firing at them. And of course TRoS 'hyperspace skipping' takes the dumbness to all new levels.

Backfire wrote:
And of course TRoS 'hyperspace skipping' takes the dumbness to all new levels.

But looked really cool on screen... which is ultimately what has mostly always dictated events in Star Wars films. Lucas's films are eye candy set to classical music. It's not surprising that the sequels carried on that trend.

 Super Ready wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

I really like it too. Think was probably the best Predator-related thing since Predator 2.

On the thread title I guess AvP would probably be up there, although I had read the 1 and 2 star reviews before I went and kind of knew what to expect. Possibly the closest I have ever got to walking out of the cinema, but I stubbornly stayed just because how much tickets cost.

Why-oh-why they couldn't have just gone with the plot from the Dark Horse comics and Machiko Noguchi - something along those lines, I will never know.

 Super Ready wrote:
One thing I will say about Deep Blue Sea - as much as you can claim it's formulaic and easily predictable, nobody - but NOBODY - can look me straight in the eye and truthfully tell me that they saw that one scene coming.

Spoiler:

Samuel L Jackson's very sudden and inspiring-speech-interrupting death.

The "Standing by the open moon-pool monologing" was a little.... telegraphy. While I'll admit it was still a little *surprising* it wasn't exactly out of the Deep Blue.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Pacific wrote:

 Super Ready wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

I really like it too. Think was probably the best Predator-related thing since Predator 2.

On the thread title I guess AvP would probably be up there, although I had read the 1 and 2 star reviews before I went and kind of knew what to expect. Possibly the closest I have ever got to walking out of the cinema, but I stubbornly stayed just because how much tickets cost.

Why-oh-why they couldn't have just gone with the plot from the Dark Horse comics and Machiko Noguchi - something along those lines, I will never know.

I liked AvP, the problem being the pre-existence of Xenomorphs and Predators on earth and the use of green lasers in Sub-Zero temperatures. That's an annoying technical point. AvP Requiem was my "they jumped the shark" moment.

 Pacific wrote:

 Super Ready wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

I really like it too. Think was probably the best Predator-related thing since Predator 2.

On the thread title I guess AvP would probably be up there, although I had read the 1 and 2 star reviews before I went and kind of knew what to expect. Possibly the closest I have ever got to walking out of the cinema, but I stubbornly stayed just because how much tickets cost.

Why-oh-why they couldn't have just gone with the plot from the Dark Horse comics and Machiko Noguchi - something along those lines, I will never know.

Agreed, it’s a classic “all you had to do...”

Kayback wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

 Super Ready wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

I really like it too. Think was probably the best Predator-related thing since Predator 2.

On the thread title I guess AvP would probably be up there, although I had read the 1 and 2 star reviews before I went and kind of knew what to expect. Possibly the closest I have ever got to walking out of the cinema, but I stubbornly stayed just because how much tickets cost.

Why-oh-why they couldn't have just gone with the plot from the Dark Horse comics and Machiko Noguchi - something along those lines, I will never know.

I liked AvP, the problem being the pre-existence of Xenomorphs and Predators on earth and the use of green lasers in Sub-Zero temperatures. That's an annoying technical point. AvP Requiem was my "they jumped the shark" moment.

If the green laser thing was getting you then you should have been upset about the aliens going from face hugger to full grown aliens in less than 20 minutes. Or the preds knight being immune to alien acid but not it's armor, or net. Or how a pred took off his mask, got knocked out, woke up, and didn't realize he had been face huggered and then blew up the whole place with his wrist bomb immediately. Or how the drones attacked the queen to free it instead of attacking themselves. Or how the drones were more intelligent in the movie then any other movie for no good reason. Or how that one aliens tail was like... 20 feet long.

AVP is a terrible movie.

 insaniak wrote:

I strongly suspect that in order to have not seen that coming, you would need to have left the room 15 minutes prior to the film starting...

Really? I really enjoyed that film and it was a surprise to me. It was fun film with silliness and even the death at the end was a bit different to the normal filme fare.

Some friends wittered on about they could see the CGI change but I can;t tell the difference between HD and normal tv so I enjoy stuff more.

Predators is a great movie - Adrian Brody is very good and good supporting cast.

AVP was ok but nothing compared to what they could ahev done by adpating the comic.

 Lance845 wrote:

Kayback wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

 Super Ready wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Sorry quick clarification.
Predators is a pretty great movie about bigger meaner predators dumping people onto a game reserve planet and hunting them for sport.

Not the point of the thread, I know, but... I loved this one! This is the one with Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, right? Hit a lot of sweet spots that were present in the latter half of the original.

I really like it too. Think was probably the best Predator-related thing since Predator 2.

On the thread title I guess AvP would probably be up there, although I had read the 1 and 2 star reviews before I went and kind of knew what to expect. Possibly the closest I have ever got to walking out of the cinema, but I stubbornly stayed just because how much tickets cost.

Why-oh-why they couldn't have just gone with the plot from the Dark Horse comics and Machiko Noguchi - something along those lines, I will never know.

I liked AvP, the problem being the pre-existence of Xenomorphs and Predators on earth and the use of green lasers in Sub-Zero temperatures. That's an annoying technical point. AvP Requiem was my "they jumped the shark" moment.

If the green laser thing was getting you then you should have been upset about the aliens going from face hugger to full grown aliens in less than 20 minutes. Or the preds knight being immune to alien acid but not it's armor, or net. Or how a pred took off his mask, got knocked out, woke up, and didn't realize he had been face huggered and then blew up the whole place with his wrist bomb immediately. Or how the drones attacked the queen to free it instead of attacking themselves. Or how the drones were more intelligent in the movie then any other movie for no good reason. Or how that one aliens tail was like... 20 feet long.

AVP is a terrible movie.

I get a bit annoyed at vast mega-companies who appear unable to mount more than the most rag-tag exploratory teams when its the CEO/founder/head of the firm organising the trip.
That and you turn up to this isolated spot and someone other than you burns a laser blast into the ice. If that really happened the last thing you'd do is go down. You'd be calling head office, asking for details from space, more info etc...

Overall its what I call a low-grade fan-service film. It sacrifices story for iconic or fancy scenes.

Of course a higher grade fan service film would be something like Alien 4 where for the most part its pretty well done save for the odd way they bring Ripley and the Xenos back.



Overall once you read the Dark Horse comics you realise just how much the studios have thrown away in really awesome film potential with the franchise.

 Overread wrote:

I get a bit annoyed at vast mega-companies who appear unable to mount more than the most rag-tag exploratory teams when its the CEO/founder/head of the firm organising the trip.
That and you turn up to this isolated spot and someone other than you burns a laser blast into the ice. If that really happened the last thing you'd do is go down. You'd be calling head office, asking for details from space, more info etc...

I actually find this trope quite believable. Even if it is the CEO/founder whatever arranging the trip? If you're going into unknown territory, the last thing you're going to do is risk valuable resources on what might be a suicide mission. You send the expendable chaff first, whose orders are to explore thoroughly, and if that's at risk to themselves, why does the company care? If they chicken out at the first sign of danger, it's a wasted trip and that means wasted money.

What irks me, is when that team doesn't come back and the company sends a similar team to investigate. That's the unrealistic part, you'd either leave well alone or send in someone a bit more... "violent", if not more valuable, for instance mercs.

 Lance845 wrote:

If the green laser thing was getting you then you should have been upset about the aliens going from face hugger to full grown aliens in less than 20 minutes. Or the preds knight being immune to alien acid but not it's armor, or net. Or how a pred took off his mask, got knocked out, woke up, and didn't realize he had been face huggered and then blew up the whole place with his wrist bomb immediately. Or how the drones attacked the queen to free it instead of attacking themselves. Or how the drones were more intelligent in the movie then any other movie for no good reason. Or how that one aliens tail was like... 20 feet long.

We've seen Xenomorphs grow from chest burster to full size on the remains of a dog (albeit with maybe implied other prisoners) so who knows. Same with the other stuff. Alien technology/biology is alien to us. We know how green lasers don't perform in low temperatures.

AVP is a terrible movie.

This is where semantics come in. I was EXPECTING a terrible movie. They all have been. Predator 1987 was bad. It was an 80's action movie that did some scenes well but overall was an 80's action movie. Predator 2 was a 90's cop film, but with aliens. It was also bad. Alien and Aliens were good. Aliens 3 was not, neither was Resurection. I didn't have a very high bar for AvP. I wasn't disappointed. I was annoyed by the green laser thing as it's physics.

AVP was worse because it came out just after Freddy VS Jason, which no one expected to be good...yet was. Compared to that matchup, AVP should have been straight forward.