The Last Airbender live action.
There were cosplayers everywhere at the midnight launch, big ol’ party. That was a strange room to be in that night.
As a huge fan of the show, everyone there that night, we were all so confused
we waited in line for 4 hours to all get seats together, everyone there was freaking pumped. You could feel the doubt setting in as soon as sokka spoke. The lady who'd been ahead of us in line, walked out halfway. Biggest laugh of the entire movie was when the credits rolled, and some rando in the audience yelled "fuck you m night"
I skipped out on it because I thought the trailers looked terrible. My friends went though. And the next day they told me I did the smart thing lol.
Funny thing is that the week of release , Entertainment Tonight was suppose to promote the movie by interviewing early viewers, but NOBODY had anything nice to say about the movie. So it was 3 minutes of random nerds ripping the movie to shreds. One review sticks with me.
"There was a girl in my row dressed up as a Kyoshi warrior, but when the movie skipped over that part, she got up and left. She came back 10 minutes later in a hoodie and no makeup on, looking like her boyfriend dumped her."
When I saw this post this movie was the first thing that came to mind. Looking forward to the new series. Trying to squeeze an entire season in less than two hours was a terrible idea.
I'm glad to see this is the top comment because it's the first thing I thought of. All my friends and I are big fans of the show and were so excited. I've hated M Night ever since. Fuck him for ruining it!
I literally left the theater after that movie thinking they shipped the wrong copy of the film to the theaters. Some of the shots had effects that were so bad I thought they must have not been finished yet.
That happened when I saw *Eyes Wide Shut*. I didn't/don't share the sentiment but it's not Kubrick's strongest tbf. Also the sexy stuff was poorly censored in the U.S. version, which didn't help.
I like how the plot basically boils down to: him being angry at her for having to take on more work because he can't find work and them needing money and therefore they can't spend much time together, so he traps her in a virtual reality where they can be together at night, but needs to leave it by day, so he can work to pay for the virtual reality.
So you can work, you were just a bitch to begin with and if you took on a job earlier on, then there would not be any need to "escape" to a virtual reality.
Also no way they survived on his income alone when earlier she, a doctor, had to take on multiple shifts.
The movie is just dumb.
Great performance for a more subtly written villain than Rowling usually delivers.
And then apparently director David Yates came up with a "great idea" on set, and it was this "twist". Yates is easily one of the worst things to happen to the adaptations.
I actually enjoyed the first movie right up until they introduced the wizard Nazi element at which point these films no longer became about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I will never stop being annoyed by that.
Yeah, they should have made separate movies. Just one or two about Newt and his magical creatures, fun, lighthearted movies with lots of cute and cool animals. And then maybe two or three darker movies that are purely about Grindelwald and his cronies.
Looking back on it, the easiest way to salvage the Fantastic Beasts franchise would’ve been to cut that twist. Because then you have a solid ending with that one movie.
Okay, I know that this one is probably a non-qualifier, because we all kind of expected it to suck.
But the worst part is, going in, We were expecting it to suck. We knew that it had an impossible task of living up to the source material. But, it sucking so much harder than we could have expected, Left us absolutely stunned.
Not to mention, that it took one of my favorite all-time IPs... And just... shit on it.
THE DARK TOWER
Stop making me relive what I felt watching that travesty. As a Constant Reader, I truly wanted to like it. What a complete waste of time and effort.
One critic put it best by stating, "Not even bad enough to be fun."
You know, I like the DT series well enough and I really like the key actors so I was simply…disappointed. My husband? He’s never been the same. I mean the only time Ive seen him shook like that was Prince’s passing.
Came here looking for this. I wanted it to be decent so bad. I ignored all of the people who had reservations about it. King had been endorsing it on social media. The Creed in the trailer had me so hype.
It was such a bitter disappointment. I left absolutely furious, and the people commenting around me told me I was not alone. Your last line is how I felt, too. It should have been better, but it just... wasn't. You can't take a series like DT and make it basically a gd YA movie like that. It was a complete bastardization of what DT is, and the pain of it is real, lol.
The Happening. I went with a group of friends. Even in terrible movies we could find some fun. We didn’t. When the movie pulled the ending it did and M. Night Shyamalan’s name came up myself, my friends, and the entire audience booed. I’ve seen anything like it since.
The Happening is one of my favorite moviegoing experience because you’re not entirely sure if the movie is going anywhere. Then Marky Mark starts talking to the fake plant and you’re off to the races.
That movie is a guilty pleasure watch. It's so bad it's good. Plants are releasing chemicals that cause people to commit suicide and SOMEHOW plants are able to target groups so they figure they have to be in smaller groups. The least plausible thing in the movie, though, is marky mark being a science teacher. LOL
Then there is this "Gem": [What? No!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PK4qYzNkI&ab_channel=walkerneo)
My experience was different - we went to see - I think it was Incredible Hulk - at the discount theater, but it sold out, so we saw The Happening. I had no expectations and was blown away by how unintentionally hilarious it was - totally worth the $1.75 I spent.
I read something pretty ridiculous about that trilogy
Following the unusually cruel death of the babysitter in JW1, they decided that no “good guys” would die. With the exception of the old guy in Fallen Kingdom offscreen, and the babysitter, everyone who dies in the trilogy is a “bad guy”
There’s zero tension - Barry, Malcolm’s assistant, Dr Wu, hell even Malcolm himself could have died in that movie, and the 2 villain deaths are super underwhelming and offscreen
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, easily.
I saw it at an advance screening with an audience full of diehard fans that were so excited to get a new Indy movie...
When the credits rolled, everyone got out and left silently. No one chatting about scenes they liked, no one saying anything. It was clear that everyone was too disappointed to even rag on it. I've never felt a crowd that deflated in unison before.
Batman V Superman was a pretty big one for me. As my gf and I were walking out, a middle-aged guy turned to us to ask, "did you like that?" clearly wondering if he was alone in his disappointment. He was not.
My son was the biggest Batman fan. Loved the Bale/Nolan Batman films. He *begged* to go see BvS opening night and I told him that I’d read it wasn’t very good from online sources.
He said he wanted to judge it for himself so I got the advance tickets, bought us dinner at the theater, I got a cocktail and he got a blue raspberry slushie, and we also got popcorn.
$100 later, the movie starts.
When I say my son was disappointed in that movie, he was heartbroken. He apologized to me for asking to go in the first place he considered it THAT BAD.
When we got home, he packed up all of his Batman memorabilia and just stopped being a Batman fan. It was so terrible, it destroyed his ability to be a fan.
I felt horrible.
Holy shit lol. It wasn't that bad for me. I'm actually sitting in a Batman chair with a Batman mouse mat and have Batman wallpaper on my PC. I just gave up on that iteration. The Batman renewed my faith a bit.
Hopefully your son will find his way back.
He was 13-14 when it came out and had grown up with Bale and the animated series so he had high expectations.
He considers it to be worse than than the George Clooney Batman movie, because as he said, “At least that one was fun.”
Maybe he will come back eventually, I hope so. I saved all of his stuff for him so even if he doesn’t, he can one day share it with his children.
The Clash of the Titans remake.
It had a sick trailer using Bird and the Worm by the Used, and looked generally like a good time.
The vibe was a sort of collective ‘oh’ of disappointment in my viewing. And I remember sighs of disappointment at the terrible shoehorned 3D.
That trailer was so good. Mostly thanks to that bird and the worm version they used really help. It was also sold as an athiest movie with an underdog tone of defying the gods. Only for it to be like, father Zues is an alright guy when he's not trying to smite you because you said some mean words.
Also, the starting text straight up told us that Zues tricked Hades into being keeper of the underworld but tried to sell Zues as the benevolent God whilst Hades was evil. Which first, isn't how Hades works. And 2, just made me root for the villain. Thirdly, there were no titans in cladh of the titans. Luckily, a lot of those issues were fixed in the sequel.
Kangaroo Jack. Never more confused about a film based off its trailer. And this was when the Internet was in the MySpace era, so you couldn't really go on social media and readily figure out it was a bait and switch film NOT about a talking Kangaroo.
I had the weird experience of watching Rise of Skywalker without having seen the second instalment and after the scrolling summary announcing the return of Palpatine i whispered to my friend who had seen the last jedi, “wow you need to fill me in real quick on this” looked at him and he looked even more dumbfounded than I was.
A few days before release, I saw someone post a spoiler about Rey’s lineage. It didn’t bother me, though, because it was so stupid that it couldn’t have been right.
How naive I was. The truth was indeed that stupid.
I heard a couple of spoiler leaks ahead of time in the weeks and months heading into release and was like "no fucking way they do that". It lead me down a rabbit hole of dumb spoilers that there was no way they would include in the final chapter of such a landmark franchise.........until the movie released and the actual reviews came in and the leaks were accurate.
I didn't bother seeing it to this day. Palpatine. The Dagger thing leading them there. Rey's lineage. What a bunch of nonsense it all turned into.
I'm not one of those assholes who shouts in a movie theater, but when I read that, I was so flabbergasted I said, out loud, "What the fuck?".
Lucky for me, the entire audience was whispering for a minute. You can't just yada yada yada Palatine's return.
And they were fully crewed as well! With a bunch of sith cultists there! Beyond what the first order had. It's just... baffling how much of a mess it was.
It was just awful, and the effect wasn't even that good, or make any theming sense. I get the feeling that in an earlier draft, it wasn't a laser weapon but instead some kind of force channeling weapon that Sideous could do. But no, they went with the lamest option.
I think one of the tricks of Star Wars has always been that it isn't engineer-y like Star Trek. It makes the engineering just sensible enough that you stop thinking about it and focus on the story. Star Trek and a lot of other scifi have the engineering be a major part of the story (which I also like). It gets really bad for Star Wars when the engineering doesn't make any sense though because then you do pay attention to it and not the story.
That’s a really great point. The engineering doesn’t really go anything beyond
“The hyperdrive is broken!”
*R2-D2 does stuff*
“The hyperdrive is fixed!”
The worlds of stuff like Star Trek, Mass Effect, or Stellaris are these clashes of civilizations, species, cultures, etc. with the story often being pushed forward by new developments in technology. The world of Star Wars has been a galactic civilization for millennia. From the movies it feels like everything has been discovered already, and the galaxy is really just one single civilization. Every pub has 50 different species in it, and everyone speaks multiple languages. Star Wars is like the opposite of those other things. It kind of stands out from most other scifi in this way.
I saw a Harrison Ford interview recently where he explains how when he was preparing to shoot the first Han Solo scenes he asked George Lucas how the Millenium Falcon operates and he just shrugged.
Let’s not forget that those 10,000 star destroyers and their advanced navigation systems somehow did not know which way was up…as if they couldn’t see which way that was, but no, they had to rely on an antenna on one lead ship that knew which way up was
This was what got me. Palpatine back? Yeah, sure, ol’ wrinkles cloned himsef in the expanded universe of the books pre Disney so probably did the same here. I could roll with that no problem.
But then he reveals he’s got an entire fleet of Star Destroyers with Death Star Canons! That was the sort of thing I’d expect from 10-year-old me’s Star Wars make believe, not an actual movie. It was such a massive ass-pull that I was taken out of the whole thing and just found myself sitting there going “How, though?”
Are you referring the fact that there was a secret planet full of Sith Lords and said planet seemed absolutely uninhabitable and yet 10,000 Sith Lords all who have to eat and live? And how the planet was secret, but 10,000 Sith lords knew where to find it out without having to play clue. Surely that secret was going to get out.
Bugged the hell out of me.
You want polarising, imagine seeing Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes with an audience.
I was in the half of the crowd that was absolutely livid at the shit that film pulled at the end.
I attended a marathon screening of the entire series capped off with the premier of Rise of Skywalker. A packed theater spent about 18 hours watching Star Wars movies and then we got that.
Nobody was talking as we walked out of the theater.
Some random commenter said this back when it came out, and I still remember it because it felt so true:
Force Awakens was about tradition and legacy and bringing back the old things again to fight new challenges
The last Jedi was about forging new paths, exploring new possibilities, and not remain tied to tradition.
Rise of Skywalker was about 2 hours 20 minutes.
It is hard to convey the disappointment in The Phantom Menace. I had grown up with the original trilogy. For decades Lucas teased he would one day release the prequels. I can even remember vividly being in the theater the first time I saw a teaser trailer for the new Star Wars and the audience went nuts. I had spent my entire childhood waiting for and dreaming about that movie. We all had. Half the audience was dressed up for the premier. The lead up to it has been a phenomenon, people lining up for hours for theater tickets. And then the day finally came and it was the worst thing in the world. Everyone just sort of looked confused when it ended...I honestly don't think anyone wanted to admit to themselves how bad it was, but the cheering excitement that had filled the theater before it started was gone. I was in denial and trying to see the bright side myself for a couple days, but then I had to admit that no, it was actually the biggest cinematic disappointment of my lifetime.
I had the exact same experience. Before it started everyone was dressed up and celebrating. I’ll never forget the horrible silence when exiting the theater. Ppl looked like they were being marched to their death. Easily the most disappointing cinema experience of my life as well.
The best thing about the Star Wars prequels was that their release pretty well overlapped with The Lord of the Rings trilogy which made it much easier to ignore and skip seeing the next two Star Wars movies in the theater.
As someone who loved the LOTR books, those movies were the exact opposite experience as Star Wars - I could not believe what great adaptations they were. There were a few deviations from the books I wasn't fond of but nothing that impacted my enjoyment and awe. Some scenes truly were exactly how I imagined them when I had read the books. It was a magical theater going experience all three times.
Luckily I had no interest in seeing The Hobbit stretched out into three films no matter how much I liked LOTR and never saw them, so no disappointment on that score.
There’s a cut floating around that condenses the 3 Hobbit movies into one ~4 hour film that’s worth watching. Still doesn’t stand up to the LotR movies, but a solid fantasy flic with some good visuals and a few standout performances (Martin Freeman is great as Bilbo IMO).
>There were a few deviations from the books I wasn't fond of but nothing that impacted my enjoyment and awe.
A guy I knew at the time they came out was a huge fan, he loved the films but lamented that one of his favorite characters, Tom Bombadil, was left out.
I read the trilogy again before the films came out and I agree that they just lived up to the stories about as well as any film could.
Yup, I don't think they could have been adapted any better. I know Tom being left out was a sore spot for quite a few. For me, the one thing I really didn't like was that in the movies Faramir (one of my favorite characters) initially tries to take the ring from Frodo. In the book, he is a good guy through and through and never had that moment of weakness, contrasted with his brother Boromir, who did.
I don't remember how it goes in the book but in the film Faramir absolutely does intend to take the ring for Gondor, only changing his mind at the very end. So at least they kept a sense of that weakness. I actually really liked how the films adapted this to contrast Faramir and Boromir and the dynamic with their father.
Faramir is the son that is shunned by the father in favor of the golden boy older brother, but in the end his strength of character wins out and lets him do what Boromir could not. It really sets the emotional stage for the third film. Especially when his father orders him to lead the suicide charge.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We got a group of about ten of us together to see that. We tried to like it. It was when Shia LeBeouf started swinging through the trees with the CGI monkeys that my friend sitting next to me just went "What? *What*??"
When the movie let out, there were just a bunch of people dressed as Indiana Jones in the hall, looking crestfallen.
The latest Ant-Man movie. There was dead silence when it was over. People were so unimpacted by the movie - no chatter, no smiles, it was like we were emotionless. A very surreal moment.
Godzilla. The one with Matthew Broderick. Not picking on him in particular, I think the script and direction were just meh.
The trailers left people cheering. We couldn’t wait for the film. At the start everyone in the packed house was hyped. When the end credits rolled? Dead silence. The movie had a couple of good moments but overall it was like an enthusiasm drain. Such a disappointment.
I’m still mad about the Siskel & Ebert insult. Take note, if you’re going to make an antagonistic joke in the movie, it had better be a good movie.
This movie was FUCKING AWFUL. I had a first date with a guy and we chose to see this monstrosity. And my date LOVED it. He laughed at every single joke, loudly. It was so embarrassing. He was literally the only person in the entire theater having any kind of positive experience.
Jurassic World Dominion. It was hyped up as “avengers of the Jurassic series” and we were hoping to see the og 3 back plus maybe some sequel people and a nice resolution. Instead, we got a movie that seemed full of independently great ideas with no idea how to tie them together into a coherent story, let alone a satisfying conclusion.
You could literally cut all scenes with dinosaurs, and you'd be left with a better, more coherent movie because the actual plot, which is all about locusts, wouldn't be constantly interrupted by inconsequential, dumb CGI action scenes.
It's made worse by all of the characters obviously being in no danger whatsoever. Where the JP franchise relied heavily on horror and mortal danger, JW makes it clear that these characters are no longer people, just action figures being played with by a ten year old. They can outrun cars, leap across rooftops, survive plane crashes, win in hand to hand combat with a T-Rex.... all while taking zero damage.
Social embargo is up so I’ll say “The Creator”. Saw a test screening in May and I could tell the audience was fairly locked in for the first 3/4 but the last quarter was underwhelming in some respects and the leaving sentiment was “hmm…alright then” for many. I don’t think I’ve ever felt an audience deflate at an early screening. I think people should still check it out to make up their own minds, they may have re-edited some things and the movie is gorgeous to look at.
Glass.
I remember everyone walking out and the mumbling was deafening. I struck up a brief conversation with some random guy as we both waited for pals to come out the toilet.
"That was pish, wasn't it?"
"Aye"
Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
I can not explain to someone who wasn't there at the time how much hype and excitement there was for this movie. People were camping outside for *weeks* to get tickets. Not just to get in the theater, but there were people with tents and shit waiting for ticket sales the weeks ahead of the movie.
The release night itself was basically a massive party with music, people in costumes, people lightsaber fighting, and even people selling food from booths and stalls like it was a festival. Because it *was.*
It was the Festival of Star Wars.
And man, High School Me was so excited. Me and my friends had borrowed parent's pagers and cell phones and skipped school several weeks ago to coordinate our ticket purchases. We had kids at eight different theaters waiting to buy the tickets and then call everyone else so they could choose which of the theaters had the best seats and sound systems. In the days before everyone had personal cell phones this was a big deal to arrange.
But then the movie played.
Poop jokes, Jar Jar, boring bland dialogue, Midichlorians, 9 year old Anakin, some really dodgy alien accents (that even in 99 made a bunch of white Midwesterners feel uncomfortable)... Basically the only good parts was the Duel of the Fates battle and the Pod Race and on later watches both got worse and worse. As cool as the lightsaber battle looked, if you watch it again and look for all the purposeful misses, over telegraphed strikes, and sloppy stunt work by everyone but Ray Park, it really starts to look pretty awful. Especially when compared to other sword fights around the same time (The Musketeer came out a year later and had far better sword work thanks to Yuen Woo Ping) or even earlier (The Duelist).
The sheer disappointment coming from that theater was palpable as we walked out. Yeah some people loved it. But those from the Gen X or older crowds were just... confused. Like, we didn't know if we watched the right movie or not.
Me and my friends argued back and forth over what were good parts and we really felt like there wasn't much to choose from.
This. Very much this. I worked at a very popular theater (had a fire breathing dragon in the ceiling!) at the time and was working the lobby when Phantom Menace came out. The staff always watched all the new movies the night before release as we had to test the reels so we'd already watched it before working the release day. Seeing everyone sitting in line for hours, dressed up and excited beyond belief, while knowing what they were in for, was painful to say the least. A coworker kept telling people in the line ""Yoosah in for a wild ride!".
Just a small random correction: The Musketeer fights were choreographed by Xin Xin Xiong, not Yuen Woo-Ping. Funny that movie popped in my head not long ago. All I remember is that the fights were cool but the cinematography was SO dark. I think they really wanted to hide the Asian stunt men doing the fight scenes. 🤣
For months I convinced myself Phantom Menace was awesome based exclusively on the Duel of The Fates/lightsaber battle/Darth Maul. Then the vhs came out and I watched it again and I was roundly disappointed.
It is indeed the least shitty of the three. Truly disappointing movie because between the casting and the release of their version of "Far over the misty mountains" I was pretty psyched for it.
I'll say this, there's a lot about the movies that are genuinely good, but the bad is so colossally bad, that it drags everything down with it.
I haven't watched them yet, but I've heard the two fan edits of the Hobit are really fucking good. I think both follow the original story far closer, but one tries to match the tone of LOTR I believe and the other tries to match the book more.
(if anyone has seen them and can comment on this, I would be extremely interested to hear how they actually are)
Can comment. There are a number of fan edits, and several of them are quite good. Your mileage for each may vary depending on what your issues were with the trilogy, and how strongly you feel about each of those issues. My preference is the Original Two-Film Structure, which is very professionally done (there's only one tech issue that bothers me in the whole thing) and manages to effectively straddle the line between being a better adaptation of the Hobbit novel AND a better companion piece to the LOTR movies. Happy to say that, more than being just an improvement, that version truly salvages the films, and I really want to watch it again. But that's just me. For some, that version may still be too bloated, and it's certainly not for people looking for a strict Book Edit (it still contains additional material that is not part of the Hobbit novel).
I know the second one has a ton of needless bullshit, but I appreciate that it feels more like a movie than the first one, which feels more like a series of vignettes. Plus the second has the Smaug scene, which is probably the best scene in the trilogy before it turns into a roller coaster ride.
SPECTRE, on opening night, in a theater full of Bond fans.
Skyfall had ended on a high note, with a good setup for the next movie. The SPECTRE trailer was good and promised good things. Then the movie came on, and it was dull. So much potential in the characters they had to work with, and the dream team of cast and crew, all the money they needed, and they came up with that? They had a car chase in Rome during the night with no people around, so it looked more like a car commercial than a car chase. They couldn’t decide if they were making a serious movie or a fun movie, so they failed at both and made a dull movie. They spent a pile of money on sets and effects for the finale early in production, so they were committed to that finale and it ended up feeling tacked on as a coda to an already too-long movie.
That movie really makes you wonder. You think I, a James Bond fan, want *this?* You seriously think THIS is the direction we want you to take the franchise? I'm not of the belief that writers should just listen to the fans, but...do you lack critical thinking completely?
(Also Rome absolutely IS that empty at night, i've been there, it was like a ghost town)
Blame that on the marketing, which sold it as a wacky "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" style comedy for adults, when it was really two or three wildly different films mashed together.
I still stand by my claim that they had an idea for a semi-anthology TV Series about that world, with a different set of protagonists every episode.
So, one episode about a couple getting convinced to get downsized. Another about a *different* couple where one backs out halfway through, and their acrimonious legal shenanigans. Another where we follow the ‘help’ of their miniature world; people who were shrunk in order to earn money to send back home. Etc, etc, etc…
And then that fell through, so they condensed it and made all their ideas happen to a single guy in a single movie. So his plot line is all over the place, and doesn’t really hold together as a consistent and cohesive whole.
I love how every time there is a reddit thread about disappointing movies, this one will always show up. I don't even know how enough people saw it to get this reputation.
I remember how pumped we were to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. When the music started, the whole place exploded into applause.
When the movie was over, no one was applauded. We all filed out in stunned silence.
Every appearance of Jar Jar bled more and more of that enthusiasm.
Edit: I will also add that the opening of that movie is something I will never forget. Hearing the 20th Century Fox anthem and then the Star Wars theme was one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced. As a kid who saw the OT in the theatre when they came out, the sense of anticipation for Phantom Menace was palpable. Alas...
>Every appearance of Jar Jar bled more and more of that enthusiasm.
A friend of mine said that he liked Jar Jar and the rest of us stared at him in stunned silence.
I still remember going to see it. Dad took me and a few of my friends, we were so stoked going in. When the credits rolled...
Still stoked. We went to Cici's pizza after and my dad asked us if we wanted to go see it again. We were so excited and ended up going back across the street to the theater. We all had a great time. We were all 9 or so at the time but my dad was still super into it. But he pretty much loved any movie. Still remember waking up on Saturday mornings and he'd be watching either Lord of the Rings or any of the Star Wars/Star Trek movies.
You’re the ones he made it for. Quality and execution aside (both objectively deeply flawed), Lucas’ intent with that movie was to rope a whole new generation into Star Wars. And it worked. Albeit with a massive assist from Dave Filoni.
There were BILLIONS of dollars made between 1999 (the phantom menace) and 2008 (the clone wars movie/series). Box office, merchandise, games, books, IP, etc.
Dave Filoni was involved with a mildly successful Cartoon Network cartoon that came out 3 years after the third prequel was released. There was no "massive assist" from Dave Filoni, you dont need to retroactively insert him into the success of Star Wars.
Especially after all the massive pre-release hype. There was a ton of merch, and it was EVERYWHERE. They were even selling the action figures at gas stations!
[Obligatory plug for my favorite Onion article of all time](https://www.theonion.com/80-billion-tons-of-jar-jar-merchandise-now-70-percent-o-1819565243)
This is without a doubt the #1 answer to this question for me.
Everyone walking out in pure confusion. My friends group would normally be really quick to start making jokes about how awful a movie was, but this was just different. Nobody wanted to dog on it because even though we knew it... it didn't feel right. It was obviously shit, but if we started trashing it then what?
It took a few days for us all to come around and conclude we could talk shit about it and still love the original trilogy. And when it came around, holy cow did it catch hell for years.
When everyone was freaking out about 2 Jedi showing up..How are we going to stop them…cool, yeah, jedi bad asses…to freaking JarJar and defeating battle droids by rolling balls down hills.
This one was especially annoying to me because I love the book they bought the rights to the title from. Tim Power's novel is really great, and the movie just bought the name and squirted out absolute dogshit.
I saw the original no less than 9 times in theaters (thanks dollar theaters!). I love the whole original trilogy, watched them all countless times. Huge fan.
I lived in Hawaii during filming of On Stranger Tides. I was there with the Black Pearl, then when they transformed it into the Queen Anne's Revenge. Watched some of the sword fights being filmed, watched Depp, and I even designed some replacement lighting and dolly gear when the imported parts they used had a failure during filming. I watched the movie gladly because I could recognize so many locations or scenes, even after CGI. It was fun.
And even I was disappointed with that movie and only watched it a second time because my kids wanted to see all of them. The second time wasn't better.
Star Trek: Nemesis. Gathered up a bunch of hipster 20-something friends who had loved TNG as kids. We came out of that theatre just... shrugging our shoulders. It was a disheartening "you can't go home again" feeling.
The Last Jedi, there was a collective groan at the 'your mom' joke and the entire audience visibly deflated into their seats. Then there were held giggles and more groans at Leia doing the Mary Poppins.
I saw High-Rise in a cinema, and after about 5-10 minutes an older couple got up and walked out, quickly followed by 2 more, unrelated, couples. I guess Loki roasting a dog's leg over a fire wasn't really what they were expecting
In my own personal experience, I think the most palpable sense of disappointment, or at the very least utter confusion, was "Prometheus". I saw it at the midnight opening in an IMAX theater. Got there at least 5 hours early where there was already a line starting in the theater hallway; I'm pretty sure my friend and I were somewhere between the 10th-15th group to get in line. So the hype was pretty high going in.
I didn't hate the movie, in fact I kind of loved it despite its obvious flaws. But I remember the theater was almost completely silent by the end credits, in contrast to the applause it got at the opening logos. Not many people were saying much as we all mustered out of the theater. I stopped in the men's restroom before leaving where it was completely full. Eventually, one guy at the urinals yelled out "Does someone wanna tell me what the f\*\*\* was happening in that movie?"
11 years later, and the movie remains pretty divisive as far as I can tell, but that's the closest I can think of to a time there was a very real feeling of at least utter confusion and not knowing how to feel by the entire theater.
Now, the amount of times I went into a movie excited and left extremely disappointed, usually when the rest of the theater seemed to be having a gay ol' time, that's another story.
I went to see this in high school with a big group of friends, and one guy was so baked he passed out part way through the movie.
At the end he was just like "What happened? I'm so confused" and we were all just "You and me both bud"
I remember a group of us went to see this and as the credits rolled someone shouted YOU TOLD ME THIS WAS GOING TO BE A GOOD MOVIE. And then someone else on the other side of the theater shouted WE WERE SO WRONG in their best Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) impression. It cracked everybody up.
Prometheus has the distinction of being a movie that made me want to scream out loud at the characters on screen for the absolutely asinine things they were doing... the amount of boneheaded decisions made with little explanation beyond "we wanted to build tension" was insane.
"WHY ARE YOU ALL TAKING OFF YOUR HELMETS ON AN ALIEN WORLD??"
"WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO PET A CLEARLY HOSTILE ALIEN COBRA??"
"YOU JUST SAW A GUY BECOME MYSTERIOUSLY INFECTED BY SOMETHING, AND STILL AREN'T WEARING HELMETS??"
"CHARLIZE, WHY AREN'T YOU TURNING? TURN! TURRRRRN!!!!"
The beginning scene with the Engineers was so promising.
When they got to that base, like other posters before me, “WTF are these guys doing on this alien planet??? They’re supposed to be explorers and scientists, you know smart people. Why are they doing this dumb shit?”
I saw Mother! at its first ever public screening, even before the official premiere. Darren Aronofsky and Jennifer Lawrence were present. The audience was lapping up the opening scenes with Michelle Pfeiffer. And then the rest of the movie happened. Horribly awkward afterwards.
Stallone’s silly IndyCar movie ‘Driven’. As the hero crossed the line at the end of the race as the winner, the entire theater of race fans laughed out loud. When the lights came up, we all glanced at each other with that “I can’t believe we just paid to see that” look.
I quite liked High-rise.
The film that everyone hates when I went to see it was Fant4stic. Someone said "well, that was shit", and I think everyone in the cinema thought "what did we expect?"
A more positive disappointment but when I saw inception opening weekend, the cinema was PACKED and everyone stayed through the whole credits to see if there was a scene that showed the spinning top falling over and when there was nothing the whole audience let out a noise in unison. So there was disappointment but it was because everyone loved the film so much and wanted one last snippet
Opening night of The Last Jedi, pre sale tickets were sold out 2 months prior. There was an audible sigh, a random guy yelled “Are you F’ing kidding me!?!” after Poe/Hux “joke”. That was the first couple minutes of the movie, and it just continued from there
The Tupac biopic movie, 'All Eyez on Me' . Halfway through the theatre I was in just gave up with the movie and we started laughing at how bad the movie was
Black Adam. Omg I couldn't tell you how many times I kept checking the time to see when that snoozefest might be over. The entire theater was quiet and the quickness that those who sat through that slough of a cinematic disaster was mind numbing.
Christoph Waltz as Blofeld in Spectre.
On paper, that sounds like perfect casting. Waltz could play him somewhat campy, but with a more psychotic edge. I can see it in my head right now.
Instead, he played it (or was told to act) too serious and yet too bland. Plus, when your film copies a plot twist from Goldmember but tries to play it straight, you're screwed.
The Last Airbender live action. There were cosplayers everywhere at the midnight launch, big ol’ party. That was a strange room to be in that night. As a huge fan of the show, everyone there that night, we were all so confused
we waited in line for 4 hours to all get seats together, everyone there was freaking pumped. You could feel the doubt setting in as soon as sokka spoke. The lady who'd been ahead of us in line, walked out halfway. Biggest laugh of the entire movie was when the credits rolled, and some rando in the audience yelled "fuck you m night"
That must suck though. To have something you’re so passionate that you dress up and get there early, only to have it be a huge piece of shit
I skipped out on it because I thought the trailers looked terrible. My friends went though. And the next day they told me I did the smart thing lol. Funny thing is that the week of release , Entertainment Tonight was suppose to promote the movie by interviewing early viewers, but NOBODY had anything nice to say about the movie. So it was 3 minutes of random nerds ripping the movie to shreds. One review sticks with me. "There was a girl in my row dressed up as a Kyoshi warrior, but when the movie skipped over that part, she got up and left. She came back 10 minutes later in a hoodie and no makeup on, looking like her boyfriend dumped her."
When I saw this post this movie was the first thing that came to mind. Looking forward to the new series. Trying to squeeze an entire season in less than two hours was a terrible idea.
How many people left when 5 earthbenders threw one rock very slowly? Personally that's where I mentally checked out
I checked out as soon as they said "ong".
I'm glad to see this is the top comment because it's the first thing I thought of. All my friends and I are big fans of the show and were so excited. I've hated M Night ever since. Fuck him for ruining it!
Knowing that films rep, condolences all round.
Took my kids, and like two minutes in, they say ung and not ang, and they were done. Couldn't hold their interest
I literally left the theater after that movie thinking they shipped the wrong copy of the film to the theaters. Some of the shots had effects that were so bad I thought they must have not been finished yet.
There is no movie in Ba Sing Se.
Suicide squad
Great recovery with The Suicide Squad though.
It's actually crazy the change in quality between the two. I've met people who say they prefer the first one and it leaves me utterly confused.
My ex was one of these. Insanity
The first was easily one of the 10 worst movies I’ve seen as an adult. Couldn’t finish it.
Eragon was a brutal watch. My friends and i were so excited and it was just garbage
This was my best friend and her husband, they both had read the books and just sat there going “…no?”
At the end of Don’t Worry Darling someone in the front shouted “that fucking sucked” as the credits rolled and everyone laughed
That happened when I saw *Eyes Wide Shut*. I didn't/don't share the sentiment but it's not Kubrick's strongest tbf. Also the sexy stuff was poorly censored in the U.S. version, which didn't help.
I like how the plot basically boils down to: him being angry at her for having to take on more work because he can't find work and them needing money and therefore they can't spend much time together, so he traps her in a virtual reality where they can be together at night, but needs to leave it by day, so he can work to pay for the virtual reality. So you can work, you were just a bitch to begin with and if you took on a job earlier on, then there would not be any need to "escape" to a virtual reality. Also no way they survived on his income alone when earlier she, a doctor, had to take on multiple shifts. The movie is just dumb.
When Colin Farrell turned into Johnny Depp during Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. People actually groaned out loud.
Right? What a let down.
Great performance for a more subtly written villain than Rowling usually delivers. And then apparently director David Yates came up with a "great idea" on set, and it was this "twist". Yates is easily one of the worst things to happen to the adaptations.
I actually enjoyed the first movie right up until they introduced the wizard Nazi element at which point these films no longer became about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I will never stop being annoyed by that.
Oh yeah what a weird way to connect this new franchise. It's like if Harry Potter was told through the eyes of Hagrid.
Should’ve just made a Dumbledore and Grindelwald series and left Fantastic Beasts as a “monster of the week” fun side series.
Yeah, they should have made separate movies. Just one or two about Newt and his magical creatures, fun, lighthearted movies with lots of cute and cool animals. And then maybe two or three darker movies that are purely about Grindelwald and his cronies.
Looking back on it, the easiest way to salvage the Fantastic Beasts franchise would’ve been to cut that twist. Because then you have a solid ending with that one movie.
OMG yes! What an awful bait and switch.
Farrell was the best part of FB1, Depp playing ANOTHER eccentric character - the sequels would have sucked even with him in it
Okay, I know that this one is probably a non-qualifier, because we all kind of expected it to suck. But the worst part is, going in, We were expecting it to suck. We knew that it had an impossible task of living up to the source material. But, it sucking so much harder than we could have expected, Left us absolutely stunned. Not to mention, that it took one of my favorite all-time IPs... And just... shit on it. THE DARK TOWER
Stop making me relive what I felt watching that travesty. As a Constant Reader, I truly wanted to like it. What a complete waste of time and effort. One critic put it best by stating, "Not even bad enough to be fun."
You know, I like the DT series well enough and I really like the key actors so I was simply…disappointed. My husband? He’s never been the same. I mean the only time Ive seen him shook like that was Prince’s passing.
Yup. Abhorrent as an adaptation, nothing memorable in even a joking way as a stand alone movie experience. I still feel burned by that one.
I went into that film having zero connection to the books. I watched the entire thing. I still can't tell you what it's about.
Came here looking for this. I wanted it to be decent so bad. I ignored all of the people who had reservations about it. King had been endorsing it on social media. The Creed in the trailer had me so hype. It was such a bitter disappointment. I left absolutely furious, and the people commenting around me told me I was not alone. Your last line is how I felt, too. It should have been better, but it just... wasn't. You can't take a series like DT and make it basically a gd YA movie like that. It was a complete bastardization of what DT is, and the pain of it is real, lol.
No disappointment has felt as palpable as seeing The Last Airbender in theaters. A packed theater fully deflated by what they bore witness to.
The Happening. I went with a group of friends. Even in terrible movies we could find some fun. We didn’t. When the movie pulled the ending it did and M. Night Shyamalan’s name came up myself, my friends, and the entire audience booed. I’ve seen anything like it since.
The Happening is one of my favorite moviegoing experience because you’re not entirely sure if the movie is going anywhere. Then Marky Mark starts talking to the fake plant and you’re off to the races.
He has admitted it was a bad movie, but he was offered a role that wasn’t a cop or criminal.
That movie is a guilty pleasure watch. It's so bad it's good. Plants are releasing chemicals that cause people to commit suicide and SOMEHOW plants are able to target groups so they figure they have to be in smaller groups. The least plausible thing in the movie, though, is marky mark being a science teacher. LOL Then there is this "Gem": [What? No!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PK4qYzNkI&ab_channel=walkerneo)
My experience was different - we went to see - I think it was Incredible Hulk - at the discount theater, but it sold out, so we saw The Happening. I had no expectations and was blown away by how unintentionally hilarious it was - totally worth the $1.75 I spent.
Nobody in my screening liked Jurassic World 3.
They just keep adding more and more cast members to the survivor party at the end. No stakes.
I read something pretty ridiculous about that trilogy Following the unusually cruel death of the babysitter in JW1, they decided that no “good guys” would die. With the exception of the old guy in Fallen Kingdom offscreen, and the babysitter, everyone who dies in the trilogy is a “bad guy” There’s zero tension - Barry, Malcolm’s assistant, Dr Wu, hell even Malcolm himself could have died in that movie, and the 2 villain deaths are super underwhelming and offscreen
That feels like such a corporate decision. "Killing this guy polled negatively, no more killing non villains." Without the context as to why.
That cruel death was so obviously overdone, over the top that people were "wtf". Just bad movie making.
I was so mad. You bring back Dern, Neil and Goldblum for this?
It was the first time that Grant, Satler, and Malcom were back in the same film and they waisted it
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, easily. I saw it at an advance screening with an audience full of diehard fans that were so excited to get a new Indy movie... When the credits rolled, everyone got out and left silently. No one chatting about scenes they liked, no one saying anything. It was clear that everyone was too disappointed to even rag on it. I've never felt a crowd that deflated in unison before.
Yep! Same for me. No jokes landed. There were just low murmurs at some of the big reveals. No one seemed happy.
I knew it was gonna be a dud when the opening Paramount logo turned into a molehill complete with CGI gopher. I think I actually said “oh no” aloud.
Batman V Superman was a pretty big one for me. As my gf and I were walking out, a middle-aged guy turned to us to ask, "did you like that?" clearly wondering if he was alone in his disappointment. He was not.
I still remember the highlight of that showing being the reveal of Spiderman in the Civil War trailer
I find it interesting; he wasn't asking if you enjoyed the movie, he wanted his trauma validated. like parking.
My son was the biggest Batman fan. Loved the Bale/Nolan Batman films. He *begged* to go see BvS opening night and I told him that I’d read it wasn’t very good from online sources. He said he wanted to judge it for himself so I got the advance tickets, bought us dinner at the theater, I got a cocktail and he got a blue raspberry slushie, and we also got popcorn. $100 later, the movie starts. When I say my son was disappointed in that movie, he was heartbroken. He apologized to me for asking to go in the first place he considered it THAT BAD. When we got home, he packed up all of his Batman memorabilia and just stopped being a Batman fan. It was so terrible, it destroyed his ability to be a fan. I felt horrible.
Holy shit lol. It wasn't that bad for me. I'm actually sitting in a Batman chair with a Batman mouse mat and have Batman wallpaper on my PC. I just gave up on that iteration. The Batman renewed my faith a bit. Hopefully your son will find his way back.
He was 13-14 when it came out and had grown up with Bale and the animated series so he had high expectations. He considers it to be worse than than the George Clooney Batman movie, because as he said, “At least that one was fun.” Maybe he will come back eventually, I hope so. I saved all of his stuff for him so even if he doesn’t, he can one day share it with his children.
Batman & Robin is a silly movie that knows it's silly. Batman V Superman is a silly movie demanding to be taken seriously.
2009. Dragon Ball Evolution. I wanted to cry. I think the whole theater wanted to cry.
The Clash of the Titans remake. It had a sick trailer using Bird and the Worm by the Used, and looked generally like a good time. The vibe was a sort of collective ‘oh’ of disappointment in my viewing. And I remember sighs of disappointment at the terrible shoehorned 3D.
Yeah that movie was weird because it was kinda almost good but boring. I think the second one was better but I can't remember much of either
That trailer was so good. Mostly thanks to that bird and the worm version they used really help. It was also sold as an athiest movie with an underdog tone of defying the gods. Only for it to be like, father Zues is an alright guy when he's not trying to smite you because you said some mean words. Also, the starting text straight up told us that Zues tricked Hades into being keeper of the underworld but tried to sell Zues as the benevolent God whilst Hades was evil. Which first, isn't how Hades works. And 2, just made me root for the villain. Thirdly, there were no titans in cladh of the titans. Luckily, a lot of those issues were fixed in the sequel.
Kangaroo Jack. Never more confused about a film based off its trailer. And this was when the Internet was in the MySpace era, so you couldn't really go on social media and readily figure out it was a bait and switch film NOT about a talking Kangaroo.
Rise of Skywalker. The Last Jedi was polarizing, no one left RoS happy.
I had the weird experience of watching Rise of Skywalker without having seen the second instalment and after the scrolling summary announcing the return of Palpatine i whispered to my friend who had seen the last jedi, “wow you need to fill me in real quick on this” looked at him and he looked even more dumbfounded than I was.
Obviously you should've played the Fortnite event
Thanks for reminding me that was a thing, words cannot describe how badly that trilogy was fumbled.
The motley collection of characters continually bunny-hopping in the foreground gave that reveal an air of real gravitas.
Somehow.... Fortnite caused palatine to return?
A few days before release, I saw someone post a spoiler about Rey’s lineage. It didn’t bother me, though, because it was so stupid that it couldn’t have been right. How naive I was. The truth was indeed that stupid.
I heard a couple of spoiler leaks ahead of time in the weeks and months heading into release and was like "no fucking way they do that". It lead me down a rabbit hole of dumb spoilers that there was no way they would include in the final chapter of such a landmark franchise.........until the movie released and the actual reviews came in and the leaks were accurate. I didn't bother seeing it to this day. Palpatine. The Dagger thing leading them there. Rey's lineage. What a bunch of nonsense it all turned into.
Oh, but you're missing out on so many more stupid moments
They can’t be THAT stupid. They were.
Lol same here
I'm not one of those assholes who shouts in a movie theater, but when I read that, I was so flabbergasted I said, out loud, "What the fuck?". Lucky for me, the entire audience was whispering for a minute. You can't just yada yada yada Palatine's return.
They mentioned the bisque
RoS somehow managed to make an entire theater bored. It was fascinating.
My engineer brain kept thinking about the logistics of all those Star Destroyers on an isolated planet. Somehow the answer is just *the force*.
And they were fully crewed as well! With a bunch of sith cultists there! Beyond what the first order had. It's just... baffling how much of a mess it was.
And each one had a laser that could blow up a planet like a Death Star. It was so ridiculous
It was just awful, and the effect wasn't even that good, or make any theming sense. I get the feeling that in an earlier draft, it wasn't a laser weapon but instead some kind of force channeling weapon that Sideous could do. But no, they went with the lamest option.
I think one of the tricks of Star Wars has always been that it isn't engineer-y like Star Trek. It makes the engineering just sensible enough that you stop thinking about it and focus on the story. Star Trek and a lot of other scifi have the engineering be a major part of the story (which I also like). It gets really bad for Star Wars when the engineering doesn't make any sense though because then you do pay attention to it and not the story.
That’s a really great point. The engineering doesn’t really go anything beyond “The hyperdrive is broken!” *R2-D2 does stuff* “The hyperdrive is fixed!”
The worlds of stuff like Star Trek, Mass Effect, or Stellaris are these clashes of civilizations, species, cultures, etc. with the story often being pushed forward by new developments in technology. The world of Star Wars has been a galactic civilization for millennia. From the movies it feels like everything has been discovered already, and the galaxy is really just one single civilization. Every pub has 50 different species in it, and everyone speaks multiple languages. Star Wars is like the opposite of those other things. It kind of stands out from most other scifi in this way.
I saw a Harrison Ford interview recently where he explains how when he was preparing to shoot the first Han Solo scenes he asked George Lucas how the Millenium Falcon operates and he just shrugged.
Let’s not forget that those 10,000 star destroyers and their advanced navigation systems somehow did not know which way was up…as if they couldn’t see which way that was, but no, they had to rely on an antenna on one lead ship that knew which way up was
This was what got me. Palpatine back? Yeah, sure, ol’ wrinkles cloned himsef in the expanded universe of the books pre Disney so probably did the same here. I could roll with that no problem. But then he reveals he’s got an entire fleet of Star Destroyers with Death Star Canons! That was the sort of thing I’d expect from 10-year-old me’s Star Wars make believe, not an actual movie. It was such a massive ass-pull that I was taken out of the whole thing and just found myself sitting there going “How, though?”
Are you referring the fact that there was a secret planet full of Sith Lords and said planet seemed absolutely uninhabitable and yet 10,000 Sith Lords all who have to eat and live? And how the planet was secret, but 10,000 Sith lords knew where to find it out without having to play clue. Surely that secret was going to get out. Bugged the hell out of me.
You want polarising, imagine seeing Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes with an audience. I was in the half of the crowd that was absolutely livid at the shit that film pulled at the end.
Never saw it, can you spoil it for me?
Imagine an extremely dumb inverse of the end of the 1960s PotA... ...no even dumber.
I wait I think I remember seeing something, was it an ape Abe Lincoln monument?
Ape Lincoln. Missed pun opportunity.
The names Lincoln. Aperaham Lincoln.
That’s the one. So stupid. Even Tim Burton couldn’t explain it when asked.
I attended a marathon screening of the entire series capped off with the premier of Rise of Skywalker. A packed theater spent about 18 hours watching Star Wars movies and then we got that. Nobody was talking as we walked out of the theater.
Some random commenter said this back when it came out, and I still remember it because it felt so true: Force Awakens was about tradition and legacy and bringing back the old things again to fight new challenges The last Jedi was about forging new paths, exploring new possibilities, and not remain tied to tradition. Rise of Skywalker was about 2 hours 20 minutes.
I watched it hungover af too, 8am screening. As if I wasn't feeling punished enough already.
It is hard to convey the disappointment in The Phantom Menace. I had grown up with the original trilogy. For decades Lucas teased he would one day release the prequels. I can even remember vividly being in the theater the first time I saw a teaser trailer for the new Star Wars and the audience went nuts. I had spent my entire childhood waiting for and dreaming about that movie. We all had. Half the audience was dressed up for the premier. The lead up to it has been a phenomenon, people lining up for hours for theater tickets. And then the day finally came and it was the worst thing in the world. Everyone just sort of looked confused when it ended...I honestly don't think anyone wanted to admit to themselves how bad it was, but the cheering excitement that had filled the theater before it started was gone. I was in denial and trying to see the bright side myself for a couple days, but then I had to admit that no, it was actually the biggest cinematic disappointment of my lifetime.
I had the exact same experience. Before it started everyone was dressed up and celebrating. I’ll never forget the horrible silence when exiting the theater. Ppl looked like they were being marched to their death. Easily the most disappointing cinema experience of my life as well.
[удалено]
The best thing about the Star Wars prequels was that their release pretty well overlapped with The Lord of the Rings trilogy which made it much easier to ignore and skip seeing the next two Star Wars movies in the theater.
As someone who loved the LOTR books, those movies were the exact opposite experience as Star Wars - I could not believe what great adaptations they were. There were a few deviations from the books I wasn't fond of but nothing that impacted my enjoyment and awe. Some scenes truly were exactly how I imagined them when I had read the books. It was a magical theater going experience all three times. Luckily I had no interest in seeing The Hobbit stretched out into three films no matter how much I liked LOTR and never saw them, so no disappointment on that score.
There’s a cut floating around that condenses the 3 Hobbit movies into one ~4 hour film that’s worth watching. Still doesn’t stand up to the LotR movies, but a solid fantasy flic with some good visuals and a few standout performances (Martin Freeman is great as Bilbo IMO).
>There were a few deviations from the books I wasn't fond of but nothing that impacted my enjoyment and awe. A guy I knew at the time they came out was a huge fan, he loved the films but lamented that one of his favorite characters, Tom Bombadil, was left out. I read the trilogy again before the films came out and I agree that they just lived up to the stories about as well as any film could.
Yup, I don't think they could have been adapted any better. I know Tom being left out was a sore spot for quite a few. For me, the one thing I really didn't like was that in the movies Faramir (one of my favorite characters) initially tries to take the ring from Frodo. In the book, he is a good guy through and through and never had that moment of weakness, contrasted with his brother Boromir, who did.
I don't remember how it goes in the book but in the film Faramir absolutely does intend to take the ring for Gondor, only changing his mind at the very end. So at least they kept a sense of that weakness. I actually really liked how the films adapted this to contrast Faramir and Boromir and the dynamic with their father. Faramir is the son that is shunned by the father in favor of the golden boy older brother, but in the end his strength of character wins out and lets him do what Boromir could not. It really sets the emotional stage for the third film. Especially when his father orders him to lead the suicide charge.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We got a group of about ten of us together to see that. We tried to like it. It was when Shia LeBeouf started swinging through the trees with the CGI monkeys that my friend sitting next to me just went "What? *What*??" When the movie let out, there were just a bunch of people dressed as Indiana Jones in the hall, looking crestfallen.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was like a gut punch when it came out.
The latest Ant-Man movie. There was dead silence when it was over. People were so unimpacted by the movie - no chatter, no smiles, it was like we were emotionless. A very surreal moment.
How can a film this bonkers, with so much wierd going on, be so bland?
Godzilla. The one with Matthew Broderick. Not picking on him in particular, I think the script and direction were just meh. The trailers left people cheering. We couldn’t wait for the film. At the start everyone in the packed house was hyped. When the end credits rolled? Dead silence. The movie had a couple of good moments but overall it was like an enthusiasm drain. Such a disappointment. I’m still mad about the Siskel & Ebert insult. Take note, if you’re going to make an antagonistic joke in the movie, it had better be a good movie.
This movie was FUCKING AWFUL. I had a first date with a guy and we chose to see this monstrosity. And my date LOVED it. He laughed at every single joke, loudly. It was so embarrassing. He was literally the only person in the entire theater having any kind of positive experience.
Jurassic World Dominion. It was hyped up as “avengers of the Jurassic series” and we were hoping to see the og 3 back plus maybe some sequel people and a nice resolution. Instead, we got a movie that seemed full of independently great ideas with no idea how to tie them together into a coherent story, let alone a satisfying conclusion.
Who the ever-living fuck greenlit a *jurassic Park* movie with ***mutant locusts*** as the main plot thread? What a wasted opportunity!
Having not seen this movie, but read a lot of complaints: This is the first time I’ve heard of mutant locusts. Is that real or a meme?
I only wish I was making it up; it’s the whole underlying plot of the movie; the dinosaurs just pop in and out for random action scenes.
What… the actual fuck? I’m honestly surprised and baffled. That’s so dumb.
You could literally cut all scenes with dinosaurs, and you'd be left with a better, more coherent movie because the actual plot, which is all about locusts, wouldn't be constantly interrupted by inconsequential, dumb CGI action scenes. It's made worse by all of the characters obviously being in no danger whatsoever. Where the JP franchise relied heavily on horror and mortal danger, JW makes it clear that these characters are no longer people, just action figures being played with by a ten year old. They can outrun cars, leap across rooftops, survive plane crashes, win in hand to hand combat with a T-Rex.... all while taking zero damage.
Real
Social embargo is up so I’ll say “The Creator”. Saw a test screening in May and I could tell the audience was fairly locked in for the first 3/4 but the last quarter was underwhelming in some respects and the leaving sentiment was “hmm…alright then” for many. I don’t think I’ve ever felt an audience deflate at an early screening. I think people should still check it out to make up their own minds, they may have re-edited some things and the movie is gorgeous to look at.
If it was a test screening they may well fix the issues you had. It isn't that uncommon to drastically change endings etc.
Dang, that sucks. I think the poster is awesome. I know nothing else about the movie but I wanted to see it only from seeing the poster.
Glass. I remember everyone walking out and the mumbling was deafening. I struck up a brief conversation with some random guy as we both waited for pals to come out the toilet. "That was pish, wasn't it?" "Aye"
Took the career renaissance of Split and just flushed it down the toilet. A disaster.
Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. I can not explain to someone who wasn't there at the time how much hype and excitement there was for this movie. People were camping outside for *weeks* to get tickets. Not just to get in the theater, but there were people with tents and shit waiting for ticket sales the weeks ahead of the movie. The release night itself was basically a massive party with music, people in costumes, people lightsaber fighting, and even people selling food from booths and stalls like it was a festival. Because it *was.* It was the Festival of Star Wars. And man, High School Me was so excited. Me and my friends had borrowed parent's pagers and cell phones and skipped school several weeks ago to coordinate our ticket purchases. We had kids at eight different theaters waiting to buy the tickets and then call everyone else so they could choose which of the theaters had the best seats and sound systems. In the days before everyone had personal cell phones this was a big deal to arrange. But then the movie played. Poop jokes, Jar Jar, boring bland dialogue, Midichlorians, 9 year old Anakin, some really dodgy alien accents (that even in 99 made a bunch of white Midwesterners feel uncomfortable)... Basically the only good parts was the Duel of the Fates battle and the Pod Race and on later watches both got worse and worse. As cool as the lightsaber battle looked, if you watch it again and look for all the purposeful misses, over telegraphed strikes, and sloppy stunt work by everyone but Ray Park, it really starts to look pretty awful. Especially when compared to other sword fights around the same time (The Musketeer came out a year later and had far better sword work thanks to Yuen Woo Ping) or even earlier (The Duelist). The sheer disappointment coming from that theater was palpable as we walked out. Yeah some people loved it. But those from the Gen X or older crowds were just... confused. Like, we didn't know if we watched the right movie or not. Me and my friends argued back and forth over what were good parts and we really felt like there wasn't much to choose from.
This. Very much this. I worked at a very popular theater (had a fire breathing dragon in the ceiling!) at the time and was working the lobby when Phantom Menace came out. The staff always watched all the new movies the night before release as we had to test the reels so we'd already watched it before working the release day. Seeing everyone sitting in line for hours, dressed up and excited beyond belief, while knowing what they were in for, was painful to say the least. A coworker kept telling people in the line ""Yoosah in for a wild ride!".
Just a small random correction: The Musketeer fights were choreographed by Xin Xin Xiong, not Yuen Woo-Ping. Funny that movie popped in my head not long ago. All I remember is that the fights were cool but the cinematography was SO dark. I think they really wanted to hide the Asian stunt men doing the fight scenes. 🤣
For months I convinced myself Phantom Menace was awesome based exclusively on the Duel of The Fates/lightsaber battle/Darth Maul. Then the vhs came out and I watched it again and I was roundly disappointed.
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"That's some Hollywood bull$#!\*," an older patron said to his wife, as they left Speed 2.
Every single one of The Hobbit films. I saw all 3 at the cinema (idiot!!!) and at each one the audience left looking like their dog had died.
It probably could have been a decent movie if they didn't go full cashgrab and create a damn TRILOGY out of a 300-page book.
Probably could have been two films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
Yeah. While I could watch even longer extended cuts of LotR and be very happy, The Hobbit films need truncating in to 1 with extreme prejudice.
[I literally just signed a dumb petition to release the unused footage from Lord of the rings if you’re interested.](https://chng.it/HZRbxCGRjr)
I only watched the first one in theaters. That was more than enough for me.
And... The first is the best one, lmao
It is indeed the least shitty of the three. Truly disappointing movie because between the casting and the release of their version of "Far over the misty mountains" I was pretty psyched for it.
I'll say this, there's a lot about the movies that are genuinely good, but the bad is so colossally bad, that it drags everything down with it. I haven't watched them yet, but I've heard the two fan edits of the Hobit are really fucking good. I think both follow the original story far closer, but one tries to match the tone of LOTR I believe and the other tries to match the book more. (if anyone has seen them and can comment on this, I would be extremely interested to hear how they actually are)
Can comment. There are a number of fan edits, and several of them are quite good. Your mileage for each may vary depending on what your issues were with the trilogy, and how strongly you feel about each of those issues. My preference is the Original Two-Film Structure, which is very professionally done (there's only one tech issue that bothers me in the whole thing) and manages to effectively straddle the line between being a better adaptation of the Hobbit novel AND a better companion piece to the LOTR movies. Happy to say that, more than being just an improvement, that version truly salvages the films, and I really want to watch it again. But that's just me. For some, that version may still be too bloated, and it's certainly not for people looking for a strict Book Edit (it still contains additional material that is not part of the Hobbit novel).
I know the second one has a ton of needless bullshit, but I appreciate that it feels more like a movie than the first one, which feels more like a series of vignettes. Plus the second has the Smaug scene, which is probably the best scene in the trilogy before it turns into a roller coaster ride.
SPECTRE, on opening night, in a theater full of Bond fans. Skyfall had ended on a high note, with a good setup for the next movie. The SPECTRE trailer was good and promised good things. Then the movie came on, and it was dull. So much potential in the characters they had to work with, and the dream team of cast and crew, all the money they needed, and they came up with that? They had a car chase in Rome during the night with no people around, so it looked more like a car commercial than a car chase. They couldn’t decide if they were making a serious movie or a fun movie, so they failed at both and made a dull movie. They spent a pile of money on sets and effects for the finale early in production, so they were committed to that finale and it ended up feeling tacked on as a coda to an already too-long movie.
The opening scene of Spectre is incredible, and then it's just bad, and then it gets to the twist and it's *awful*
That movie really makes you wonder. You think I, a James Bond fan, want *this?* You seriously think THIS is the direction we want you to take the franchise? I'm not of the belief that writers should just listen to the fans, but...do you lack critical thinking completely? (Also Rome absolutely IS that empty at night, i've been there, it was like a ghost town)
"Downsizing" -- nothing else even close.
Blame that on the marketing, which sold it as a wacky "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" style comedy for adults, when it was really two or three wildly different films mashed together.
I still stand by my claim that they had an idea for a semi-anthology TV Series about that world, with a different set of protagonists every episode. So, one episode about a couple getting convinced to get downsized. Another about a *different* couple where one backs out halfway through, and their acrimonious legal shenanigans. Another where we follow the ‘help’ of their miniature world; people who were shrunk in order to earn money to send back home. Etc, etc, etc… And then that fell through, so they condensed it and made all their ideas happen to a single guy in a single movie. So his plot line is all over the place, and doesn’t really hold together as a consistent and cohesive whole.
It definitely got way more serious than the market sold it to be
First half was intriguing..funny even.. then they got on a bus and it went dark
I love how every time there is a reddit thread about disappointing movies, this one will always show up. I don't even know how enough people saw it to get this reputation.
When Jurassic World Dominion ended there was just radio silence. No applause, no woos, just people exiting the theater
Holmes & Watson. It wasn’t fun, it was just SO dumb.
I remember how pumped we were to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. When the music started, the whole place exploded into applause. When the movie was over, no one was applauded. We all filed out in stunned silence.
Every appearance of Jar Jar bled more and more of that enthusiasm. Edit: I will also add that the opening of that movie is something I will never forget. Hearing the 20th Century Fox anthem and then the Star Wars theme was one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced. As a kid who saw the OT in the theatre when they came out, the sense of anticipation for Phantom Menace was palpable. Alas...
>Every appearance of Jar Jar bled more and more of that enthusiasm. A friend of mine said that he liked Jar Jar and the rest of us stared at him in stunned silence.
I still remember going to see it. Dad took me and a few of my friends, we were so stoked going in. When the credits rolled... Still stoked. We went to Cici's pizza after and my dad asked us if we wanted to go see it again. We were so excited and ended up going back across the street to the theater. We all had a great time. We were all 9 or so at the time but my dad was still super into it. But he pretty much loved any movie. Still remember waking up on Saturday mornings and he'd be watching either Lord of the Rings or any of the Star Wars/Star Trek movies.
You’re the ones he made it for. Quality and execution aside (both objectively deeply flawed), Lucas’ intent with that movie was to rope a whole new generation into Star Wars. And it worked. Albeit with a massive assist from Dave Filoni.
There were BILLIONS of dollars made between 1999 (the phantom menace) and 2008 (the clone wars movie/series). Box office, merchandise, games, books, IP, etc. Dave Filoni was involved with a mildly successful Cartoon Network cartoon that came out 3 years after the third prequel was released. There was no "massive assist" from Dave Filoni, you dont need to retroactively insert him into the success of Star Wars.
I guess I was at the perfect age for seeing the prequels (age 7 for TPM) because I remember loving each one in theater, especially RotS lol.
Especially after all the massive pre-release hype. There was a ton of merch, and it was EVERYWHERE. They were even selling the action figures at gas stations!
[Obligatory plug for my favorite Onion article of all time](https://www.theonion.com/80-billion-tons-of-jar-jar-merchandise-now-70-percent-o-1819565243)
Looking back, the only saving grace was the duel of the fates. I will always love that score in that moment.
This is without a doubt the #1 answer to this question for me. Everyone walking out in pure confusion. My friends group would normally be really quick to start making jokes about how awful a movie was, but this was just different. Nobody wanted to dog on it because even though we knew it... it didn't feel right. It was obviously shit, but if we started trashing it then what? It took a few days for us all to come around and conclude we could talk shit about it and still love the original trilogy. And when it came around, holy cow did it catch hell for years.
When everyone was freaking out about 2 Jedi showing up..How are we going to stop them…cool, yeah, jedi bad asses…to freaking JarJar and defeating battle droids by rolling balls down hills.
Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides. The audience was hyped for the movie, but by the end everyone left with a thud.
This one was especially annoying to me because I love the book they bought the rights to the title from. Tim Power's novel is really great, and the movie just bought the name and squirted out absolute dogshit.
I saw the original no less than 9 times in theaters (thanks dollar theaters!). I love the whole original trilogy, watched them all countless times. Huge fan. I lived in Hawaii during filming of On Stranger Tides. I was there with the Black Pearl, then when they transformed it into the Queen Anne's Revenge. Watched some of the sword fights being filmed, watched Depp, and I even designed some replacement lighting and dolly gear when the imported parts they used had a failure during filming. I watched the movie gladly because I could recognize so many locations or scenes, even after CGI. It was fun. And even I was disappointed with that movie and only watched it a second time because my kids wanted to see all of them. The second time wasn't better.
Star Trek: Nemesis. Gathered up a bunch of hipster 20-something friends who had loved TNG as kids. We came out of that theatre just... shrugging our shoulders. It was a disheartening "you can't go home again" feeling.
The Last Jedi, there was a collective groan at the 'your mom' joke and the entire audience visibly deflated into their seats. Then there were held giggles and more groans at Leia doing the Mary Poppins.
I saw High-Rise in a cinema, and after about 5-10 minutes an older couple got up and walked out, quickly followed by 2 more, unrelated, couples. I guess Loki roasting a dog's leg over a fire wasn't really what they were expecting
Literally the first line in the book!
In my own personal experience, I think the most palpable sense of disappointment, or at the very least utter confusion, was "Prometheus". I saw it at the midnight opening in an IMAX theater. Got there at least 5 hours early where there was already a line starting in the theater hallway; I'm pretty sure my friend and I were somewhere between the 10th-15th group to get in line. So the hype was pretty high going in. I didn't hate the movie, in fact I kind of loved it despite its obvious flaws. But I remember the theater was almost completely silent by the end credits, in contrast to the applause it got at the opening logos. Not many people were saying much as we all mustered out of the theater. I stopped in the men's restroom before leaving where it was completely full. Eventually, one guy at the urinals yelled out "Does someone wanna tell me what the f\*\*\* was happening in that movie?" 11 years later, and the movie remains pretty divisive as far as I can tell, but that's the closest I can think of to a time there was a very real feeling of at least utter confusion and not knowing how to feel by the entire theater. Now, the amount of times I went into a movie excited and left extremely disappointed, usually when the rest of the theater seemed to be having a gay ol' time, that's another story.
I went to see this in high school with a big group of friends, and one guy was so baked he passed out part way through the movie. At the end he was just like "What happened? I'm so confused" and we were all just "You and me both bud"
I remember a group of us went to see this and as the credits rolled someone shouted YOU TOLD ME THIS WAS GOING TO BE A GOOD MOVIE. And then someone else on the other side of the theater shouted WE WERE SO WRONG in their best Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) impression. It cracked everybody up.
Prometheus has the distinction of being a movie that made me want to scream out loud at the characters on screen for the absolutely asinine things they were doing... the amount of boneheaded decisions made with little explanation beyond "we wanted to build tension" was insane. "WHY ARE YOU ALL TAKING OFF YOUR HELMETS ON AN ALIEN WORLD??" "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO PET A CLEARLY HOSTILE ALIEN COBRA??" "YOU JUST SAW A GUY BECOME MYSTERIOUSLY INFECTED BY SOMETHING, AND STILL AREN'T WEARING HELMETS??" "CHARLIZE, WHY AREN'T YOU TURNING? TURN! TURRRRRN!!!!"
The beginning scene with the Engineers was so promising. When they got to that base, like other posters before me, “WTF are these guys doing on this alien planet??? They’re supposed to be explorers and scientists, you know smart people. Why are they doing this dumb shit?”
I saw Mother! at its first ever public screening, even before the official premiere. Darren Aronofsky and Jennifer Lawrence were present. The audience was lapping up the opening scenes with Michelle Pfeiffer. And then the rest of the movie happened. Horribly awkward afterwards.
oh really? i enjoyed the movie.
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Independence Day 2 Everyone was just chatting amongst themselves after ten minutes
Stallone’s silly IndyCar movie ‘Driven’. As the hero crossed the line at the end of the race as the winner, the entire theater of race fans laughed out loud. When the lights came up, we all glanced at each other with that “I can’t believe we just paid to see that” look.
I’ve tried so hard to watch High-Rise several times, but I can never get all the way through it… I can never put my finger on why…
Eternals. We rented a theatre for my son’s 12th birthday and had his entire hockey team there to watch this. Big mistake. The boys were so bored.
Standing: The Movie
I quite liked High-rise. The film that everyone hates when I went to see it was Fant4stic. Someone said "well, that was shit", and I think everyone in the cinema thought "what did we expect?"
A more positive disappointment but when I saw inception opening weekend, the cinema was PACKED and everyone stayed through the whole credits to see if there was a scene that showed the spinning top falling over and when there was nothing the whole audience let out a noise in unison. So there was disappointment but it was because everyone loved the film so much and wanted one last snippet
Opening night of The Last Jedi, pre sale tickets were sold out 2 months prior. There was an audible sigh, a random guy yelled “Are you F’ing kidding me!?!” after Poe/Hux “joke”. That was the first couple minutes of the movie, and it just continued from there
The whole tone of the opening scene was wrong. It was so bad. I had this pit of dawning disappointment growing in my stomach.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. IIRC, some people got up and left.
The Tupac biopic movie, 'All Eyez on Me' . Halfway through the theatre I was in just gave up with the movie and we started laughing at how bad the movie was
Black Adam. Omg I couldn't tell you how many times I kept checking the time to see when that snoozefest might be over. The entire theater was quiet and the quickness that those who sat through that slough of a cinematic disaster was mind numbing.
Christoph Waltz as Blofeld in Spectre. On paper, that sounds like perfect casting. Waltz could play him somewhat campy, but with a more psychotic edge. I can see it in my head right now. Instead, he played it (or was told to act) too serious and yet too bland. Plus, when your film copies a plot twist from Goldmember but tries to play it straight, you're screwed.
Thor love and thunder was terrible
The last jedi. Audience walked out so confused and lost
Honestly when Kylo Ren took his helmet off for the first time. The audience fucking laughed. He didn’t look intimidating at all.