The Most Unsatisfying Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Disappointing Tv or Movies

[theenglish]

I'm a huge fan of nuBSG and I think the conclusion of the series was very satisfying. Fitting with the tone of the show and foreshadowed during the previous seasons. The one thing I don't like about the show was "they have a plan" which should have been "they had a plan" for most of the show's run.

 

[JD]

I own the BSG movie, The Plan, but I honestly can't remember now if actually had anything to do with the Cylon's plan. All I remember about it is that it had added nudity on the DVD version and did deal some with the Cylons on the Colonies before the attack.

I know there's no arguing with RandyS about nuBSG, god I remember his posts in the BSG forum... "ooh I hate and don't watch this show but I'm gonna post about it 20 times a day and rant and rave about it"

But that's the kinda thing I'm talking about people hugely overreacting, "failure on every level." Right, so even just things the costumes, or the excellent for-TV special effects, or Bear McCreary's outstanding scores, or the acting of people like Eddie Olmos and Mary McDonnell, episdoes like 33, Pegasus, Lay Down Your Burdens, Exodus, Collaborators, etc etc.
If you don't like it and it's not your cup of tea that's fine, I mean I tried watching Sherlock which has won a tonne of awards and is a huge hit, but I really just couldn't get into it and it wasn't for me. But to say something like that is a "failure of every level" simply because you don't like it...
Ok sure, whatever ...I just think people like that come of like a 14 year old internet troll.

I agree with you here, Ethros. I'm a huge fan, so I'm obviously biased, but I would think that even most people who don't like it would probably agree that from an objective stand point is is an incedibly well made show. It got a Peabody Award, and that right there is pretty impressive.

 

[eyeresist]

Some of the most disappointing genre stuff I can think of:

I agree with most of your (rather long) list, but while I was originally disappointed that Event Horizon didn't pay off its premise, the actual production is so good I still enjoying rewatching it. Another Anderson movie, AvP certainly failed to recapture the epicness and gritty quality of its forebears, but on its own it's enjoyable - certainly more enjoyable than Alien Resurrection, Predators or Prometheus.

Dishonorable mentions (some of these I can't say are bad, it's just maybe if I cared enough to watch more of them I might like them):
-Fringe

When I got back into it during season 3, I found it somewhat interesting and enjoyable, but I have to say it was too slow and low-key for its own good.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It can't be the most disappointing sci-fi movie of all time, but Jonathan Frakes' Thunderbirds (2004) was pretty freaking disappointing. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

 

[theenglish]

I own the BSG movie, The Plan, but I honestly can't remember now if actually had anything to do with the Cylon's plan. All I remember about it is that it had added nudity on the DVD version and did deal some with the Cylons on the Colonies before the attack.

It's been years since I watched that movie, but IIRC, the "plan" changed a few times in response to the colonists actions.

 

[Ethros]

Really they should have taken down the "and they have a plan" thing for Season 3, not just Season 4, as the whole Cylon agenda had changed at the end of s2 with the New Caprica thing anyway

 

[RandyS]

I know there's no arguing with RandyS about nuBSG, god I remember his posts in the BSG forum... "ooh I hate and don't watch this show but I'm gonna post about it 20 times a day and rant and rave about it"

But that's the kinda thing I'm talking about people hugely overreacting, "failure on every level." Right, so even just things the costumes, or the excellent for-TV special effects, or Bear McCreary's outstanding scores, or the acting of people like Eddie Olmos and Mary McDonnell, episdoes like 33, Pegasus, Lay Down Your Burdens, Exodus, Collaborators, etc etc.
If you don't like it and it's not your cup of tea that's fine, I mean I tried watching Sherlock which has won a tonne of awards and is a huge hit, but I really just couldn't get into it and it wasn't for me. But to say something like that is a "failure of every level" simply because you don't like it...
Ok sure, whatever ...I just think people like that come of like a 14 year old internet troll.

Well, I was 14 years old once. Way back in 1984.

So I don't like the show and you do. What's so wrong with that?

 

[Klaus]

I clicked Avatar, but would've also picked the Matrix... Awful overrated massively derivative CGI fanboy wankery... and Keanu is terrible.

 

[All-Seeing I]

I didn't like Star Trek Voyager much back in the day - it was the "beige" of Trek, I thought, all bland, colorless sets and costumes, dull characters, more foreheads of the week and way too many "bottle" episodes at the start. They were in a totally unexplored sector of the galaxy, tens of thousands of light-years from home, and yet everything felt and looked so familiar, and you know what familiarity breeds...

However, not having seen an episode since Endgame way back when, I have recently started watching the show again from the beginning, and have done the first two seasons so far: although I still harbor some of my complaints about its aesthetic, I am appreciating it a little more. Kate Mulgrew is a consummate actor, and I also enjoy Ethan Philips and Bob Picardo's acting and characters. I wish they hadn't wimped out and cast an older actor to play Tuvok, although Tim Russ gives a solid enough performance, and I also wish they hadn't been as cheap and made Paris Nick Locarno instead. I found the first season a bit dull, but things were picking up by the second season, and there were some enjoyable episodes towards the end; I thought the inclusion of the Suder character was interesting, and it's always good to see Brad Dourif in anything.

My biggest peeve was and still is that their situation did not feel difficult or perilous enough; just an example - Janeway complains that because of replicator rationing she cannot enjoy a morning coffee, and yet there seems to be enough energy for her to tool around on the holo-deck. I would have had the pilot feature a top of the line starship (not Voyager) sent after the Maquis, commanded by a male captain played by an A-list star, who is killed when the ship is snatched away by the Caretaker. The second officer, Lieutenant-Commander Janeway (someone younger than Mulgrew) is made captain by default; it would have been more interesting and relevant to have a young woman having to establish herself as a force to be reckoned with in the eyes of the sexist Kazon, as well as her Starfleet peers and the Maquis. And I would also have had the top of the line Starfleet ship destroyed at the end of the pilot, the mixed Starfleet and Maquis crew having to board an abandoned Kazon ship, which they would repair and modify with new technologies as they traveled through the Delta quadrant. They would have salvaged only the holo-doc's program and a few holo-emitters and replicators, and the technical specs to build transporter tech; there would be no holo-decks, only planetary shore leave. Only then would their newly-acquired ship be named the Voyager (I mean, how coincidental was it that a ship called Voyager had to go on a long voyage?).

Totally unrelated to what I was just saying, my biggest disappointment was Prometheus - so bad that I wished Charlize Theron was waiting for me in the cinema foyer with a flamethrower..."Do it!!!"

 

[JD]

The problem with you're Kazon ship idea is that DS9 already had Starfleet characters dealing with being in an alien environment. Doing that again on Voyager would have been very repetitive.

 

[Bagofmostlywatr]

Depends, there's stuff you know is going to be bad, so you don't bother looking. So that's not really disappointing.

There's stuff that's a 1 trick pony, but does that well enough that it doesn't really matter (Avatar when you watched it at the cinema in 3D for the first time, any Sci-Fi with Will Smith in).

There's stuff that's that bad it's good (Escape From New York/LA).

Truely disappointing is stuff that you want to be good, should be good, but isn't - and Voyager epitomises that.

 

[eyeresist]

I clicked Avatar, but would've also picked the Matrix... Awful overrated massively derivative CGI fanboy wankery... and Keanu is terrible.

It's a lot better than LOTR.

 

[Trekkin]

...There's stuff that's that bad it's good (Escape From New York/LA).

You know critics like that one, right? That sort of excludes it from the 'So bad, it's good' catagory.

I want to vote but Catwoman, but I can honestly say that it completely lived 'up' to my expectations.

 

[JD]

There's stuff that's a 1 trick pony, but does that well enough that it doesn't really matter (Avatar when you watched it at the cinema in 3D for the first time, any Sci-Fi with Will Smith in).

I year or two ago I watched Avatar on a regular 2-D, possibly HD, TV and I actually still really enjoyed it. Even without the 3-D it still looks great, and even if it's not the most original story it's still very well done.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

What I dislike about Avatar the most is the damn preaching. James Cameron sometimes does that, and it's never subtle. Just look at the Abyss alternative ending. * sigh *

This bothered me so much that I couldn't help but get snarky about how nothing in this story makes any sense whatsoever and how the Smurfs could only win due to sudden hyper-stupidity of the humans. The whole third act of the film is a huge "because the plot said so". This doesn't make any difference to me if the characters at least are good, but these were stock characters who failed to engage me on any level.

But as SFDebris would say, "I'm just a viewer with an opinion". Everyone else's opinion is just as valid, so dear Avatar fans, don't feel yelled at.

 

[Amaris]

I watched Avatar once, on Blu-ray when I bought it, and I haven't seen it since. It's not that I disliked it, but for me, once was enough.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

There's people who love this thing and people who hate it, but mostly, I think audiences just don't care . Good CGI isn't something that impresses anyone all by itself anymore.

 

[Amaris]

There's people who love this thing and people who hate it, but mostly, I think audiences just don't care . Good CGI isn't something that impresses anyone all by itself anymore.

Well, once I got over how gorgeous it all looked (and on blu-ray it does look stunning), I found that aside from Sigourney Weaver's moments, and Zoe Saldana's scenes, there wasn't much for me to actually like or connect with. I felt for the N'avi, but the humans were too cartoonish to be real, and so it felt inauthentic for me.

 

[Bagofmostlywatr]

You know critics like that one, right? That sort of excludes it from the 'So bad, it's good' catagory.
.

Never knew that. Must have been the cgi that made them like it

 

[Trekkin]

Oh yeah. The Crazies were the Navi of the 80's.