10 Most Disappointing Films from 2018

Every year has its bad eggs. Usually its the giant blockbuster trying to get multiple audiences, and thus being incoherent and overstuffed for no reason. Other times it can be an independent film that is interesting and playing with visual meanings, but ultimately doesn't hold your attention nor patience. And then you have the straight to DVD/Streaming movies where you tell yourself, "Sure, it'll be crappy but whatever. I'll make an evening out of it," and then you realize how much of a mistake that was. So, instead of being a full list of crapping on movies here are my top ten movies that I genuinely was excited and expected to like even if a little, and was let down in the biggest of ways.

10. Deadpool 2

The first Deadpool was fun, raunchy, and took full advantage of the R-rated superhero movie format. It's existence shook moviegoers and opened up new avenues that studios were otherwise closed off towards. So, naturally a sequel would come, and it probably wouldn't have been as good as the first, but what we got severely disappointed me and at times made me angry. The two biggest parts that confounded me actually had to do with how the women from the first film were portrayed. Wade's entire character arc in the first movie was to get his girlfriend back. A sweet romance, but the payoff was to have them come together. So, what does Deadpool 2 do in its opening scene? Kill her off. Made her death his motivation, and then by the end (oh yeah I'm spoiling stuff :P) he "resurrects" her and it's back to square one.

The other character that gets the short end of the stick in this installment in my eyes was Negasonic Teenage Warhead. She was one of the highlights from the first movie, and to see her take a backseat this time around hurt. Not only that, but she came out as gay, which I will give the film credit for doing it fairly well, but it doesn't seem like they knew what to do with that. The way she told Wade about her girlfriend was very straightforward and felt natural for her character, but the film does nothing with this after the fact. She's barely in the movie, has a scene where she's clearly open about herself, and yet every time the film cuts back to her it's to continue a running joke between Wade and Yukio (Negasonic's girlfriend). Amid the average action, nods to the first film, and every other sequel-itis symptom found here it just crushed me and left me with disappointment with what this installment did to those two characters.

9. Escape Plan: Hades

The sequel to the Schwarzenegger/Stallone team up movie about breaking out of a prison. It didn't make that many waves but it was entertaining, so I was curious what a sequel would look like...and boy howdy that's...it's....something. A straight to DVD release should have been the first red flag, but you know what? Sometimes those movies are fun to watch, and with that mindset going in I was not expecting an intensely seriously movie where Stallone is more of a background character and the prison feels like it belongs in the future, and...okay, it's only 90-ish minutes but I have no idea what happened by the end. I lost interest in it a third of the way through and nearly fell asleep. The action wasn't great, and the character arcs weren't nearly as fine as they should have been for a straight to DVD release. If you ever need a drunk movie night this very well may be it.

8. Robin Hood

There have been many adaptations about the green tight wonder. None, however, have perplexed me to this degree. In this version, Robin Hood is set in the past, but everything else about this film is modern. They have covert black ops maneuvers with bows and arrows, machine gun arrows, modern lingo, and old fashioned clothes that have a modern look such as metal plates that take the shape of bullet proof vests. This film is absolutely bonkers in what it wants to do that it doesn't know what to be. There are a few interesting ideas here like Jamie Foxx's character to Robin, but the few and far between interesting bits are flooded by inane scenes where characters are being too serious, too stupid, stating the obvious, creating a big budget third act that doesn't fit Robin Hood, and leave you with the highest of eye rolling endings setting up a sequel.

Read my review HERE

7. Annihilation

Alex Garland is a fantastic director and writer. His previous works on Ex Machina and Dredd are nothing short of brilliant. So, one could imagine that his latest science fiction feature would tantalize and make me giddy with how hyped up the critics were about it, but alas there is always that one film that you cannot agree with. Annihilation is a beautiful film, and I completely understand why everybody is loving this, but for me it came off as slow and boring. The themes it was working with didn't come to me until after the showing and thus I was completely confused for most of it. I did like a certain scene in the third act when they finally do get to the tree, but by then it was too late. Other than that and everybody's favorite scream-bear, the film felt like a dud for me, leaving me bored and unengaged. I will give this another shot at some point, but not for a while.

6. Ralph Breaks the Internet

The first Ralph was a surprise. A sweet, delightful, story with a few twists. Naturally everybody wanted a sequel to this, and we can now say that we did. Sigh. Ralph Breaks the Internet is not necessarily a bad film, it works and will be great for kids, but there is nothing new in it other than internet gags. It tries to give Vanellope character development by having her infatuated with an online post apocalyptic GTA type of game, but it only felt like it was retreading on her arc from the first film. Same with Ralph, and the only interesting aspect about the characters this time around were when Felix and Calhoun adopted a bunch of kids. The action and character motivations were bland, and even though it's mean to say I do wonder just how passionate the story writers were on this compared to the first one. Like I said, this'll play well with kids, but for a sequel to a surprisingly unique film to be this generic and at times lazy just made me feel deflated in the end.

5. They Shall Not Grow Old

Okay, before getting into specifics on this one let me just say that this is a totally fine film. The restoration, color, and 3D technological difficulties they had to overcome with this footage is incredible. I am not talking about the behind the scenes of how this movie and footage got put together, but what came after. At the end of the special fathom event showing Peter Jackson came on screen to talk about how they put it together. And while I wasn't enthusiastic on what I just watched I was impressed by what they had to do...until I heard Jackson talk about the other footage he could have made into a movie. That footage had women back home in England doing the work while the men went to war. It showed never seen footage where women were important and taking on tasks where they otherwise wouldn't have had a chance at. Then there was footage about the Indian army under British rule joining the fight.

I was stunned, shocked, and felt a little cheated when I heard that. The aesthetic that Jackson was trying to create was admirable. The fact that he wanted the audience to experience the war in a different way from other documentaries is commendable, but what we got was yet another documentary on the great war about how war is bad, it's brutal, and savage, and inhospitable. The footage and technological advancements were what got me through the film, not the story or the men. If, however, he did do a documentary on the women or the Indian army it wold have been a whole other story. As someone who doesn't know that much history I would have loved to see those stories told, and to learn from their perspectives. It would have been so much more interesting and investing than the same old white guys going to war story we've been told our whole lives.

Read my review HERE

4. Puzzle

After six months I'm still frustrated over this film. What sounded like a perfectly charming story about a stay at home mother finding herself again through the competition of puzzling turned out to be anything but. I sent a very lengthy email to somebody on my feelings about this film, so to help me capture my thoughts here's an excerpt from it:

"Now based on the trailer I expected this movie to be primarily about Puzzles. I was under the impression that it was about a house wife with no social life that found (pardon the pun) peace with the calming activity. As a puzzle enthusiast I was beyond excited to see how they portrayed such a solitary task, and then expand it with the team tournament. They could have gone many routes with how puzzles themselves are allegories to life. Or to help build confidence, which they sort of touched on. Or even coming to terms with a puzzle she couldn't complete, taking from it a life lesson about un-achievable goals. But no. All the puzzling was in the trailer...ALL OF IT! Okay, so that's a bit of an over reaction from me, but I did expect the movie to be about more than the actual completion of puzzles...I just didn't expect that the movie was literally about anything but puzzles with the puzzles being a backdrop, heck not even a backdrop, for Agnes' mid life crisis storyline. Further frustrations come with how the main character, Agnes, has no problems with puzzles. She's supernaturally gifted with the power of never making a mistake when puzzling. Seriously, she looks at each piece and fits it correctly with its pair on the first try every time. And the reason? Math. Sigh. Math."

The letter goes on to talk about how this movie is mostly about about how to be a good Christian, their family dynamic, and many many sighs and face palms. I literally can't go any further without writing a dissertation on my feelings and thoughts are about this film, so if anybody wants to talk to me about Puzzle please at me on twitter at Manimeconquest.

3. Sicario: Day of the Soldado

I loved the first one. With a team that had Denis Villeneuve, Taylor Sheridan, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Roger Deakins among Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro it's hard not to love it. This film did not have Villeneuve and Deakins return, which is sad since they were what elevated the first film. Instead of the atmospheric metaphor crushing down on you from Brolin and Del Toro with their menacing performances as "bad" guys, this sequel strips all that subtext away and makes them the heroes as they go after racial stereotypes across the border. It didn't help the film that it faced eerily similar situations before and after its release in the news and media. This movie is not fun, nor serious for a reason, it doesn't continue what the first film was trying to say, and the cautionary tale was turned into a yee-haw type of hero story that is upsetting.

2. 15:17 to Paris

Okay, everybody loves Clint Eastwood. Personally I'm not much of a fan. I've seen a few of his movies, but it feels like he speaks to a certain generation and that generation is not mine. However, as a director he makes interesting choices. I have never heard of this story before, and the fact that he was going to use the actual people who were in it as actors to play themselves...well color me intrigued. What I did not expect was not only were they...lets say not great actors, but that the whole story could have been a thirty minute special on TV. There is so much padding that it made this 94 minute film feel like a three hour epic of nothing. From them being kids to the infamous ice cream scene, this movie felt like it was on autopilot until it got to the train assault and then it became interesting, for the next five minutes because that train assault is barely in this.

1. Ready Player One

I have only enjoyed one film by Spielberg post 2000. Every other one I've seen were either not interesting, or not for me. Films like Warhorse, Minority Report, Lincoln, and BFG are all well crafted, but for whatever reason I cannot get into any of the modern Spielberg films. This ode to 80s, and many Spielberg properties, was the one film by him I was completely looking forward to because it promised a return to blockbuster form for the master...and I did not feel that. What I saw was a director out of his element, and many if not all of you will disagree with me, and that's okay, but Spielberg has grown as a director and moved onto more interesting films for himself. In RPO I saw a confusing race, thinly veiled clues, a dark aesthetic over all the CGI to save money, strange character design choices, boring reveals, and the most yawn induced action I have had to suffer through in a while. I can talk for days on how many aspects don't reflect the video game world and don't make sense for it. I don't want to do that, so I'll just leave you with this: Ready Player One is my most disappointing film of 2018 because it had everything going for it and it left me with nothing.

So, now that I got that off my chest why not tell me yours? What films were so disappointing to you from 2018?