15 of the all-time biggest summer movie letdowns
Find out which blockbusters disappointed us the most
We've all experienced it --walking out of the big summer blockbuster, that you've waited years -- or even decades -- to see, with the feeling of soul-crushing disappointment. Maybe it was overhyped in the marketing phase; maybe your expectations were impossibly high; or maybe it was just a bad movie. We've narrowed down the list to 15 of the biggest letdowns in the history of summer blockbusters. Do you agree or disagree with our choices? What did we miss?
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June 24, 2012 at 6:17AM EST Reply to Commentwhat an awful list. all time? really? i want my 2 minutes back please
Mike agreed
June 24, 2012 at 6:32AM ESTBryant Burnette
June 24, 2012 at 6:51AM EST Reply to CommentNo "X-Men: The Last Stand"? No "Wolverine"? No "Star Trek V"? No "Jurassic Park 3"? No "Green Lantern"? No "Superman III"?
Those are just a few off the top of my head that would be WAY better than choices than, say, "Cars." I don't get the hate for that; I really don't. Hell, I'll take even "Cars 2" over most of the garbage Pixar's supposed competitors shovel out their doors (an occasional gem like "How to Train Your Dragon" excepted). And it's not even close.
Gavin Who the hell had any expectations for X-men 3, Star trek 5, Wolverine or Superman 3?. You are just randonly picking films that no one really cared for.
June 24, 2012 at 8:50AM ESTBob Gavin, I wasn't alive then, but I assume people had high expectations for Star Trek V because the even/odd rule hadn't really been established yet, and Star Trek IV was pretty popular. X-Men 3 had high expectations because 1 and 2 were pretty good. Superman 3 must have had high expectations because Superman 1 and 2 are awesome.
June 24, 2012 at 10:09AM ESTMike I think people are too willing to bash Cars 1. It's my third-least favorite Pixar (Cars 2 was my least favorite; Bug's Life in between), but it's still better than 90% of the other animated movies of the past decade. The article mentions it being a commercial disappointment, but I believe it's Pixar's best merchandising success (hence the sequel).
June 24, 2012 at 4:01PM ESTShaun @ Gavin: Given that X-Men and X2 both did very well AND were generally acclaimed (esp. true of X2), I think it's safe to say that X3 was a huge disappointment. It still made money, but pretty much no one was happy with that movie. Likewise, Wolverine probably had at least a few people excited but what a dud that was too.
June 25, 2012 at 10:47AM ESTAs for Star Trek V... The previous entry (IV - The Voyage Home)was the biggest hit of the Trek movie series at that point and while it probably seems dated to some now (duh, they went back to 1986) that was also a highly acclaimed, highly beloved movie. Also, the Next Generation had been on TV for two seasons and that show was steadily getting better, so yeah... Expectations were high (at least for me) back in 1989. Unfortunately, it was (in most people's eyes) a huge letdown and it's definitely worthy of inclusion here.
Shaun @Bryant: I wouldn't include Green Lantern, mostly because I don't think many people were expecting much out of that movie to begin with. No letdown there!
June 25, 2012 at 10:59AM ESTFrom the first reveal that Reyonlds had been cast, to the first pics of that terrible costume, to that awful first trailer, a lot of us expected it to suck.
I waited for the DVD, and even then only checked it out from my local library. So glad I didn't waste any money on that crap.
ChuckRivers @Bryant: Jurassic Park 3 shouldn't be on your list because JP2 had already lowered the quality bar.
August 8, 2012 at 12:52PM ESTThat Werewolf Guy
June 24, 2012 at 8:07AM EST Reply to CommentGhostbusters 2? Really? It may have some similar story beats as part 1 and the villain is pretty lame, but I enjoy it as much as part 1. (And Peter MacNicol kills it!)
And people finally have to get over CRYSTAL SKULL, which was all in all far superior than the lame father/son sitcom that was LAST CRUSADE. (In fact, I would say the biggest flaw that CRYSTAL SKULL has, is that it was made in a time when every movie is the "worst film ever".)
Max I disagree that CRYSTAL SKULL was better than LAST CRUSADE, but that doesn't mean LAST CRUSADE wasn't pretty frickin' bad. There were some nice moments, but overall a lot of the relationship stuff was full-on hammy. And the terrible opening with River Phoenix...let's take a much-loved character and show how he got every single identifiable trait over the course of one afternoon. Ugh.
June 24, 2012 at 3:05PM ESTChuckRivers One of the great things about (until recently) Harrison Ford is his willingness to really allow himself get roughed up for the sake of a realistic looking fight scene. CRYSTAL SKULL had NONE of that.
August 8, 2012 at 12:59PM ESTIt's fine if there was something in CS that spoke to you, and it's understandable if there's something about LC that turned you off, but you are probably one of maybe 100 or less people on the ENTIRE planet that thinks that BOTH CS wasn't bad, AND that it's superior to LC. To each his own.
I thought GB2 was fun too... I still quote Peter MacNicol's character from time to time. :D It's no GB1, but it has enough moments that I don't mind watching it.
sangs
June 24, 2012 at 8:11AM EST Reply to CommentUmm, ever hear of Ishtar?
dan Sangs- "Ishtar" arrived in theaters after years of negative publicity dating through every piece of its pre-production and production. When it arrived and tanked, nobody was let down in the slightest, because it had no expectations other than disaster...
June 24, 2012 at 1:59PM ESTIMO.
-Daniel
andyt
June 24, 2012 at 8:38AM EST Reply to CommentWhile some of your selections seem to be driven by your own biases not other facts, you are right on about "Godzilla" which was a terrible letdown in almost every facet. Probably the biggest reason is that it is not Godzilla that they made but a remake of the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
And while I am tired of teh Crystal Skull bashing, I am even more tired of the Phantom Menance hate that continues on Internet sites. Do you realize that it is the second highest grossing Star Wars film, oh and everyone that I meet in the "real world" likes the film. But that is because they are just typical professional people and not obsssessed fanboys.
Mike AndyT, I'm not a fanboy by any means, but if everyone you meet in teh real world likes the film, we are in very different social circles. I do meet a few kids under 20 who like it, I assume in the same way I like Saved by the Bell-bad entertainment that was enjoyable if you're 7. Even as a 12-year-old, I knew that Phantom Menace was bad, for all the reasons in their little review here: boring dialogue, awful acting from "Annie," confusing plot, unnecessary subplots, etc.
June 24, 2012 at 10:15AM ESTAnd as for Crystal Skulls, you can't be the son of Harrison Ford and the grandson of Sean Connery and be Shia LaBoeuf. You'd have to be much cooler. Plus, Indy didn't figure out the mystery himself, they just followed the crazy guy. It wasn't awful, but it was unnecessary and as Dan says, I'd rather think of it as a trilogy.
nicole Just because a movie makes money does not mean it's good and everyone I meet in the "real world" hates it. They are also professional people, they just have good taste.
June 24, 2012 at 1:01PM ESTRon
June 24, 2012 at 11:17AM EST Reply to CommentThis list is really really terrible. There are great movies on this list and some that made almost a billion dollars on their own. If I'm Hitfix, I'd fire the tool that put this atrocity of a piece together.
dan Ron - Good thing you're not HitFix, because if you fired the people who put this together, you'd have to spend even more time being HitFix, because you'd have fired a lot of our staff!
June 24, 2012 at 2:00PM ESTI'll go back to being relieved...
-Daniel
Mandrake1979 I wish RON was hitfix then we wouldn't get these crappy articles and then maybe Drew's articles wouldn't keep disappearing from the main page because of terrible lists like this.
June 24, 2012 at 3:51PM ESTKlarkKent
June 24, 2012 at 11:29AM EST Reply to CommentWhile far from perfect, I've never understood the Crystal Skull hate either. I guess it's because the Mummy movies came out in between it and Last Crusade. I agree that people need to also get over Phantom Menace (and the whole prequel trilogy for that matter) since a lot of the reason that people seem to hate them is that they're not the films that they would have made. I love all six of the Star Wars films, but if you're being honest, it's easy to see just as many weird, goofy story beats in the original films. Especially Hope and Jedi. Most of today's kids seem to see them as just one big series and I'm all the happier for them.
Meanwhile, the inclusion of Cars on this list is just ridiculous. Why do people hate that movie so much? I mean, I know Drew has gone on record as just having issues with the whole anthropomorphic car concept that even he can't seem to understand, but on the whole, the people that don't like the movie can't seem to come up with any good reason for it in my experience. Like here; the article doesn't give one reason why the movie should be considered a 'lesser' Pixar film. I'll give you the second one is the weakest of Pixar's stable, in large part because the theme of the movie never gets solidified but bounces between two opposing messages. But that's not an issue with Cars the first. Maybe I'm able to enjoy it as much as I do because I actually grew up in a small town.
Jordo
June 24, 2012 at 12:13PM EST Reply to CommentWhile not as good as the original, I think the two Matrix sequels have gotten better over the years after repeated viewings, especially when watched in succession. They're not perfect, but definitely not as bad as some of the other movies on this list.
JLPatt Exactly. And the action scenes in both are really pretty excellent.
June 24, 2012 at 3:08PM ESTyoungjt80 Reply to comment...
June 25, 2012 at 4:03PM ESTyoungjt80 And who would ever show someone the 2nd film without watching the 1st?
June 25, 2012 at 4:03PM ESTDan
June 24, 2012 at 12:38PM EST Reply to CommentCrystal Skull is at least as good as Temple of Doom. Seriously, re-watch Temple of Doom, it's entertaining but no where near holds up with Raiders or Last Crusade, and a bunch of little Indian kids from an isolated village knowing english is at least as realistic as Shia swinging on vines (not to mention the crazy chase scene on train carts).
dan Dan - The problem is that I wrote that blurb and I love "Temple of Doom." It's a liability. I get that.
June 24, 2012 at 2:01PM ESTMea Culpa...
-Daniel
Han "Temple of Doom" tends to split people. I didn't love it, but I'd still put it above "Crystal Skull" because it didn't feature aliens or Shia Labeouf.
June 24, 2012 at 2:36PM ESTKlarkKent I enjoy them both, but I think they're on about the same level. And in a strange sort of way, I find the fridge scene less ridiculous than falling hundreds of feet from a plane in a liferaft and suffering no ill effects.
June 24, 2012 at 5:34PM ESTPlus, I'll take Mutt over Willie any day of the week.
DefRef
June 24, 2012 at 1:11PM EST Reply to CommentThis is the second article in as many days here where Ellwood has used the word "recon" in place of "retcon." Is there anyone at this site with genre knowledge able to discuss proper terminology with him.
Van Hellsuck (as I call it) was so terrible that even though I had seen it with free passes, I seriously contemplated going to the manager and demanding those two irreplaceable hours of my life back.
Mademoiselle Citronelle
June 24, 2012 at 1:46PM EST Reply to CommentSorry, but a lot of those movies were NOT the most awful of all time. What were you guys smoking? I could type 100 movies a lot worse than those you listed. Terminator wasn't bad, Matrix wasn't bad, Jar jar bings was annoying but Star Wars was still good.
dan Mademoiselle Citronelle - Nobody called them the most awful of all time.
June 24, 2012 at 2:02PM EST-Daniel
Shaun The list never said they were... Just the biggest summer letdowns/disappointments.
June 25, 2012 at 10:54AM ESTSuperman Redux, for instance, has a few decent moments but given the hype, the advertising blitz, the awesome job Nolan did rebooting Batman the year before, and the fact that there hadn't been a Superman movie for 20 years prior, what we got was a HUGE summer letdown.
I won't bother repeating the (many) reasons SR sucked. Suffice it to say it simply wasn't the epic, rebooted, action-packed Superman for the 21st century I was hoping (expecting) to see.
jweezy
June 24, 2012 at 2:36PM EST Reply to CommentI wouldn't call Speed 2 Bullock's biggest blunder as she only agreed to do it to start her production company and then made Hope Floats which helped cement her star power. Doesn't seem like too big of a blunder to me (but yes, it's a shit movie).
Bgklein
June 24, 2012 at 2:55PM EST Reply to CommentA lot of angry comments for a Sunday afternoon opinion article that wasn't supposed to be life changing. I for one enjoyed this list and while I can think of some others to include (Jurassic Park 3...sigh) I wouldn't have given it any thought without Hitfix taking the time to bring up the topic in the first place.
That Werewolf Guy A lot of angry comments for a Sunday afternoon opinion article that wasn't supposed to be life changing.
June 24, 2012 at 4:37PM ESTKlarkKent I would put Lost World on the list far before JP3. The third one was a fun, unpretentious monster movie. The second one was an absolute mess of overlong set-pieces, politically correct pandering and bad scriptwriting. And possibly the worst film I've seen from Spielberg. I walked out of the theater shaking my head over how awful it was.
June 24, 2012 at 5:38PM ESTThat Werewolf Guy Either my previous comment was edited afterwards or there was a huge glitch when I posted it. (I wrote more than just the one quote from BGKlein's post.)
June 25, 2012 at 4:48AM ESTV.
June 24, 2012 at 2:56PM EST Reply to CommentNo 'Prometheus' on that list of disappointments?
V.
June 24, 2012 at 2:59PM EST Reply to CommentNo 'Prometheus' on the list?
JLPatt
June 24, 2012 at 3:06PM EST Reply to CommentUgh... the bashing of "The Matrix" sequels has become such a "cool" thing that people do it even though it's completely unwarranted. "The Matrix Reloaded" is a superb action film, and while maybe not as good as the first, is certainly incredibly entertaining. And I HAVE watched that highway chase scene recently, and it's still jaw-dropping. No idea what you're talking about.
"Cars" is also wonderful, still is. I saw it twice back in the summer of 2006.
Hatfield
June 24, 2012 at 6:52PM EST Reply to CommentIs it wrong that I wish chronic and violent cases of Montezuma's Revenge on many of these commenters?
Rhonda84 Not at all.
June 25, 2012 at 9:51AM ESTOtto Man
June 24, 2012 at 7:44PM EST Reply to CommentHey, is there any chance we could get like 3 or 4 more pop-up ads for the Newsroom on this page? The half dozen that are already clogging the screen just aren't enough. Thanks!
Kip Mooney
June 25, 2012 at 9:56AM EST Reply to CommentWhere's THE HANGOVER, PART II. Surely that should be up there. The first film caught people off guard but the sequel was just a tired retread of everything covered in the first movie, right down to the Ed Helms-cheats-on-his-fiancee with a hooker subplot.
Shaun
June 25, 2012 at 10:41AM EST Reply to CommentCars is pretty terrible, but I don't know that the first one was really worthy of this list. It certainly pleased kids, esp. little boys, well enough. The massive merchandising of that film is what made the sequel happen, and while Cars 2 is (unsurprisingly) apparently even worse than the first, and was fairly disappointing at the box office, it's kept toy/t-shirt/lunchbox/etc. sales alive. It's certainly a dependable moneymaker for Disney.
Of course, given the boom of superhero movies, it's very surprising that The Incredibles 2 hasn't even hit the planning stages yet. I only want them to make it if it's as agood a story as the first one, but given the many possibilities that The Incredibles holds I can't imagine that would be a problem. I've loved everything Pixar has done (including Brave, which I just saw this weekend) with the exception of Cars.
mdk
June 25, 2012 at 12:49PM EST Reply to CommentNice list. Too bad I can't read anything about it because of the #%$%ing Newsroom ad that appears RIGHT OVER THE TEXT!!!
Jeff
June 25, 2012 at 2:46PM EST Reply to CommentThe mix was so seductive that U2 provided the title track - "Elevation" - and shot a music video tie-in for it (something they had never done before or since).
Pablo
August 16, 2012 at 12:21AM EST Reply to CommentTomb Raider movie a big letdown? No, I actually liked the Tomb Raider movies. All the rest of these movies on this list especially Star Wars Episode 1, Indy 4, Godzilla, Terminator 4, and Superman Returns were the biggest letdowns of all time. And who thought the Tomb Raider movies were going to be the best movies ever? They were good, at best!