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.
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18 Comments
Prometheus. Why? Because it never decided what it wanted to be. They left too many questions out there, there was little action, incredibly implausible scenes. It was trying to be Alien and 2001 together and it failed at both. It seemed at least like it was going for a bit of realism, but then characters did things that were completely left field.
i dont get why they try to dog Hobbit. It was a great movie
It’s only really this author that bashes the Hobbit, the other film contributors seemed to have loved it. It’s 3rd in the ‘Best of 2012′ article on this very same website!
Prometheus for me as well. A meandering, nonsensical bore riddled with plot holes. Personally I loved both The Hobbit and Spiderman. The latter was better than the Dark Knight Returns IMO (which I enjoyed but again, too many niggling plot inconsistencies ).
I thought Spiderman was great… Did you mean the Dark Knight Rises? Because the Dark Knight Returns was pretty darn good! That was the animated one where Batman comes back in his 50′s…
you may not like the hobbit, but thanks God jackson turned it into a darkly epic, 9-hour adventure saga, it’s just amazing.
The Dark Knight Rises. Film fans were once again let down by the curse of the third installment. Begins was an astonishing film that managed to introduce the characters, give them personality and weave in an impressive narrative. The Dark Knight, whilst not as good a story as Begins was the big hit of the year with fine performances and action that was unrivalled. As for the third chapter of Nolans Batman trilogy, we got a long, messy and at times insulting piece that could and should have been the best of the three. Bane was the wrong choice of villain – he was just a brute that nobody could engage with. His transformation from big bad Bane into wimpering Bodyguard was atrocious. The ‘big scene’ of the movie delivered no punch given the fact that we’d seen it 25 times on the trailer. Worst of all, the narrative. A prison in the ground in 2012? And the flying bat was jumping the shark imo. A disappointing end to a trilogy that was v.good but could have been legendary.
Im guessing this website hates the hobbit, IT WAS A GOOD MOVIE, MOVE ON……quite surprised Battleship isnt on the list, thought you guys hated that as well
Nobody expected anything good from Battleship though.
Brave? If anything, it’s among the upper Pixar half. Maybe you didn’t get it, but it’s a very simple yet engaging mother-daughter story. Yes, it doesn’t have the depth Up or Ratatouille has, but like, says, Warrior, the paint-by-the-humbers script is overshadowed by the great execution.
The fact that you included this and yet left out Prometheus says a lot.
“he has somewhat missed the point of Tolkein’s text” – Says the writer who called the Troll scene ‘pointless filler’, or something.. The Hobbit only resembled Rings in the expanded Necromancer sub-narrative. Bilbo’s journey was tonally in tune with Tolkein’s jolly, simple adventure.
Problem – The Amazing Spiderman wasn’t a disappointment. And of course it rehashes what the first three covered – points of canon are points of canon. Uncle Ben dies. That’s the story. I was prepared to sit there hating it (because I loved Sam Raimi’s version – all three), but I didn’t! It was the Spiderman of my childhood – full of wiseass.
I’m still waiting to see The Hobbit, so I’m just ignoring that so it doesn’t color my viewing. I’m filing that one under “Haters Gotta Hate” and “Jason Fox of Foxtrot hating on LOTR because it varies from the original text”. It looks wonderful.
And BRAVE? Sure. Disney finally puts out a story for girls that doesn’t involve “GET A MAN AND BE PRETTY” as the plot and everyone bags on it. I’m more irked by Disney’s decision to market a fashion doll of Merida that has comb-able hair. Marketing didn’t really WATCH the movie, did they.
Taken 2? The Hobbit was amazing. Didn’t even read the article. Didn’t deserve to be read.
People are still crying that they didn’t make a Spider-Man 4? Get over it, Amazing Spider-Man blew the Raimi movies out of the water.
I have not seen Hobbit yet but I must agree. When I heard it was going to be a trilogy a,very hopeful, part of me was let down. The source material, in my opinion, does not contain enough story to fill 3 movies. It just seems like a cash in, to me.
Dude I don’t think you even watch half the movies you gripe about. Expendables 2 was just as good… No better actually than the first. Also Arnold’s line about Rambo was said to Norris not Willis. I’ve read many of your posts and the comments people leave I used to think we’re harsh, but they aren’t you sir are a pompous nitpicking idiot who can’t just enjoy a film. Shut up stop writing you suck.
I really enjoyed this article. I agreed with pretty much every entry and despite
The other comments, I have to agree about the hobbit. Why Peter Jackson thought he
Should make it into a trilogy I have no idea.
Taking the Title of the article most literally, I would think to be MOST disappointing, would mean high levels of expectations. This does’t mean the movies mentioned are bad, just disappointing for some reason or another.
Therefore, I am surprised Prometheus wasn’t on there. Not b/c it was all that bad, it just delivered inconsistently and had some problems. I thought it was enjoyable, just off. friends/fans very divided on this film. reasonably so.
When I heard the Hobbit was going to be a triology. I didn’t even go see it in theaters. That surprised me. It’s disappointing b/c I would have seen it IF it was 1 of 2, but 3?…no I’ll rent ‘em later. It’s probably a fine movie, just 3?…really? Not needed.
I’m actually surprised The Dark Knight Rises didn’t make #1. NOT b/c it was bad, but I think there’s a fair consensus that what could have become one of the most legendary triologys ever, was tempered into a good triology. I liked it, but it was not the epic culmination that it should have been. It felt a little generic, rushed, and had too many plot issues to live up the hype. It’s only the most disappointing, b/c it was THE movie of the year to see before it came out, and didn’t feel like that so much once it was seen.
Otherwise, good read.