7. Matrix Revolutions (2003)
If the Matrix: Reloaded collapsed under the weight of pretentious ambiguity, the final film in the trilogy fizzled out to a disappointing nothing. People were looking for this film to tie everything together and conclude the Neo story, cementing him as humanities's savior. But what we got was an overly long and cheesy-CGI fight sequence between the humans and the machines, where Neo was no where to be seen. He was busy negotiating a truce as exciting as that sounds. He did eventually have a final fight with thousands of Agent Smiths but no one cared. Boring and too focused on its own image of self importance, Matrix Revolutions was a finale equivalent to a male porn star struggling to maintain an erection who eventually gives us a dribble at the climax.
6. Alien 3 (1992)
With a tough act to follow, Alien 3 went through development hell until its release in 1992, a whole six years after James Cameron's Aliens. Originally the plan was to make the third installment into a two parter with a war between the Weyland-Ytani Corporation and some breakaway human settlers. Ridley Scott was interested in returning to direct but the plan struggled to get of the ground and the two part sequel idea was dumped. Vincent Ward came on board and created a concept for a wooden planet inhabited by monks, Ripley would crash land on the planet bringing the Xenomorph with her. Initial sketches of this idea can be seen on the the Alien Quadrilogy set. As it always is in movie land, time was short and studio frustrations about the budget prompted producers Walter Hill and David Giler to take over script writing duties and they preceded to merge all the different ideas together. The final result was the prison planet in Alien 3 and shooting started without a finished script. First time director David Fincher did a superb job considering the issues he had to deal with but the film ultimately failed. It suffered from on-the-fly rewrites, sets were being build before the script was finished, rushed casting and interference from the studio. The whole experience was a nightmare for Fincher who was being constantly reminded about how he better not screw up his big break. All the problems resulted in a lackluster film, the ideas were good but the delivery was poor. The extended cut improved things a lot but Alien 3 was always going to be compared to the first two films and being judged next to those meant that it was a total disappointment.
5. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
If you are a fan or not of Christopher Nolan's realistic take on Batman, there was plenty to enjoy in The Dark Knight. It also set the bar for the final film in the trilogy. However, when you looked through the cloud of hype and removed your BatFan glasses, The Dark Knight Rises was a bloated and dull conclusion and Christopher Nolan's worst film to date. Of course Christian Bale was back as the growling crusader and the reliable Tom Hardy took the role of Bane. But a confused story that sucked, cheesy characters like Foley and a terrible ending, The Dark Knight Rises was a bum-numbing disappointment. But fanboys rose up to defend the film and even threatened critics who dared to say that the film wasn't very good. It even caused Rotten Tomatoes to disable comments on The Dark Knight Rises page due to the level of violence directed at people who judged the film for what it was. Death threats aside, the film was a huge let down and thankfully the last staring Christian Bale whose performance will go down as one of the worst portrayals of The Dark Knight.
4. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)
The return of Indiana Jones was an exciting event in the movie world. It had been talked about a lot since the last Indiana Jones film in 1989 but it took 19 years for it to become a reality. The delay was down to a number of factors; the series director Steven Spielberg wanted to focus on other projects, Harrison Ford was getting older and George Lucas was fixated with aliens. After producing the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, George Lucas realised that by moving the next Indiana Jones film to the 50's, an older Harrison Ford wouldn't be a problem and he could pay homage to 1950's B-Movies by incorporating aliens. Harrison Ford was not interested in the idea and Spielberg was not too hot either on incorporating aliens. But Lucas being Lucas, he proceeded to commission a script that involved Joseph Stalin and psychic aliens. But in 1996, Spielberg put his movie foot down and said he was not interested in doing an alien themed Indian Jones film. So Lucas forgot about aliens and concentrated on making the super successful and critically acclaimed Star Wars prequels. Fast forward to the new millennium and a change in mood by all parties including Harrison ford, Indiana Jones was back on and George Lucas was still banging on about aliens but changed them from ''extraterrestrial'' to ''interdimensional.'' This was enough to make Spielberg happy and in 2008, the world got Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull! But the film failed to live up to people's expectations. The plot and effects were heavily criticised with Lucas's interdimensional aliens being the main problem. It lacked any genuine excitement and felt like a lazy nostalgic cash-in. It also became famous for ''Nuke The Fridge ' which referenced the scene where Jones is hiding in a fridge and survives a nuclear blast. Nuke The Fridge became a term for when a series runs out of ideas and relies on dumb gimmicks to fool the audience Spielberg tried to take the flack for the ''silly idea'' by saying he forced that scene through but later Lucas admitted that he was the one who wrote it into the script and even provided Spielberg with a dossier of scientific evidence that showed how someone could survive a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge. The film could have been so good but it could not survive the Lucas touch. If it was aliens or Nuke The Fridge, George Lucas proved that it was his time to retire from filmmaking. Just like the Star Wars prequels, he took a beloved franchise and turned it into a mess. Its just a shame that Spielberg and the others didn't spot the flaws either.