Every year, we get pretty much the same discussion arising in December, that it's been the worst year for movies ever, and of course, it never has been. It's been a great year, possibly the best ever for franchise blockbusters (The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, Skyfall), intelligent Hollywood flicks (Argo), challenging foreign films (Amour, The Hunt), and scintillating documentaries (The Imposter). However, like any year, there's been those inevitable failures, either blockbusters, foreign films or more noble arthouse fare, that just don't make the cut or live up to our expectations. This year has seen a few new potential franchises, reboots and sequels fall at the first hurdle, and a couple of reliable filmmakers fail to deliver the goods, but we must remember that no filmmaker is perfect, and 2013 is likely to bring far more pleasures than let-downs like any year. Here are the 10 most disappointing movies of 2012.
10. John Carter
Bringing to life Edgar Rice Burroughs' vibrant series of Barsoom novels should not be particularly challenging for a filmmaker of Andrew Stanton's talent, given that he made the stunning Pixar masterpieces Finding Nemo and WALL-E, yet John Carter was an unequivocal flop in every regard. Grossing only $282m against a $250m budget, John Carter severely underwhelmed at the box office, in part due to its lacklustre advertising campaign - which drew focus away from the Mars setting, even removing "...Of Mars" from the title - and in part due to the fact that it was a dull, uninspired Avatar knock-off that had us all suffer under box office poison himself, Taylor Kitsch, for 132 soul-destroying minutes. Whether it's the incomprehensible plot, rather bog-standard visual effects, poor performances or ropey pacing, John Carter is a film that gets pretty much everything wrong. It's clear that it was made with the intent of building a franchise, but thankfully, we've been spared that as this film, which was widely touted as "the next Avatar" couldn't even dupe enough people into going to see it in the first place. A terrible failure that we can all soon forget, John Carter just plain sucks.