The thing about a disappointing movie is that it is different for everyone, some people may love a film and there is just one person in the group who just doesn’t like it as much as the others and that is perfectly fine. Many films like cult classics have a much smaller group of fans while big blockbusters will always leave at least one person in the theater who felt like this film wasn’t what they saw being advertised. For some films like those blockbusters or long-running massive franchise installments, there are bound to be a few duds or simply films that just didn’t meet audience expectations for everyone. Disappointing doesn’t mean bad in fact some films that disappoint are some that you think about the most inspiring the ‘what if’ and ‘could have been’. A disappointing movie is a lot about the personal taste of the viewer, with so many films and so many different stories and styles sometimes high expectations just can not be met. For MXDWN these were the writer’s choice for films that just were not what was expected.
10. Anora
I had the highest hopes for Anora, mainly because it was said to be the film of the year, garnering the highest acclaim from Cannes and everyone on my Letterbox feed. I’m sure that Anora will rank very high on MXDWN’s list, but low on my personal top 10. I went into the theater ready for my favorite film of the year and walked out wishing I experienced what everyone else did. The film is fun and tender for the first 90 minutes, being near perfect. However, I felt that the middle 30 stayed one note and instead of building on the characters and the story, it turned into a buddy comedy that was hilarious but made the film feel just 20 minutes too long. If it weren’t for the impactful ending, I do not know if the film would have stayed on my top 10. Mikey Madison is the savior of this film and has decades of a career ahead of her, she is the shooting star of Anora.
– Kylee LaRue
As a person who loves every single one of Sean Baker’s previous films, this one felt different. The film could have felt different because of its budget and its broader goal with the storytelling.
– Sam Breslauer
9.Godzilla X Kong: New Empire
As a send-off for the Legendary Monstervese Cinematic Universe, I couldn’t help but feel like this Godzilla movie had a concerning lack of Godzilla in it despite being one of the headline monsters. The Godzilla to Kong ratio was extremely unbalanced with Kong getting about 75 percent of the screen and storytime, the humans because it connected with Kong’s storyline more at 20 percent, and a measly 15 for the King Of All Monsters. Which, yes the 2014 Godzilla had about 15 percent Godzilla too, but that movie wasn’t a fun colorful monster-mash brawl like New Empire. This movie’s runtime and pacing is also a detriment to what could have been an exciting zany story. This film feels like one and a half films with Kong: New Empire guest-starring Godzilla whose main role in the film is to show up for the final fight to turn the tide. The final 30 minutes are by far the best sequences in the movie with the opening 3o as well being a pretty solid setup for that final sequence it was a jumbled middle hour that needed to be cut down and refined for more cohesion. As a fan of Godzilla since I saw my first Toho Godzilla film as a kid this felt like a Kong movie with a half-finished Godzilla movie edited in between, and as a fan, I would have been fine with two films that let both monsters shine as the stars that they are. The new monster characters are fine and fun additions but would have been better left to a pure Kong movie to better explore them.
– Vanessa Winders
8. Longlegs
I had high hopes for Longlegs thinking it would be super scary and i remember feeling so uneasy about going to see it because the marketing made it that way. However, I was just confused the entire film and was never actually scared/nervous or any of the emotions you feel when watching a horror so that was definitely the most disappointing film for me this year.
7. Trap
The most disappointing movie that I had high hopes for was Trap. M. Knight Shyamalan’s script didn’t quite achieve what it set out to do and that’s what caused my disappointment.
– Izaiah Shupe
Even though this movie was in my top ten, and I did enjoy it, I always get super excited for M. Night Shyamalan films. This one wasn’t quite what I expected.
– Sarah Ashwell
2326579 – MADAME WEB
6. Madem Web
-Madame Web is a film that presents a fun idea of pairing up a bunch of Spider-women to fight crime in a slick team-up. Add in a splash of clairvoyance from the titular character and you have a solidly fun premise. While Dakota Johnson does her best to charisma her way through this, the script is constantly working against her. It starts simple enough, but the film quickly derails into a series of random events that are hardly strung together at all. It’s easy to see how this is an amalgamation of several drafts and ideas, whether that be seen through the sloppy ADR or the confusing second half. It’s a shame since I enjoyed Dakota Johnson’s sarcastic attitude and the down-to-earth view of 2003 New York, but the film just completely devolves into a truly nonsensical game of cat and mouse with a forgettable villain. There are glimpses of interesting ideas here, but ultimately it feels like the team lost sight of whatever the original pitch was.
– Justin Brayer
5. Alein: Romulus
Alien: Romulus entranced me with incredible trailers and a cool marketing campaign. Unfortunately, I found this to be my least favorite Alien film. My biggest issue is its lack of identity. While it has solid scares and great practical effects, it is too caught up in the past trying to emulate the first two films. Instead of crafting a new story with unique themes and situations, it uses its time to reference and even copy elements and sequences from the classics. My favorite aspect of the Alien franchise is how every film feels like it tries something new, and this is the first time an Alien film felt like nostalgia bait.
– Justin Brayer
4. The Crow
The Crow might just earn that title. Mostly because the original was such a wild, lightning-in-a-bottle moment that it should’ve never been attempted in the first place. An obvious Hollywood effort at just milking existing IP, there never should’ve been an effort to do this film if it was going to work just as hard to be as well executed and stylistically revelatory as the first film was. At the very minimum, an effort should have been made to put an all-star soundtrack together of current-generation alternative music, much like the alternative soundtrack helped the original film so much. But nope, just a movie that’s here today, gone tomorrow.
– Raymond Flotat
3. Cuckoo
Cuckoo just didn’t work for me. As a huge fan of Dan Stevens and Hunter Schafer, it pains me to say this, but Cuckoo really failed to be anything of note. Not scary, not interesting, not fun, just a flop for me. I’d love to see everyone involved in this do something else, because I know there’s something in here. Unfortunately what we got just didn’t land for me.
– Austin Waybright
2. MaXXXine
I was expecting a thrilling end to the sequence, but the film was super underwhelming. I felt the film left some storylines unanswered. The movie also lacked heart and soul. It felt hollow and lacked depth in every aspect. As a fan of Pearl and X, I was highly disappointed by this film.
– Chealse Koeing
Has the style of Ti West and the rest of the trilogy, but the substance is missing. Mia Goth continues her strong performance, but the story loses it’s potency and trades it out for a typical, albeit underwhelming, murder mystery. I expected so much more from this one, but was sadly let down.
– Raymond Adams
1. Joker: Folie á Duex
While Todd Philips hit a stride with Joker, Folie á Deux stumbled to hit what worked so well. Energized performances can only get you so far when the script delivered lacks the drive to deliver something more than what’s on the page. Visually speaking, it’s on par with the first, but gets messy when one delves into the subtext
– Raymond Adams
I personally, I feel like a character like this shouldn’t be singing and it fell flat.
– Nia Roman
This is not a comic book movie which is sad as those were the fans who were asking for a Joker movie. And that’s the thing about Folie à Deux, Arthur Fleck is not the Joker he is living the fantasy of being Joker. The story gets convoluted, has symbolism packed into every frame, and subtle social commentary about the glorification of atrocities but it’s also a musical. Folie à Deux isn’t what you expect and its not for everyone, that’s the real tragedy of it, it’s a weird movie that unless you go in blind which is hard to do you will inevitably try to make connections to the comics with the film because of Joker. The real irony of Folie à Deux is that it’s a story about the disappointment of a grandiose idea not being what you expect which is the exact feeling you get when you watch this film.
– Vanessa Winders
What makes Joker: Folie à Deux so disappointing is that we all know it had the potential to be great. The first Joker touches on mental health issues and displays Arthur’s slow, gradual descent into madness. The second film had an opportunity to touch on experiences as an asylum patient but didn’t do anything except an unnecessary and uncomfortable assault scene. The musical aspect isn’t even the worst part, it makes complete sense for Arthur to have these musical fantasies in his head. However, the songs are weirdly placed in the film, throwing off the pacing. Also, the story is dull, so the songs just add to the frustration while watching this movie.
– Amani Sanders
While not every film managed to hit that fantastical high or be everything we wanted each film is a miricale in its own way even disappointing ones, because as a wise probably human once said a flawed story is still better then a story never told. With the year at an end its with retrospection we look at the films that may not have brought as much joy but where still a memorable in their own unique ways.
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