10 Most Pointless Movies Ever Made
Just... why?
Now, to be fair to Hollywood, filmmaking is a business first and foremost, and so the point of most movies above all else is to make money, of course. But even accepting that, sometimes films are made that have little reason, artistic or otherwise, to exist, and so you have to wonder what those in charge were thinking in the first place. And that's absolutely the case with the following 10 movies, each of which exists largely as a monument to their own pointlessness.
Sure, some of them might've made money for the studio, but beyond the most base financial motivation, there's little reason that these movies needed to be made.
From "live-action" remakes of animated classics to belated sequels nobody asked for, and retellings made solely to keep a property's precious rights from slipping away, these films all exist in spite of both audiences and themselves.
Even though some of these movies have their merits, they're overpowered by the general feeling of listlessness that the entire endeavour invites, that all the time, money, and energy invested in its creation could've been spent on something far more interesting...
10. The Lion King (2019)
Disney's ongoing spate of "live-action" remakes of their most beloved animated films have proven wildly divisive with audiences, who've been drawn in by the obvious nostalgia factor and often left unmoved by the actual end result.
And is that any more apparent than with Jon Favreau's 2019 update of The Lion King? The 1994 animated original remains such a gorgeous, brilliantly crafted piece of work that remaking it seemed like a fools' errand, as it indeed ultimately proved itself to be.
The big issue is that translating the extremely expressive animated characters into a more "realistic" live-action/CGI format was always going to result in said expressiveness being tamped down. The cartoonish charm of the central characters is clipped away almost entirely, and to make matters worse, seeing extremely photorealistic animals speak with human voices causes the whole enterprise to tumble straight into the uncanny valley.
Sure, the point of the film from Disney's perspective is its eye-watering $1.657 billion box office haul, but it's telling that even just five years after release, is anyone really talking about this hollow, soulless remake at all, especially in fond terms?
As such, it'll certainly be interesting to see how upcoming prequel-sequel Mufasa: The Lion King performs in relation to its predecessor.