15 Most Overrated Movies Of The Decade (So Far)

6. Les Miserables

The second appearance from Tom Hooper on this list (he really is the most pedestrian director currently lauded as a unique talent), Les Miserables is yet another in a long-line of Broadway hits brought to the big screen loved by the already converted and shrugged off by everyone else. If you're not familiar with the material, be ready for an onslaught of characters and ideas that feel disjointed even after the credits have rolled.

The big "trick" with Les Mis was that all the songs were recorded live on set to better capture the actor's raw emotion. This works great for one-shot breakdowns (I Dreamed A Dream is far and away the film's highlight), but kinda gets a bit perfunctory when you're cutting through massive ensembles. That there's only about five memorable songs in a movie whose dialogue is comprised entirely of lyrics certainly doesn't help.

Putting that aside, however, and, like many big screen musicals, it just feels rather stagey. The shots are either uncomfortably close up or noticeably wide, which obviously subverts theatre's permanent mid-range view, but is unsatisfactory in making revolutionary France feel at any point real. The CGI set extensions are obvious and the sheer low-keyness of all the conflict until the final number wears after a while. This is a musical lauded for its sense of scale when performed on stage, but on screen it looks tiny.