Movies that went wrong...

[RobertScorpio]

You know what I mean. Movies that, before they came out, you had such high hopes for. Then, you see it, and you come out scatching your head and wondering how it could have happened? How could they have blown it so bad...

For me several movies come to mind..

Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull..we waited this long for THIS turkey?
SpiderMan 3 and XMEN 3...what the hell went wrong? Both movies were set up so well by the previous installments and...crapola...

And yes...GODZILLA 1998. My friends wont let me live that one down. I told them that it would be, perhaps, the greatest movie of all time...an AMERICAN GODZILLA MOVIE!! YEAH!!! uh-uh-..They couldn't have F'ed that movie up any worse than they did..

So...what are movies you had high hopes for the most that just crapped all over you expectations and made you almost cry (TREK movies are exempt!)

Rob

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The obvious one is Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Lady in the Water
From Hell
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Fantastic Four
Bruce Almighty

 

[Gaith]

The Mummy Returns - so many great elements, such garbage overall. But I will, at long last, soon get around to fan editing it, and hope to redeem it in a ~45-minute-package.

 

[Cicero]

Kill Bill*
Pearl Harbor
Troy
The Village
X-Men 3

*I expected something more along the lines of Lucky Number Slevin, if with a shakier grasp of reality.

Some days, I think I'm the only one who loved The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (by contrast, I've despised the graphic novels).

 

[Rii]

Alien 3.

I actually rather enjoy the film in its Special Edition form, but it remains a major step down from its predecessors. It's better than Alien Resurrection, but my expectations for that film weren't nearly so high.

 

[JonathonWally]

At 4:15am off the top of my head...Payback: Director's Cut.

I love the regular version, up there as one of my favorite movies, I was expecting the DC to take it up a notch when instead it completely kills everything that was awesome about the movie.

 

[Caliburn24]

The Star Wars prequels. They could have been utterly amazing in the right hands.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Lady in the Water
From Hell
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Fantastic Four
Bruce Almighty

Great, or not so great list, depending how you look at it!!

But yeah, all of them were letdowns. Though, I am not sure what FROM HELL was...refresh me?

Rob

 

[The Sneeze Police]

Sunshine. Sounded good, and it was even good for the first 2 acts,then it went right into the toilet.

 

[DarKush]

I Am Legend
Planet of the Apes
Blade Trinity
Matrix Revolutions
Spider-Man 3
X-Men 3
Underworld 3
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Push
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy 3
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
AVP
Pearl Harbor
The Patriot
The Kingdom
Superman Returns
Doom
Ultraviolet
Babylon A.D.
Hellboy 2

 

[Amaris]

Matrix Revolutions.
Star Trek: Insurrection

I mean, they both had this great momentum going from the previous movie and just...splat.



J.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Though, I am not sure what FROM HELL was...refresh me?

Jack the Ripper movie starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, based on the Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell graphic novel.

I think it's a rather good Jack the Ripper film, but it has very little to do with Moore's graphic novel. Depp's Freddie Abberline is nothing like the graphic novel's Abberline -- though, Depp's Abberline reminds me a hell of a lot of the graphic novel V For Vendetta's Inspector Finch.

 

[Pingfah]

Alien Resurrection.

I mean they took the director of the amazing Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, let his co-director Marc Caro do the set design and enlisted Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon, the 4 of whom have made an awesome team in the past and turn out easily the worst installment of the franchise, not counting the AvP movies.

I mean what the hell was that giant white sad eyed monster thing at the end? It was awful.

I'm not surprised Jeunet skulked off back to France and never raised his head in Hollywood again after that.

 

[The Great Meech]

Spider-Man 3 stands out. I didn't expect grand art, but neither did I suspect Peter Parker going emo.

 

[od0_ital]

The first movie that came to mind was Superman Returns. After seein' what Bryan Singer did with the first two X-Men, I was really hopin' for something better for the Superman franchise.

 

[bigdaddy]

Sunshine. Sounded good, and it was even good for the first 2 acts,then it went right into the toilet.

That's the first one I thought of.

It had a sense of wonder, but kind of boring the first two parts, but then it just became a "What the fuck is this?" horror ripoff garbage.

Same can be said with the new ending to I am Legend. The one they picked was lame, the one they filmed was a hell of a lot better.

 

[Forbin]

Capricorn One - good concept, good setup, controversial subject - turned into nothing more than an average chase film.

Millenium - The first half was mysterious, compelling, intriguing... the second half was a huge pile of pointless special effects.

I second Spidey 3 and X-Men 3 - how the HELL could they do the Dark Phoenix saga without ONE flaming bird effect?! WTF was wrong with them?!

The Time Machine (2002) - Beautifully filmed, interesting for most of its duration. Then after setting up a conflcit of wits between a brilliant scientist and a super-intelligent Morlock with a giant brain... it culminates with them pummeling each other like it was a Bruce Willis actioner.

Planet of the Apes - Wahlberg is the dullest actor on earth. He sucked to life out of the film, which didn't help us take the WTF ending.

 

[Warp Coil]

X-Men 3 - Brett Ratner? Really? I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that decision. Bryan Singer did such a great job with the first two that he should have stuck around to do the next one instead of doing...

Superman Returns - god that was boring

Alien3 - I just didn't care for the storyline

Alien: Resurrection - never should have been made; if you're going to make the decision to kill off the main character you have to live with it

Hancock - very mediocre

There are plenty more, but these are the ones that first spring to mind.

 

[DanTheGrey]

Probably a good chunk of the comic book movies fit into this category in some way or another

Big examples for me are Insurrection and Nemesis along with Phantom Menace, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, part of the second Matrix movie and a good chunk of the third one.

And I'll just add to the deeply flawed pile, historic/literary movies that end up getting totally screwed over by Hollywood revisionism because it didn't go well with the focus groups...