Ok folks, for every Yin there’s a Yang here at the MAJOR Awards. The karmic counterbalance to this morning’s surprises is this afternoon’s crop of disappointments. These are the films that had us eagerly anticipating them, yet failed to deliver.
Click through to see the biggest let downs of 2012!
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“The Bourne Legacy”
With the departure of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, few expected this sequel to live up to its predecessors. Yet a solid marketing campaign and the emergence of star Jeremy Renner led people to expect a high quality actioner. But the film squanders its interesting additions to the franchise with a lackluster finale and a thoroughly disappointing conclusion. I’d still like to see the franchise continue, but this installment can only be classified as a let down.
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“Dark Shadows”
Anytime Johnny Depp and Tim Burton work together, it’s going to attract attention. The darkly oddball trailer they put together served to foster hope as well. But the final product turned out to be a jumbled mess, to put it politely. Characters disappeared, while others seemed meaningless, and it all flew off the rails completely at the end. Worst of all, it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a drama, a comedy a horror movie, or all three. Very disappointing.
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“Prometheus”
Expectations for this film were completely off of the charts, thanks to fantastic trailers and one of the cleverest viral campaigns ever. Add in the fact that it was director Ridley Scott’s return to a classic film universe, and people were crazy with anticipation. The film, while still good, was heavily flawed and undeniably disappointing. Poor character choices, plot holes and a difficult to accept connect the dots to the overall franchise made “Prometheus” one of 2012’s most deflating films.
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“The Raven”
John Cusack playing Edgar Allan Poe seemed like a match made in heaven. And the high concept of Poe needing to turn detective in order to help police catch a killer who’s bringing his own stories to life… was, seemingly, inspired. But the film turned out to be ultimately unworthy of its premise, a weak “Sherlock Holmes” wanna be. Worst of all, Cusack himself was disappointing. Unfortunately, “The Raven” wound up too bland to be memorable… except for how disappointing it was.
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“Total Recall”
Most of us are instinctively opposed to remakes, but in a number of ways, “Total Recall” appeared to be a perfect candidate to be remade. A less campy take on Phillip K. Dick’s story, complete with modern special effects? There was a lot of potential in that. We should have known better. The end result was another cheap Hollywood knock off. Bad acting, cheap special effects, and worst of all, inexplicable changes to the original story made “Total Recall” a terrible disappointment.
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There they are people. The films that let us down worse than all the others in 2012.
What do you think? Were there any I forgot? Any of these that don’t deserve to be called disappointments? Which of these do you think deserves to be called the most disappointing of them all?
Let us hear it!
Fogs' Movie Reviews 
I couldn’t be disappointed by most of these because I had no expectations for any of them. I kinda knew Dark Shadows and Total Recall would be awful, y’know?
That said, Prometheus and Legacy both let me down in big ways. It’s a coin toss there, since Les Mis isn’t up for nomination and that movie disappointed me WAY more. Honestly, I didn’t actively hate the experience of watching Prometheus, so I’m going to have to pick Legacy.
I couldnt include Les Mis because I knew there was at least a 50% chance it would drive me nuts anyways. Too much… poor people singing. Like getting caught in a musical Dickens story LOL. 😀
That said, Prometheus definitely didnt suck or anything, but compared to what I was hoping for? It stands a good chance of being the most disappointing. Bourne was a big let down too. Could have been so much better. Totally limped across the finish line. 😦
Oooh, if its Prometheus, you and I are gonna have words.
Like what? Like “How dare you, sir!” and stuff like that? 😀
Listen, for everyone of you folks defnding Prometheus, there’s TWO people hoping it gets the win… so…. :p
Its a divisive flick, at best!
I thought you’d learn by now Fogs that my opinion is worth at LEAST that of two other people.
Ah. Gotcha.
Still, you’re only helping to overcome the outnumbering for ONE of your fellow Prometheus defenders. 😀 Are their opinions worth two as well? If that’s the case then we may have something…
The Raven was so boring. I did like Prometheus though, it wasn’t that bad.
Well, again… not necessarily the “Worst” movies (that comes later, LOL). Just most disappointing. So, even though Prometheus wan’t bad… and it wasnt all that bad, youre right…. it can still be disappointing, because I think most people expected it to be GREAT. 😉
I actually thought Total Recall was good, even better than the original in fact, though I’m in the minority on that opinion (though not entirely alone!).
Kinda surprised at the lack of Dark Knight Rises, given your comments in one of your posts last week.
Wow. No way this new one is better than the original!! Cmon!!
Meanwhile. I just wasnt that psyched for TDKR. I had a feeling going in it wasnt going to be as good as the other two. Unfortunately I was right. Plus, I am trying to have these awards be a blend of my personal choices AND an objective/apply to everyone type decision… and so many people love TDKR that theres no way it would qualify for all even though it did for me personally. 😦
I liked watching Prometheus. But part of the fun was picking apart the problems. It lead to a lot of post-viewing amusement. I had to set aside everything I knew about Dark Shadows and pretend it was totally unrelated to THE Dark Shadows. Once I managed that, I was able to watch it with amusement as an odd comedy. Cusack is ALWAYS hit or miss. He either does an amazing job or totally sucks. I didn’t have any high hopes for the fourth Bourne movie. So I’m voting Total Recall. Yes, the original on is campy by today’s standards. But at the time it was released it didn’t seem that way at all. So there should have been so much potential for a movie that could have surpassed the original.. It’s like the producers and director decided to channel all their energies into how the movie looked and to hell with the acting and the writing.
Well, as fun as that is about Prometheus, it doesnt really support an argument against it being disappointing, does it? LOL… I had fun picking on it? 😀
Thankfully I wasn’t attached to the original Dark Shadows, but even with no attachment, it fell flat for me 😦 You’re spot on about Cusack, unfortunately. And its been awhile since Ive seen him get a legitimate hit. Runaway Jury comes to mind, has it been that long?
Meanwhile, you’re spot on on Total Recall. Its as if they think that CGI will make us forget movie basics… They had some terrible stuff going on there, some serious flaws. 😦 VERY disappointing.