Hello all,
In making these year end lists, I found that I had reviewed way more movies than last year, which lead me to believe that doing only two lists would not be good enough. So this year I’m introducing a new list, the films that I consider to be the most disappointing. I had 14 candidates within the score range you’ll see on the list below, and while they may not be necessarily the worst films made, but they were certainly the ones that were the biggest let downs.
Now for the list, the way it’ll work is that it’ll go from 10 - 1, and it’ll go from the lowest ranked film to the highest, as I believe while some truly bad films could have been better, to me the bigger disappointment is an okay film that ever so slightly misses the potential for greatness.
Got it? Good, cause it’s time to count down:
The Top Ten Most Disappointing Films of 2015!
10. Blackhat
Okay yes, I know it’s a film about hacking and when have those ever been good, but in my defense it was directed by Michael Mann, who has made some really fantastically stylish films in the past, and while Blackhat does carry the style, it’s just really not that interesting in it’s subject matter. Some people say the marketing campaign was the fault for the film’s failure, and I can kind of see it, but at the same time the film itself has to carry some of the blame. It gets the bottom of the list simply because I’m showing it mercy for the most part. Oh and because someone might bring it up, yes I’d like to see a film that shows and accurate depiction as to what hacking is really like.
Final Score - (4/10)
9. The Last Witch Hunter
I apologize Vin Diesel fans, for I have nothing against the man except for some of the films he stars in. You can clearly see that this was a passion project for the man, something that he clearly worked very hard on to try and make it a reality…..it just happened to have landed to a resounding thud. There were some interesting moments and world building, and probably one of the best examples of acting from Elijah Wood, and yet that wasn’t enough to save this film from cliched mediocrity.
Final Score - (4/10)
8. Furious 7
Okay, I feel like a bad person for talking smack about a film that basically got rewritten into a tribute for a fallen friend, but I show no mercy in this movie dojo, so we’re going to talk about it regardless. Look, I know a lot of people really like these films, and if you do, I’m glad you enjoy them and I hope you continue to enjoy you for as long as they keep making them, but I personally cannot stand them. These films have a formula that work for them, but they just don’t appeal to me. Now I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of the franchise, so the only fair comparison I can make as to why it’s on this list at all is that if a movie like Star Wars can pull new people in on its seventh entry on a familiar formula, the fact that fast and furious can’t (not that it admittedly needs too) doesn’t bode well for me in my mind. Save the hate comments, I already know I’m going to hell for speaking ill of the dead, and when I move on to the next life, I’ll apologize to Mr. Walker personally.
Final Score - (5/10)
7. We Are Your Friends
Fun Fact, this now has the record for the third worst box office opening of all time, and I’m not sure I can say that it didn’t deserve it. Now it didn’t make my year end worst because there were some really cool moments in here, and a killer soundtrack that I actually ended up buying for my personal collection. I’d be tempted to blame the poor marketing for the film’s failure, but the fact that’s also a rather uninspired take on the coming of age story that really feels more like the characters are drifting from point to point more than anything. Here’s a radical thought of the top of my head, why couldn’t it have been like an electronic musical version of romeo and juliet or something? There was potential in the story for that kind of re-write, and I think it would’ve been a really cool idea. I think this basically means I like this film more for what it could’ve been than what it was.
Final Score - (5/10)
6. Legend
The notorious true story huh? Gee, where was the story when I watched it huh? To me that is the biggest problem with this film is that the plot basically does not exist. It’s a great showcase of acting talent from Tom Hardy, but the film gives him absolutely nothing to do with it. There’s no story to tell, so the pacing of the film go completely out the window, side characters drop in and out almost at will, and story threads appear and are dropped almost as fast. It feels like half a movie, it deserved so much better considering all the hype that went around it. Why are so many people giving it four stars?
Final Score - (5/10)
5. Terminator: Genisys
Why is genisys always getting it’s spelling mixed up in my head? Okay I know quite a lot of people are shitting all over this movie, but here’s the thing, I don’t think it was that bad. Sure it was lackluster and definitely a disappointment, but it had some really cool action scenes some interesting tweaks to the narrative, they made John Connor the bad guy which I think is awesome and they got back Arnold. Sadly though, it felt like a rushed and muddled mess, that squandered so much great potential and a cool premise. If they make a sequel to this one, my only hope is that they take their time with it and produce a truly great Terminator film for the modern era.
Final Score - (6/10)
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II
Another franchise which I only watched the previous installments this year, I’ll admit that to me the franchise as a whole does have it’s moments, but it also has its deep flaws. I still argue that Catching Fire was the best one, but by the time Part 2 came out I was invested enough that I was looking forward to the epic conclusion to the franchise. Unfortunately, Part 1 suffered from pacing problems, and the inclusion of many scenes that felt like padding, which sadly carried over into Part Two. Where part one had an admittedly tense third act, unfortunately Part Two feels like it builds up to basically nothing. “But in the book…” I’m going to stop you right there. I’ve just had this conversation lately, and I’m going to tell you the same thing I told that person: Just because I think the movie is bad, doesn’t mean I think the book is bad.
I am not a book reader, I don’t have the patience for it. So that’s why I watch the movie versions instead. If the book is a really good book, then it’s the film versions job to transfer what made the book good onto the big screen. Obviously some things have to change to accommodate the big screen version, but the core meaning and appeal of the book must not change. The failure of the movie is entirely the fault of the movie, and even though I will probably never read the books, I will say that from what I’ve heard it is a really good series overall. Okay? So can we please bury the “in the book” argument?
Final Score - (6/10)
3. American Sniper
Jesus Christ I know how to pick them huh? Also yes, technically this came out in 2014, but that’s in the United States. I live in Canada, this came out in January so for my list this will count for 2015, just like The Revenant will count for 2016 when I go see that. Okay? Okay.
Okay, it’s really hard to explain what exactly made this film bad, mostly because I think my biggest problem with the film is that it let trying to make a patriotic tribute to arguably one of the few true heroes of the Iraq War get in the way of making a good film. Like I’ve already, I live in Canada, so I always tend to find America’s brand of patriotism to be a bit brash. It’s not a bad film by any means, I just think it’s heavy handed is all. If it had been a bit more neutral in it’s approach it could’ve been much greater in it’s overall result.
Final Score - (7/10)
2. Crimson Peak
I’ve blamed the poor marketing of films partially for other films on this list, but I think this is the only one where I can blame the vast majority of it’s disappointment on the marketing. I guess they thought marketing it as a gothic romance film wouldn't draw in the crowds, so instead they tried to market it as a straight up horror flick. While there were indeed horror elements in the film, it never really rose beyond just having an admittedly creepy atmosphere. It also doesn’t help that the big reveal and an almost out of the blue twist in the third act basically left me, well, disappointed. I’m not adverse to the idea of a gothic romance, I just wish it was brave enough to promote itself as that from the start. Good relationships cannot be built on a foundation of lies. Okay that was a dumb joke I apologize. Moving on.
Final Score - (7/10)
But before we reveal the number one spot, we have the honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions
- Southpaw (7/10) At the end of the day, in a year when a new Rocky movie came out, Southpaw was never going to stand a chance. While it was kind of a cliched sports movie, I decided to spare it off the list because I’ve seen worse boxing films.
- Concussion (7/10) This stayed off the list because I usually expect these true life bio pics to hover around this score. It did also suffer from sports movie cliches, but it did them in an interesting enough of a way that I could overall forgive this movie.
- The Visit (7/10) You know, it’s not a great film, but it’s the best film he’s made in a really long time. It’s greatly flawed, but he gets some mercy because I’m curious to see where he goes from here.
- Good Kill (6/10) Honestly, I forgot I watched this. I’m sort of considering this the film of the inevitable onslaught of drone warfare movies, so it’s gets spared because it’s the first of a new type of war movie and there are bound to be growing pains.
- Minions and TomorrowLand (?/10) Because going through all these lists, I realize I forgot to review these two films, so they’re going on this list instead. If I had to give them a score, I think they’d both get a 6. Minions gets spared though because they decided to put some effort in when they really didn’t have too.
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the most disappointing film of 2015 is…….
- Spectre
I think we can all agree that following up Skyfall looked like it was going to be an impossible task. A lot of people hold it in high regards as one of the best bond films ever made, and while I haven’t seen all the bond films personally, from the ones I’ve seen I can believe that. Then we started hearing rumblings, they were be going to bring back Spectre, the cast was revealed. They got Dave Bautista, fresh off of Guardians of The Galaxy, to be a menacing henchman, and then they revealed Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz to play the main villain? The also got Two fantastic actresses to play the bond girls, we’d learn more about Bond’s past, it was shaping up to be a contender…….so why didn’t I like it that much?
I think overall it just turned out to be lackluster. Dave Bautista gets only one word of dialogue in the whole damn thing, and Christoph Waltz is badly underutilized as a bond villain. I mean we do get a bit of an insight into Bond’s pre spy life, but it all sort of feels…...needless? Someone also pointed out to me that this and Rogue Nation shared basically the exact same plot, aside from some slight variations, and yet Rogue Nation actually did it so much better.
In the end, I think basically this just suffered from trying to hard to top a superior film and ultimately coming up short. It tops my list though cause in a year full of great franchise entries, 007 should’ve been one of the best.
With a final verdict of (7/10) I shall now award the very first…..
The Most Disappointing Film of the Year Award:
Spectre!
Sorry 007, but like a bad martini, this just left the bitter taste of disappointment in my mouth.
This took a bit longer to post than originally planned, and I apologize.
But now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for finally draws near, the next list shall be…..
The Top Ten Best Films of 2015
I will do my best to post them within the next 24 hours
So until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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