1. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
It was supposed to introduce a whole new generation to the Star Wars universe. We were going to get an expansion on the magical original trilogy that consumed our childhood's. There was going to be dozens of fantastic new characters immediately identifiable by their unique quirks. The Phantom Menace promised greatness. We all wanted it to be brilliant. The reality is George Lucas dropped the ball and it was bad. So bad. The promise wasn't just from the original trilogy, The Phantom Menace had a very impressive cast including Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. Ian McDiarmid also returned to the franchise as Senator Palpatine, which was an inspired decision from Lucas, except he never did anything but drone on and on about taxes. Samuel L Jackson's coolness has always been undeniable and his appearance, with a purple lightsaber no less, had the fanboys at fever pitch. And for good reason, all the makings of a great film and a satisfactory compliment to the original trilogy were in place. So what went wrong? Lucas just didn't get it. He was going for the young audience - alienating his existing one in the process - but even to the new generation this new Star Wars was much ado about nothing. Lucas wanted to sell a lot of action figures, not promise long time fans of the franchise and the people that had made him a millionaire a successful expansion on the Star Wars universe. The Phantom Menace was the first film Lucas directed since A New Hope, 22 years prior, but nobody was worried because Star Wars is his baby - he knew it better than anybody - which makes the disappointment that little bit worse. Fans had been living with the hope of new Star Wars since 1986 and the promise of The Phantom Menace prior to release was astronomical, it was the biggest, most hyped film of the year. It was by far the highest grossing movie of 1999 but a combination of Lucas's foolishness, Jar-Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd meant The Phantom Menace couldn't deliver anything let alone the promise built up over the years.