2014: Top Five Disappointments

[Mitch Henessey]

From top to bottom or vice versa, list and explain your choices for five 2014 films that didn't live up to the hype or your expectations. You can choose between explaining the reasons behind each pick, or you can post a top five list with a brief explanation at the end. I'll start with my list:

1. Interstellar- An amazing score from Hans Zimmer, and another good performance from Matthew McConaughey, with Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, and Casey Affleck filling out a rock solid supporting cast.

Still, considering all the hype behind it, and expectations for the film receiving a Best Picture nomination and Nolan receiving a nod for Best Director, Interstellar was too hit-and-miss for me. I'll give credit where credit is due for stunning visuals and breathtaking scenery, but the runtime feels bloated, and Interstellar hits one too many tedious slumps for me. Also, the explanation behind Murphy's ghost during the big finale is too excessive and jumbled.

2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2- Underdeveloped characters, too many villains, and they tried to cram one too many sub-plots into the story. TASM 2 is a convoluted mess, and to make matters worse, the back to back final battles are anticlimactic.

3. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For- Nine years for a sequel is a long wait, and the numbers for a box office flop proves a lot of people moved on after all the delays, or they just didn't care anymore. Eva Green and Powers Boothe delivered, as two genuinely evil villains, but their performances couldn't save the movie.

A Dame To Kill For is a mediocre sequel at best, closing the film with Nancy's revenge sucked the life out of the movie, and Clive Owen is head shoulders above Josh Brolin for the better Dwight. To add that, you know you're in trouble, when Christopher Lloyd's cameo and Eva Green's nude scenes stand out in a small group for major highlights.

4. Godzilla- I didn't have a problem with the less is more approach for Godzilla's appearances, but a lack of Bryan Cranston really hurts Godzilla. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a boring and uninteresting protagonist, and when you consider the enormous amount of hype behind Godzilla's return to the big screen, the 2014 film falls short for expectations.

5. Deliver Us From Evil- Scott Derrickson is one of my favorite horror directors, but he relies on one too many jump scares here.

Deliver Us From Evil starts out with an intriguing mystery, but the movie eventually devolves into another generic exorcism horror film, with a man of faith persuading a non-believer (Eric Bana) to confront his past, and accept the realistic possibility of evil supernatural forces controlling a helpless and possessed victim.

 

[DZRR2015]

dude this is a place where we talk about wrestling

P.S Yeah your right but interstellar was great man and yeah interstellar was really hard to understand only if you knew modern physics he can understand it

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I'll agree on Godzilla, only because I haven't seen the others.

When I watched it again I thought that maybe I was harsh on Taylor-Johnson when I watched it in the cinema simply because I anticipated more Cranston and Watanabe. But no, he is bullshit as an actor. That he managed to say his lines at all is impressive as he comes across as only the second most vapid and dumbass actor behind Jai Courtney.

I use the term "actor" only because I absolutely must.

The monster fights were pretty brutal and were definitely worth waiting for... just. Having thoroughly enjoyed Monsters, I expected much better direction from the shit Gareth (the good one is Evans in case you didn't know) as the human aspect of his breakout film was well handled and balanced with the anticipation of seeing the creatures of the title.

But no. Watching Godzilla again I kept thinking of Poochie from The Simpsons - "Whenever Poochie's not on screen, the audience should be asking, 'Where's Poochie?'" That the shit Gareth is going to be involved in A Star Wars film means his promise of a 21st Century Rodriguez, Smith or Linklater (solid films from tiny budgets) is pretty much gone in my eyes as he showed he favours effects over story, in contrast to what actually got him noticed in the first place.

And DZRR, check the name of the section.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Funny cos I have been thinking of Poochie everytime I've seen Roman Reigns in recent weeks...

Spiderman wasn't terrible, it was just the same shit that Sony put out everytime and why that he is headed back to Marvel can only be a good thing. Stone and Garfield are great together, you knew how it was gonna end but the sad part of the movie is how Peter and Gwen are more interesting than any superpowered shenanigans... Major autism cues as well for both Peter and Max which a lot of people missed which gave it a bit of depth... they wimped out on Max killing his mom but had the single sickest moment/sound effect ever when Gwen's head hits the floor... whoever did that sound was a sick puppy...

Nolan is a hack, so can't really say Interstellar was a let down... generally, the stuff I was interested in in 2014 was either Awesome (Winter Soldier/Guardians/DoFP), Good enough (Spidey 2, Taken 3) or pleasently surprising/good like The Equaliser.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

1.) Boyhood: There were SO many things wrong with this movie, I don't really know where to begin. Sure the technical experiment of filming it over 12 years is a fantastic achievement in itself but that does not make the movie memorable, that does not make it a good film & it definitely should not make it an automatic oscar winner. Aside from Patricia Arquette's performance & a couple well done scenes with the step-father towards the beginning, the entire film feels very incomplete & yet seems to drag on & on with seemingly no end in sight, until it kind of just does. The young boy becomes completely unlikable as he ages & his character arc is almost non-existent, unless you could call being an annoying, pretentious H.S./College kid that sometimes likes to take pictures & have feelings & sometimes doesn't, a real character arc. Overall the movie is way too long for only including one or two real dramatic & emotional moments & while it's technical achievements shouldn't be ignored, I don't think the movie should be praised so much all of a sudden just because the initial idea was good when the execution was far from flawless.

2.) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: Unlike other series like the Spider-Man reboots, Superman reboots or the Transformers franchise, I was never really spoiled on the LotR universe. The franchise isn't my all time favorite & sure the movies are extremely long but split up & watched in the right setting, when your attention span can properly absorb everything, the movies are very enjoyable & they are always shot very well. Then came The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Not only were they taking a much shorter book (that is only 1 book & not an entire trilogy) & still adapting it into the same amount of movies as the LotR but the effects somehow seemed worse than before & the amount of CGI that was crammed into each shot took me out of the entire story. The Hobbit: Part I was extremely boring & pretty much killed my interest in middle earth, which really sucked at the time because The Hobbit is actually my favorite of Tolkien's stories. Luckily The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug helped heal a little bit of that wound. Sure the 2nd hobbit film suffered from many of the problems that plagued the 1st but at least it was much more entertaining & felt a lot more like an actual journey like the LotR films, as opposed to singing & a small quest or a major war like in the 1st & 3rd hobbit films respectively. Overall, the 2nd film gave me hope that the 1st hobbit was just Peter Jackson's one blunder with Tolkien's material but in actuality the hobbit trilogy was forgettable at best & it seems as if the 2nd hobbit movie was just entertaining by some stroke of dumb luck.

3.) Need For Speed: I've never been big on car movies or cars in general but I'm a HUGE fan of Breaking Bad & Aaron Paul & I was super hyped when I saw he was cast in a major motion picture, let alone one that actually sounded kind of cool & was based on a game I played as a kid. But ultimately the movie just fell flat & was not really interesting at all, with an extremely thin plot & special effects that really don't stand out at all in today's overstimulated market. Calling the movie a flop, is probably the nicest way of putting it.

4.) The Amazing Spider-Man 2: This one is lower on the list simply because of how I feel about the entire reboot franchise. I absolutely hated the 1st movie & originally lost all interest in the franchise as a whole, let alone had any hope that it would actually be good. Then details were slowly released that sparked my interest: Electro, Rhino & the Green Goblin were announced as the villains, there were rumors they were setting up for a Sinister Six movie, Paul Giamatti was cast & I usually really enjoy his work, they were killing off Gwen Stacy similarly to in the comics, etc. But then once again, the actual movie came out & it was a giant disappointment. Jamie Foxx was horrible & played a really bad parody of the character at best, I didn't care for the little rat looking kid they cast for the goblin & his story with wanting to steal Spidey's blood made absolutely no sense (along with pretty much every other plot point in the movie), Rhino/Paul Giamatti was only in the movie for about 2 minutes (& was also playing the character as a silly caricature of itself) & then the movie just ends with what felt like a bad tie in commercial with Burger King or something... *Spider-Man pats a kid dressed like him on the head, makes a funny joke & then charges at the Rhino with all his might...* BUY OUR NEW WHOPPER FOR A LIMITED TIME NOW!!!

5.) Transformers: Age of Extinction: This is a similar deal to Amazing SM 2, as even before this movie was released I had pretty much lost all interest & hope in the entire franchise. The 2nd & 3rd movies were just awful & the movies became nothing more than a half-naked super model running around with Shia Labeouf & a bunch of steel blobs ... I guess we know what Michael Bay is in to. But when I heard they were introducing the freaking Dinobots into this installment I instantly gained some interest. Not only were they finally using my favorite TF characters of all time (along with being one step close to Beast Machines!!!) but Shia LeBeouf was recast & the Sam Witwicky character was no longer going to be the main protagonist, it looked like finally they were going to make a transformers movie that focused mainly on the TF themselves & there wouldn't be any stupid teenagers hanging around to take up screen time. But I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only were the Dinobots horribly misused & only appeared in about the last 15-20 min. of the movie but this one had the sloppiest & most convoluted plot of any TF movie to date & some of the worst teenage filler banter I've ever seen, with the stupid daughter & pervert boyfriend explaining why it's cool that he dates young girls. Just horrific.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

I don't personally understand all of the hate for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but then again I am the biggest Spidey fanboy of all time so that might have something to do with it. I think Andrew Garfield is the perfect Spider-Man but kind of a shit Peter Parker. He has the cockiness of Spider-Man down but he acts pretty much the same when he is Peter. I agree the movie was cramed and had to many villians and the plots were rushed but I just enjoyed the movie for what it was and thats a fun popcorn flick.

Godzilla was nothing like i expected it to be. I like how they tried the building anticipation approach ala Jaws but it just fell flat to me. It was a Godzilla movie with Godzilla as a supporting cast member. Nothing more I can really say about it.

To the poster above me, I dont see how Transformers can be seen as a disappointment when not one person alive expected it to be any good. I didn't see it and haven't seen a Transformers film since the second one which was AWFUL and completely turned me off the franchise. They make a shit ton of money so i cant say I blame them for making more as explosions and hot girls are going to rank in cash from high schoolers or people with nothing to do on a friday night no matter what.

 

[Wally Dangerously]

Interstellar was the only film I've wanted to see in the theater among those mentioned above, but I ultimately passed because of the run time. It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to devote almost three hours to something that might be a turd taco.

Why the fuck am I watching RAW tonight?!