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[–] 26 points 9 months ago (6 children)

For me it might be the Hobbit Trilogy.

The LotR Trilogy are my all time favorite movies and the contrast couldn't be greater. Really goes to show what a perfect storm it was that we got the movies we got with LotR.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Omg yes. The Hobbit movies were so terrible.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Imo worse than just them being bad is the gap between their quality and the potential of what could have been.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Absolutely and factor who made them.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    True. Although to his defense my understanding is that Peter Jackson came in late as a replacement and at least partially did it because otherswise many people would have been out of a job (presumably people in new Zealand that he knew well). Watching the behind the scenes extras imo show a quite stark contrast compared to the LotR trilogy.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    The problem with the Hobbit movies was that they were too much like the Lord of the Rings movies.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    Maybe in the sense that they were aiming to be a long epic similar to the LotR, rather than the fun adventure the book that the Hobbit book is. But i'd say that there are far more issues than just that.

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  • [–] 21 points 9 months ago (8 children)

    I know that knocking on it is overdone, but Phantom Menace. I was 13 when it came out, huge Star Wars fan, absolutely target market. Walked out so sad and confused.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    I never understood this. What's wrong with it?

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  • [–] 18 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    Basically? It was a kids movie. Characters were one-dimensional and not very likeable to teenage me. Exposition by dialogue, and not great dialogue. Slapstick bits that really didn't land (Jar Jar). Etc, etc.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago

    Even as a child when I first saw Phantom Menace, I thought it was off. Maybe I would have rated the film lower if it weren't for the fun pod racing segment and the fight with Darth Maul. I think the Star War prequel trilogy excel more on the editing and choreography of action scenes than actual story telling and drama.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    Granted, I was like 4 when it came out so it still holds some fondness in my view. Qui-Gon was like the father figure I always needed but never had, and Jar Jar laid the foundation for my sense of humor. Maybe that's why no one thinks I'm funny...

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    And the originals weren't kids movies?

    I guess the massive amount of Star Wars toys I had as a child somehow led me to believe otherwise.

    Original trilogy are also kids movies, fight me.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    But imo at its core it still has a good idea, unlike the sequels, which really are just style over substance. Which is why i can forgive the prequels quite a bit more, especially considering Geroge Lucas did try to get other directors onboard to make them.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago

    Gladiator 2. If anyone can do spectacle, it's Ridley Scott. But good goddamn, the action in that movie sucked so hard. And all the best lines were quotes from the original. Denzel was the only half enjoyable thing because I think he realized how bad the movie was and just had a blast with it.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    "Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow."

    The beginning is great. Giant robots attacking New York.

    Then it just becomes boring and ridiculous.

    Posters promised Angelina Jolie. she shows up for five minutes and doesn't do anything.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Not saying you're wrong, but praising the giant robot attack on New York before swerving into critiquing the latter half of the movie for being ridiculous is a funny juxtaposition.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Here's the way I look at it.

    A fictional story should follow its own rules. Let's take "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." The idea that someone would let himself be hung, trusting the other guy to be able to make that incredible shot over and over and never miss, is nonsensical. But we in the audience accept that premise for the sake of the story. We'd be disappointed if, halfway through the movie, an orchestra appears in the middle of the desert and they do a big musical number.

    "Sky Captain" was ridiculous because of the way the story kept shifting and the rules kept changing.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I admit that I saw Sky Captain once, many many years ago, so I'm not going to be able to back this up with too many specific citations, but you've also not said specifically what rule they set up and fail to follow, so we're even.

    It's a pastiche of pulp fiction concepts from the 30s-50s. Giant robots, airships, Nazi scientists, Shangri-La, dinosaurs, android assassins, the works. The whole thing is like a loving homage to Doc Savage's greatest hits. I don't see how any of that "breaks rules".

    Like I said, I won't dispute your overall finding of the film being, "meh". I watched it once 20 years ago and haven't gone back since, so I'm not exactly leaping up to defend it's execution, but I also think "the rules kept changing" is an empty critique, as it stands currently.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I'm not going to argue about a movie neither one of us has seen in over 20 years.

    Have fun.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    You're under no obligation to continue the discussion, sure, but it seems disingenuous to me to open a thread saying "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a bad movie because it fails to follow it's own internal logic". Then, upon having that assertion challenged, you jump to, "I'm not gonna argue about this." Like, why comment at all if you're not interested in discussing, and yes, maybe even defending, your take? Regardless, if that's not what you're here to do, have a good day.

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  • [–] -3 points 9 months ago

    If you actually thought I was under no obligation, you wouldn't have sent your note, which I consider a masterpiece of passive aggressiveness.

    I throw it back at you. You had all afternoon to actually watch the movie and present extensive notes.

    Like, why did you comment at all?

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    The Avatar the last air bender ( live action ) movie. I was a child when the movie came out so I had no clue who the director was and how shitty of a movie I was in for. The ending recked me since it didn’t even have a satisfying conclusion. Just pure garbage

    I was in genuine shock of how bad of a movie I’d gotten into. Never again

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago

    Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. I went in with very low expectations and it still managed to disappoint so badly that it makes me angry. I hate how the Palpatine plot point retroactively ruins the entire original trilogy.

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  • [–] 19 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    The Matrix Resurrections. I already had a feeling it would suck but it managed to be worse than I could ever imagine, they weren't even trying to hide how much of a cashgrab it is.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    The previous two were utter dogshit.. how could you expect anything different?

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago

    Fury Road 2: They got rid of a lot of the practical effects that made the first one great. The plot and pacing was off. I was just annoyed because of how much I liked the first one.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Violet Evergarden: The Movie. My heart sank when I realized exactly where this was going, after all of her character development that's the ending they decided to undermine it all with.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Once Upon a Time in America. Maybe I watched a bad version but it made little sense and the ending was dreadful.

    Reading about it right now on wikipedia I probably saw the 'condensed' version which was savaged by the critics:

    Some critics compared shortening the film to shortening Richard Wagner's operas, saying that works of art that are meant to be long should be given the respect they deserve. In his 1984 review, Roger Ebert gave the uncut version four stars out of four and wrote that it was "an epic poem of violence and greed", but described the American theatrical version as a "travesty". Furthermore, he gave the American theatrical version one star out of four, calling it "an incomprehensible mess without texture, timing, mood, or sense".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    X-Men Phoenix - such a great grafic novel arch and solid movies before that flick. Phoenix writing and acting saddens me.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    The Village followed closely by Joker: Folie a duex.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Fantastic four 2015, great first half and Phillip Glass soundtrack! But studio/publisher meddling destroyed the second half

    I saw the Phantom menace on release, that was a huge let down

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I actually agree that the first half was great and there were some solid bones and performances but I don’t think there was a break movie just below the surface of FF. Nothing we have seen or heard from that third act suggests Trank’s cut would have been demonstrably better.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    World War Z.

    i was do hyped. and it single handedly ended the zombie movie genre that was popular at the time

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    I kinda liked it, not great by any means, maybe 3/5. But i liked the book way better

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    [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I Know What You Did Last Summer [2025]
    Atrocious acting, annoying characters, terrible storyline and an abundance of plot holes! Literally nothing made sense. And in the process killing the legacy of the originals.
    Worst reboot I ever saw. And there will probably be another sequel -_-

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    Kangaroo Jack. Most misleading trailer ever.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    The Matrix. The 1st two movies seemed to set up the perfect twist for the 3rd movie...that Zion was still inside the Matrix, and there was no escape. But, then they went in a completely different direction, that made no sense, instead. Then they came out with the 4th movie, and still never fixed it. Why?

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Transformers. I was very excited when this was announced, but it became a cold-water shower when Michael Bay was mentioned as director. Still, I had a sliver of hope that it would be at least on par with The Rock... It wasn't.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" I guess.

    12 Monkeys was great, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was brilliant, I liked The Brothers Grimm and Tideland. Gillian supposedly was trying to make Don Quixote for decades, it was his passion project and it turned out to be a big nothingburger. I never heard anyone mention if after the premier. I read the books and the movie simply used some characters and scenes from them. The movie was "inspired by" the books in the most boring, superficial way possible.

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  • [+] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    The Legend of Ochi.

    The trailer made it look like a great indie-fantasy movie with Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson. But the actual movie is full of AI-generated environments, the acting is subpar and Dafoe and Watson don't have a lot of screentime.

    Sometimes I really question my AAA24 membership. 😅

    Megalopolis was equally disappointing. Granted, the movie has some amazing VFX and practical effects, so they cut all of the best shots into the trailer and made this trainwreck look competent and interesting. The actual movie then felt like a fever dream, you can really see respected actors like Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel struggle with their own script. Plus all of the really bad VFX shots that did not make it into the trailer, of course.

    At least we got the "Get back to the club" meme out of it.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago*

    I fell asleep while watching James Cameron's Avatar in an IMAX theater on release.

    Most tedious movie of his career until the sequels (guessing, didn't give the sequels a chance because why would I?)

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago* (6 children)

    easy one: Jurassic Park (1993)

    I had read the book, maybe, a dozen times before the film came out, and holy shit was I disappointed. crushed, really. Not just in what they changed, but also what they left out. it totally ruined for me books adapted to film. any time I see a film based on a book I've read, I'm always let down.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    oh man I was so disapointed in the book compared to the moive. I feel crichton has great ideas but is not a good writer. It is one of the few writers where I prefer the movies.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Try reading "The Great Train Robbery."

    He wrote it as if it were a factual reconstruction of an actual crime. Long passages on things like rat baiting, penny hangs, tipping servants, and other Victoriana

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Interstellar. That ending didn't do it for me at all.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    Ghostbusters: Afterlife

    I have been a big Ghostbusters fan since I was a little kid. After people ruined chances for an Answer the Call sequel, I had high hopes for Afterlife. Biggest movie letdown of my life.

    I know everyone loves to shit on Answer the Call, but that is my #2 GB movie only after the original. It was so much better than Afterlife, it was a true GB comedy ghost movie about adults with raunchy humor. Afterlife is just a teen family friendly coming of age horror movie, no raunchy humor, and shoves Easter eggs everywhere. It was so awful, I can’t watch Frozen Empire.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Unpopular opinion for the cinephiles, it would be Stalker by Andrey Tarkovsky for me. It's overrated and it's just a bunch of guys talking. I wouldn't have mind the philosophical talks if it weren't for the pointless long shots that spanned for minutes. And it is not even clear if there is actually supernatural, or scifi or none of those.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago*

    House of the Dead is the only movie I ever walked out of and demanded my money back.

    Also so many comedy sequels.

    Super Troopers 2, Dumb and Dumberer, Dumb and Dumber 2 (which actually made Dumb and Dumberer look good by comparison; at least the Bob Sagat part was hilarious and still remains quotable), Anchorman 2, etc. I haven't seen the new Happy Gilmore sequel yet, but I have heard it actually is decent.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Arrival and Interstellar. Half baked cop out time travel shit

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