Is there anything worse than a dumb kid parading around like they're the smartest in class? Strutting around immune to criticism because of their lack of self-awareness. It's infuriating. Count that doubly when it comes to films. Those dumbo charlatans are often so infuriating that youll find yourself complaining about them for years beyond release. Maybe youll even write a rage-fuelled article about it... These movies - that present themselves as thisll really make you think material but then turn out to be nothing more than over-hyped cinematic simpletons - are a pet peeve of many cinemagoers, and it's mostly because they sucker you. Theyll draw you in with smart-seeming trailers and pre-release hype, and then leave you cold and confused as the credits roll. Sometimes itll be evident from the start that youre watching one of these dumb smart movies. On other occasions, though, youll be convinced by a movies mind-testing mettle until a disappointing third act screws it all up, failing to follow through on the films intellectually stimulating promises. Obviously, theyre still fun to rip apart in discussions at the pub, but youll probably never want to watch them again. Which is sort of the opposite of what a film should aspire to.
10. Terminator: Genisys
For some unknown reason, Terminator: Genisys seems to think very highly of itself. Its a movie that tries to force a thought-provokingly modern rebrand (Skynet is an app now) on a beloved, classic film property. In the pre-release material, we were repeatedly told how relevant the film was going to be. But Genisys was dumb on several levels. Arnold Schwarzeneggers unstoppable killing machine was now a source of comic relief, and it stole action beats wholesale from other films (the bus flip on the bridge was pretty much a direct lift from The Dark Knight). Worst of all, Genisys even managed to dumb down its own clever, relevant rethink the idea that Skynet is an app results in one of the stupidest scenes in the movie. The bit where, with decades to prepare for the Genisys launch, all but one of the characters time travel to the actual ruddy day before the event and flap around helplessly. The idea that an app wouldnt be ready until the minute before it launched is incredibly naïve, as well. Would Skynet not have finished it months ago? Surely it would be completed a little earlier than the actual day its going live? Didn't they do any testing? Were there no prototypes at all?
