10 Most Over-Rated Movies Of 2016

The best movies of 2016? Beg to differ, much?

By Helen Jones /

It’s been said that the word overrated is overrated itself and considering how often the term – and its antithesis, the underrated movie – is bandied around in film critic circles it’s not surprising that it’s starting to feel like a very hackneyed word. It’s become the kind of buzzword the more cynical film buff levels at films that a lot of people, critics and general movie-going audiences alike, tended to enjoy. Is it a bit of a snobby term? Oh yes. Is it justified? In some cases, totally.

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You see, some films kind of get a free pass to success. Sometimes it’s because they’re part of a provenly popular studio or franchise or because they boast acclaimed directors and actors. Often it’s because a film offers a slightly off-centre or superior take on an overdone genre or simply down to the fact that a film looks a hell of a lot better compared to the abundance of awful films released around it.

Whatever the reason it’s a fact that some films, however good they may be, don’t really deserve the massive amount of borderline masturbatory praise they got.

Here’s the 2016 qualifiers in that category …

10. Captain America: Civil War

Sure, Captain America: Civil War was an entertaining and engaging enough film that ticked all the boxes a comic book movie should: a car chase sequence, an evil villain, an emotional backstory, inner turmoil and fights scenes. Judging by its phenomenal box office success, 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating and hordes of fanboys hailing it as the best superhero movie in the world ever however, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a work of cinematic genius, the like of which has never been seen before. Put bluntly, it’s not.

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Perhaps it’s the case that in a year of rather middling comic book movies (sorry Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman), Civil War stood out as the cream of the crop but that shouldn’t necessarily warrant it such laudatory reviews. Quite frankly, if you’re not a fully invested fanboy with intimate knowledge of the 734 Avengers films that came before it, Civil War kind of comes off as a just another superhero soap opera in the franchise.

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