15 Most Overrated Movies Of The Decade (So Far)

5. The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists!

Aardman are a shining light of pure ingenuity in modern animation. One of the key voices in the art of claymation, a very rare form in the CGI animation landscape, each frame of their films is meticulously constructed by a dedicated animator, leading to movies that spark with personality. So naturally that means whenever they finally unleash a film in cinemas it's hard not to just marvel at it on a purely practical level. There's a hard work required here that cost-cutting Hollywood just won't allow (Aardman parted ways with DreamWorks after their ideologies didn't quite gel).

But while their movies can look great, what made the likes of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run become such company high-points was more than just the style. The stories and writing popped with an effortless Britishness humour and sly smarts.

And, unfortunately, 2012's The Pirates! doesn't have that. Even though Aardman were operating on their own terms, this feels incredibly compromised; the very British story, which sees the Pirate Captain and Charles Darwin go up against a crazed Queen Victoria, feels like it's been written from an American point-of-view. Toss in a bunch of repeated sequences (the bath tub chase is identical to the climax of The Wrong Trousers and a psychotic female big bad is straight out of Chicken Run) and this is one of the most unimaginative films from the usually great studio.