Beyond our Favorite Films of the Year, the Best Performances, and the Most Surprising, the Most Disappointing don’t follow too far behind. Beyond the great cinematic experiences that the year had to afford, so too were the films that got us excited, but ultimately let us down. The following are just a few of those movies.
A STAR IS BORN
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Despite some great trailers, Bradley Cooper’s take on A Star is Born didn’t live up to my expectations. Both Cooper and Lady Gaga gave some stellar performances, as did Sam Elliot and a surprisingly melancholic Andrew Dice Clay, but the biggest problem lay in A Star’s narrative progression. With the second act rushing most of Gaga’s character’s rise unknown artist to cultural phenomenon, way too much of the personal relationship was implied rather than shown. Not a bad movie by any means, but the hype just wasn’t on par with this film’s soundtrack.
Ben Wasserman
DEADPOOL 2
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After an extremely funny and fresh first film that made breaking the fourth wall actually funny, this zany and over the top film does bring laugh and jokes to the table but probably too often. Constantly bringing in new jokes or overdoing old ones, things can feel dragged out or eventually unfunny. Deadpool 2 isn’t necessarily terrible, but there seems to be so much lacking and a lot of open space (or not enough).
Robert Thornson
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD
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The movie felt much like Solo and the new generation of Star Wars where far too much was tried to be accomplished at once and the ending didn’t quite feel like a strong conclusion nor a successfully implemented cliff hanger.
Haley Newlin
THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS
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It was not quite as terrible as many claimed it was, however as a die hard Muppet fan, I was hoping for more. This movie had potential to be great with an excellent concept and a type of movie we don’t see very often. While it is humorous and some decent gags, it is bogged down by not realizing the film’s full potential. Not as bad as others made it out to be, but could have been more.
Ryan Pineda
INCREDIBLES 2
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I really liked the original movie, and I couldn’t wait for it to get a sequel. Unfortunately this movie does not hold up as well. The movie reuses a lot of plot elements from the first one, but they aren’t as strong here. In this movie the Incredibles feel less like a family. Once again the children don’t have as much screen time nor do they get any more development. Also the villain was a lot weaker than Syndrome. It was another “twist villain,” and I could actually see the twist.
Arden Terry
JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM
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The Jurassic Park series has been a study in diminished returns, but Fallen Kingdom might be the most aggressively bad film of the bunch. It completely fails to understand what people watch these films for, instead filling its overly long running time with unlikeable characters doing unbelievably stupid things while dinosaurs shuffle around in the background. Fingers crossed the dinosaur roars at the end of this film are the death rattle of this dying franchise.
John Wedemeyer
There’s no excuse for the disaster of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. With lazy writing, an overabundance of CGI, stupid characters and a feeling of depression while watching it, Fallen Kingdom is an embarrassing film. The writing is so awful that it shows that the people who made this movie have no respect for their fans whatsoever. I hated this movie for its story which has no imagination, the direction which fancies CGI over a coherent plot, and the lack of fun that Fallen Kingdom doesn’t have. The filmmakers should be ashamed of themselves for giving us complete trash!
Rick Rice
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET
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With a ton of good will following the surprise success of Wreck-It Ralph, it’s a massive disappointment just how much of a mess the Internet-focused sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet ends up being. This is literally the movie you tell your friends about where the only funny things are the two moments that made you laugh in the trailer. Otherwise, this movie never really knows what it wants to be and sloppily floats from one aim to the next without any real focus.
Raymond Flotat
VENOM
Venom fell flat on the writing side and overall was a bit lackluster. Though it had its entertaining moments, the humor didn’t always land and the plot left much to be desired.
Leilani Reyes
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