10 Most Underwhelming Movies Of 2014

1. The Imitation Game

There are three things integral to the story of Alan Turing that need to be included in any biopic on his life; the cracking of the Enigma code by proto-computers, his hidden homo-sexuality and the persecution for the latter in the face of the former. The Imitation Game puts the Engima tale front and centre, while Turing's true nature provides a backbone to the film, but the third and most important part is all but glossed over. The public discovery of him being gay, at the time a crime, is done in bookends, the subsequent chemical castration flippantly delivered in a penultimate scene and Turing's ultimate suicide lazily revealed in some on-screen text at the end. This oversight would be fine in a film explicitly about Enigma (a biopic doesn't need to show everything), but as the code-breaking is interspersed with flashbacks to Alan's childhood, where both his genius and homosexual tendencies emerge, it's clear the film has an eye on being an all encompassing life story. And if that's the case, to omit and otherwise downplay the defining points is a major mistake that renders the film tepid - it's unmasked as Oscar bait, toning down the story to ensure mainstream appeal. Which other 2014 movies did you find underwhelming? Which movies on this did we under-estimate? Share you thoughts down in the comments.