Given the amount of praise that The Dark Knight received, it became near impossible for The Dark Knight Rises to live up to the hype surrounding it. There was just no way that it could top its predecessor. And that’s fine. What’s not fine is what Christopher Nolan delivered with the final film in his trilogy. Frequent plot holes, an underwhelming villain (especially in comparison to The Joker) and a muddled story left The Dark Knight Rises not only as a film that didn’t live up to the hype, but a film that severely underwhelmed.
Ridley Scott’s return to the world he first created with his seminal sci-fi flick Alien was the cause of much buzz and anticipation, and rightfully so. However, while there were certainly a ton of interesting ideas at play here, the final product felt a bit recycled and did not deliver any of the answers that fans wanted. But hey, at least it looked great!
A new Superman film was always going to be a big deal, especially after the disaster that was Superman Returns. And while Man of Steel was not a complete and utter failure, it certainly did not live up to the hype surrounding it. From Zack Snyder’s controversial decisions for the character to the generic and robotic feeling of most of the direction, Man of Steel was not the Superman film that we were hoping for.
After his success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, hopes were high for Peter Jackson to deliver something equally as stunning with his take on The Hobbit. Unfortunately though, the first (and, quite frankly, the subsequent two) entries into the trilogy did not reach anywhere near the same heights that LOTR did. The decision to turn The Hobbit into three films certainly didn’t help matters, as it simply led to a movie that felt way too padded and more than a bit flat at times. While not a terrible film, I think it’s safe to say that the magic from Jackson’s first venture into Middle-earth was nowhere to be found here.
While I wouldn’t say that The Amazing Spider-Man was universally praised, it was generally well-received. So, there was definitely a lot of anticipation surrounding the sequel, especially with news that Marc Webb would be building out the universe with the inclusion of several new villains. However, that very fact proved to be the film’s downfall, as the plot stuffed from a severe lack of focus and far too many characters. The result was so bad, in fact, that it threw the entire future of the franchise into jeopardy.
What more can I say about the movie that tarnished the legacy of one of the most beloved franchises of all-time? Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is, by almost anyone’s account, the most disappointing film ever. There’s just so much wrong here that I don’t even know where to begin, so I won’t. Besides, I could try to remember what I hated so much about The Phantom Menace, but then I would have to actually remember the film. Which is something I’ve been trying to avoid.
While it certainly wasn’t as hyped as some of the other films on this list, Transcendence definitely touched down with a good deal of buzz. An all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer, Wally Pfister, making his directorial debut, and an intriguing sci-fi setup….what could go wrong? Well, apparently, a lot. While we expected a thrilling cerebral trip that asked important questions, what we got instead was a movie that landed with a complete dud, silly in its plot, shallow in its execution and overall, rather boring.
Johnny Depp going up against Christian Bale in a Michael Mann-directed crime thriller….sounds like the stuff that dreams are made of, right? Wrong. Public Enemies is an extremely dull film that simply meanders about and never gives us anything to get invested in. Sure, the performances are fine, for the most part, but the film is so bland and focused on technical perfection that it forgets many of the elements that can actually engage an audience.
As their first post-Matrix film, hype was sky high for The Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. And while the final product turned out to be extremely impressive on a technical level, the siblings failed to give us anything resembling a fluid storyline or properly developed characters. More an exercise in style over substance than anything else, it’s hard not to be drawn in by the visuals, but underneath the surface, Speed Racer is as hollow as films get.
