10 Summer Blockbuster Movies That Should Never Have Happened

If you wondered why Marvel's The Avengers was renamed Avengers Assemble for its UK release, it was to avoid confusion with this big screen version of the British TV series. Considered “too English” by everyone except the English (who felt the concept had been Americanized), The Avengers is an odd duck. The leads are miscast, the script constantly mistakes eccentricity for charm and a good supporting cast is given nothing to do.

Then there’s the narrative. Following a disastrous test screening, the movie was cut down from 115 to 89 minutes, ensuring that the story never builds to anything or makes a lick of sense. On several occasions, characters disappear from one locale and suddenly find themselves in another without any adequate explanation.

Tasked with discovering who was responsible for destroying a research project, John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Mrs Peel (Uma Thurman) seem to go immediately from having no leads to knowing who the villain is. You see, Sir August De Wynter (Sir Sean Connery) wants to control the world’s weather (never mind why or how) and no sooner have our heroes been assigned than they pay him a visit. He turns out to be thoroughly evil, which still comes as a surprise to them.