Now that the consensus is out on Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’, I think it’s fair to say that most of us were more than a little crestfallen by the whole thing. After months of hype and speculation, we found ourselves feeling a sense of overwhelming disappointment when the credits began to roll. At least I did anyway.

It tends to happen this way. Whenever I get excited for a film, no matter what that film is, I always find myself more than disappointed by the end result. Maybe my expectations are too high? Possibly. But more than likely, the films themselves have failed to live up to the promises that they so boldly made during their marketing campaigns. It got me thinking about all those other films that I initially couldn’t wait to rush to the cinema on opening day to see, then be wholly frustrated by the sheer mediocrity or ineptitude on display. Films that promised so much, yet delivered so little.

So in honor of the grave disappointment that was ‘Prometheus’, here are fifteen other blockbusting disappointments:

 

15. The Lovely Bones (2009)

Anticipation was high for Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel. Jackson had already proven himself in adapting visually challenging source material and if anyone could handle the complex dichotomy of visuals that Sebold’s novel provided, then Jackson was surely the man to do it. He had also acquired for himself a solid cast to lead the way including Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Saorise Ronan as Susie.

Everything was in place for something truly special. Unfortunately the final result turned out to be something rather anticlimactic. While Tucci was a standout and the visuals were well conceived, the film was a mess structurally, eschewing many of the book’s elements, resulting in a confused mess of a film that never truly worked as the compelling narrative about grief, loss and moving on as it should’ve been.

 

14. Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man movie was one of the surprise hits of 2008. A brilliantly enjoyable comic book movie with a superb turn from Robert Downey Jr. as the billionaire playboy donning a “titanium alloy” suit to successfully privatize world peace. Naturally, anticipation for part 2 in the saga was high. Jon Favreau returned as director with the added bonus of Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell filling out villain duties and Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle rounding out the rest of the cast. And yet, what we got was basically an extended trailer to a film that was a good two years away.

What was so great about the first movie was that it was about Tony Stark. Here he is merely sidelined for the majority of the film. Featuring a lacklustre script underwritten villains and disappointing action set pieces, with more emphasis being placed on the teasing aspects of the larger Marvel universe, the film was a grave disappointment. Hopefully now that The Avengers have done their thing, Tony Stark can get back to doing what he does best for Shane Black’s third installment.

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