22. Iron Man 2 (2010)
The first Iron Man film was a surprise hit with fans and critics alike. The origin story exceeded expectations mainly down to slick directing, a punchy script and a superb performance by Robert Downey Jr. The film was well paced and had the right balance of storytelling, character development and action. So two years later, anticipation was high for Iron Man 2, especially with the announcement that a rejuvenated Mickey Rourke had signed up to play bad guy, Ivan Vanko and Jon Favreau was returning to direct. But the sequel was a let down. Boring and feeling like its only reason for going into production was to set up The Avengers, Iron Man 2 not only annoyed fans but most of the cast. Mickey Rourke who has never been scared of speaking his mind commented on how most of his hard work ended up on the cutting room floor;
The performance and all the things that I tried to bring to it end up on the fucking floor. That can cause you not to care as much. To not to want to put that effort in to try and make it an intelligent bad guy or a bad guy who is justified in what his reasons are."
Now The Avengers has been and gone, pressure should be alleviated and hopefully Marvel will have learnt its lesson and interfere less in Iron Man 3.
21. Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
Jaws: The Revenge goes down as one of the worst films ever made and for good reason. There is only so many times you can keep flogging a dead shark and this was the final straw. Starring Michael Caine, the reasons to watch Jaws 4 is for the dodgy special effects, laughable script and some hilarious flashback sequences that make no sense. Bendy shark teeth, boom mics in shot, silly nonsense like the shark swimming 2000KM in three days and the shark sounding like a roaring lion, this film sucked. It showed that Jaws did not need any sequels. Michael Caine has never seen Jaws: The Revenge but it did pay for his luxury house in Leatherhead. He said;
"I hear that it's awful. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific. I was in this bracket of transcending from young leading man to older actor, and the scripts were getting crappy. I made the mistake of making a couple of them."
20. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2007) & On Stranger Tides (2011)
For a series of films based on a theme park ride, Pirates Of The Caribbean has been a huge money spinner the Walt Disney company and the third film in the series made almost a billion dollars at the box office. Where the first film was a fairy entertaining family adventure romp, the second showed signs of quality beginning to wane and 'At Worlds End' was a lukewarm, bloated and confused spectacular. But people still went to see it and Disney made a ton of cash so no matter how awful the film was, it's still classed as a success and a forth film was given the green light. 'On Stranger Tides' failed to return the franchise to its former glory and was in many ways a worse film than the third one. Where 'At World's End' was a faithful but rubbish entry into the franchise, the fourth film was called a ''big empty nothing'' by BBC film critic Mark Kermode. The shift from telling an entertaining adventure story to full on action was obvious, it was all part of the changes made by the film makers in a misguided attempt to keep the series fresh. But again, the film make loads of money and that was a sign to Disney that the series still has legs so negotiations started for a fifth film. But for any cinema goer who is not dazzled by the explosions and phoned-in performances, it's obvious that Captain Jack Sparrow has long outlived his welcome.
19. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man was a brilliant comic book movie, Spider-Man 2 was even better thanks to Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, and with the promise of fan favorite villain Venom being the antagonist in Spider-Man 3, fans were excited that the third film would be a great ending to a superb trilogy. Unfortunately it wasn't the satisfying conclusion it could have been because it made the mistake that most rubbish comic book films make and that's including too many villains. It would be fine if Venom, Goblin and Sandman had enough screen time to establish themselves but it's hard enough to convincingly get one villain over to the audience successfully, never mind three of them. Once you add in Spider-Man, the Peter and Jane love story and everything else that needs to be communicated to the audience in 139 minutes, ''too much'' is an understatement. Raimi blamed the studio for Spider-Man 3's many problems. He also said that he was forced to include Venom because they wanted to use it as a possible launch pad for a spin-off series. Whoever was at fault, Spider-Man 3 was a huge disappointment.
18. Contact (1997)
Carl Sagan is one of the most important people to walk the face of the Earth, his groundbreaking Cosmos series is still one of the best science programs ever produced. So when his 1985 book Contact, about first contact with extra terrestrial life, was finally being developed for the silver screen, it had the potential for being one of the best science fiction films ever made. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, the film was released in 1997 to major disappointment to anyone who read the novel. Although the intention was there, the script was awful. Also the anti-religious tone of the book was diluted for the film adaption which angered many who felt it was one of the big points of the book, the ending even offered a compromise between faith and science. And the nauseating, Zemeckis-type cuddly debating that went on in the film was patronising at best. It also attracted a number of lawsuits including from Nasa. Bill Clinton even wrote the producers a letter complaining about his image being used. Carl Sagan never got to see film, he died before it was finished. But before his death, he wrote a letter to Warner Bros explaining his reasons fot why he thought their final screenplay sucked. So just read the book, it's much better.