High Hopes, Low Reality

[Mandon Knight]

Which film (any film) has disappointed you more than any other when you came to watch it for the first time. Could be any reason as to why you were buzzing beforehand and your happiness crushed 2-3 hours later.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Batman & Robin. Loathed it as I was watching it in the cinema, loathed it ever since.

 

[Iceman]

The Phantom Menace
The Matrix Revolutions

 

[famicommander]

The Matrix Reloaded - The first one was so great. The next two were incoherent, boring, sloppy, ugly messes.

Terminator 3 - It's hard to put myself back in the frame of mind of being excited for a Terminator film after 3, Salvation, Genisys, and Dark Fate but when 3 came out, all we had to look back on were the incredible first two films in the series. And then we got a horrible movie with a dull lead and barely any Arnold.

Batman Forever - Schumaker tried to marry Burton's Batman to Adam West's and failed in every aspect. I was like 5 when my dad took me to see this and even then I knew it sucked. I wasn't disappointed by Batman and Robin because I knew without a doubt it was gonna suck. Came in prepared.

Batman Begins - I was happy Schumaker was gone and this film is way better than Batman and Robin or Batman Forever, but I still don't like it. Ridiculously bad action sequences, Batman sounds like Cookie Monster, it wastes Scarecrow, and I don't like Ra's tying into the backstory or Batman's rationalizing letting Ra's die. Unfortunately Burton Batman, Nolan Batman, and Snyder Batman are all murderers, but Nolan's is preachy and hypocritical about it. At least Affleck/Keaton don't stand around moralizing about not killing while they're, you know, killing. I hope Pattinson/Reeves deliver a truly authentic Batman this time.

Man of Steel - Needs a good 25 minutes of filler chopped out of it. The Pa Kent tornado scene is so dumb. Cool fight sequences at least. Still better than Superman III, IV, or Returns.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - I very much enjoyed the Godzilla reboot and Kong: Skull Island. I was all hyped for the Monsterverse. And then we got this mess of a film. Hard to get excited for Godzilla vs Kong now.

I liked Phantom Menace but I was a kid at the time and Darth Maul was super rad.

Thankfully I'm too young to remember the release of Alien 3, being 2 years old at the time. And Rocky V. I love the other 7 Rocky/Creed films but V is so bad.

 

[flickchick85]

Man of Steel. I have no idea why I let my hopes get so high, considering Snyder had never made a movie I liked, but I let that glorious Trailer 3 and Zimmer’s music, plus my enthusiasm for Cavill’s casting and the appearance of a Birthright-like story, convince me this was the modern Superman I’d been waiting for. Even coming out of it I was in this weirdly optimistic “they’ll make it better in the sequel” state of denial for a bit, so the sense of absolute crushing disappointment came later.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I was 13 when Jurassic Park came out and it completely blew my mind. I was obssessed wth that movie and dinosaurs in general. I read the book and watched the film more times than I could remember. I would go to different traveling dinosaur expeditions. Go to different museums. Would go to Universal Studios where they had different props and costumes from the movie (at the time they were located in the original park across from Mel's Drive-In).

Then the sequel, which I was so hyped for. The book was a disappointment, but Steven Spielberg was coming back! He never screwed up! This wasn't going to be the Jaws sequels that didn't have him! Yeah... I can watch it as a goofy popcorn flick, and I do really like Pete Postlethwaite in it, but it wasn't anywhere close to the original.

It doesn't really happen anymore. After The Phantom Menace was a similar disappointment I no longer have such blind faith that films will simply be amazing. I can get hyped, but I don't get as emotional about it as I did when I was younger.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Man of Steel. I have no idea why I let my hopes get so high, considering Snyder had never made a movie I liked, but I let that glorious Trailer 3 and Zimmer’s music, plus my enthusiasm for Cavill’s casting and the appearance of a Birthright-like story, convince me this was the modern Superman I’d been waiting for. Even coming out of it I was in this weirdly optimistic “they’ll make it better in the sequel” state of denial for a bit, so the sense of absolute crushing disappointment came later.

Those trailer were just so good. Our Superman loving hearts just had to hope. Even as it was a fool's hope. I knew I didn't like Snyder, but I couldn't help it. And I was right there with you post film, the sequel will make it all work! Damn.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I was 13 when Jurassic Park came out and it completely blew my mind. I was obssessed wth that movie and dinosaurs in general. I read the book and watched the film more times than I could remember. I would go to different traveling dinosaur expeditions. Go to different museums. Would go to Universal Studios where they had different props and costumes from the movie (at the time they were located in the original park across from Mel's Drive-In).

Then the sequel, which I was so hyped for. The book was a disappointment, but Steven Spielberg was coming back! He never screwed up! This wasn't going to be the Jaws sequels that didn't have him! Yeah... I can watch it as a goofy popcorn flick, and I do really like Pete Postlethwaite in it, but it wasn't anywhere close to the original.

It doesn't really happen anymore. After The Phantom Menace was a similar disappointment I no longer have such blind faith that films will simply be amazing. I can get hyped, but I don't get as emotional about it as I did when I was younger.

I was young enough that when the PT came out, the first two movies were like my favorite thing in the world when they were released. It wasn't until RotS that I understood the disappointment involved, and it did stretch back.

 

[Web-Head]

One that comes to mind right away is The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I didn't really follow anything when it came to The Amazing Spider-Man, but when I saw it in theaters, I absolutely loved it and couldn't wait for the sequel! After that I followed any information about the sequel I could, watching different YouTube videos about it, etc. Only to come out of that theater on a Sunday afternoon disappointed. Maybe I paid too close attention to everything when it came to the movie, but even then.

I did enjoy it a little bit more once I watched it a second time at home and Garfield is still my favorite Peter Parker/Spidey and it still has its moments, the fight in Times Square, the suit, but it was a letdown.

I would say The Last Jedi as well since I loved and still love, The Force Awakens, but coming out of the theater I didn't mind TLJ all that much. Liked it, but not as much as Force Awakens. It wasn't until afterwards I started to think about and realize all of the flaws. I finally rewatched it last year prior to The Rise of Skywalker and I liked TLJ even less than I thought.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The Force Awakens was the disappointment to me. I wasn't able to see it opening weekend due to being busy around the holidays, so when I did see it the week after Christmas after hearing endless praise for it from everybody, I was just like that's it? It is a just a safe rehash of the original Star Wars from 1977.

The Last Jedi was the opposite. I was expecting more of the same, but ended up enjoying it a lot more than that. I think it is far and away the best film of the Sequel Trilogy.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I am trying to come up with some movies, because my surprise usually comes the opposite way. Where something really blows me away, and I end up loving it. If something ends up disappointing me, it usually comes a bit later. Like TLJ was something I thought I rather loved for like 2 weeks, until it hit me. Same with Rogue One a bit, though I came out more lukewarm with that one. MoS it lasted like 3 years.

- Big Hero 6 really disappointed me. I expected to love that one and it reviewed rather well. But I really don't like it.

- The second King's Man. That's one I thought I was going to adore, but it let me down big time. Pedro Pascal was pretty fun in it though.

- The Conjuring is a movie I enjoyed, but considering I was expecting it to be the next great horror flick, it didn't work for me all that well. For the life of me I don't understand the love for it, especially when I see it favorably compared to the sequel which I believe is firmly deserving of all it's praise and more.

- Halloween 2018, I let myself get hyped up for a bit. That didn't really work out, but it wasn't awful or anything. Just kind of there.

- Trick 'r Treat. I heard so much about that one, and I thought it was straight trash outside of the kids on the bus storyline.

- GotG vol. 2 I was tempered a bit from the reviews, but I still thought I might love it. That didn't really work out.

- The Shape of Water. I love GDT. I loved all his movies until that one. But that one just doesn't work for me.

 

[Schlosser85]

Those trailer were just so good. Our Superman loving hearts just had to hope. Even as it was a fool's hope. I knew I didn't like Snyder, but I couldn't help it. And I was right there with you post film, the sequel will make it all work! Damn.

That trailer was so deceptively epic. Lol

 

[Schlosser85]

I am trying to come up with some movies, because my surprise usually comes the opposite way. Where something really blows me away, and I end up loving it. If something ends up disappointing me, it usually comes a bit later. Like TLJ was something I thought I rather loved for like 2 weeks, until it hit me. Same with Rogue One a bit, though I came out more lukewarm with that one. MoS it lasted like 3 years.

- Big Hero 6 really disappointed me. I expected to love that one and it reviewed rather well. But I really don't like it.

- The second King's Man. That's one I thought I was going to adore, but it let me down big time. Pedro Pascal was pretty fun in it though.

- The Conjuring is a movie I enjoyed, but considering I was expecting it to be the next great horror flick, it didn't work for me all that well. For the life of me I don't understand the love for it, especially when I see it favorably compared to the sequel which I believe is firmly deserving of all it's praise and more.

- Halloween 2018, I let myself get hyped up for a bit. That didn't really work out, but it wasn't awful or anything. Just kind of there.

- Trick 'r Treat. I heard so much about that one, and I thought it was straight trash outside of the kids on the bus storyline.

- GotG vol. 2 I was tempered a bit from the reviews, but I still thought I might love it. That didn't really work out.

- The Shape of Water. I love GDT. I loved all his movies until that one. But that one just doesn't work for me.

- I really don’t like TLJ. Rogue One is probably my favorite of the new SW movies.

- Haven’t seen Big Hero 6.

- I enjoyed Kingsman but never bothered watching the second one and heard I didn’t miss much.

- The Conjuring isn’t my kind of thing, but it was okay. I was basically forced into it on movie night.

- I like Halloween 2018 a lot and think it’s by far the best Halloween sequel.

- Never saw Trick’r’Treat.

- I moderately enjoyed GOTG2 but I thought the first one felt a lot more energetic and fresher.

- I.....like The Shape of Water, but I didn’t love it. Del Toro leaves me a bit cold.

 

[Neil McCauley]

GOTG - it was straight up garbage, hated the villain and jokes and the movie has nothing interesting between action, themes or plot.

Fight Club - I had too much expectations and liked it but not much. Haven’t seen since years.

Justice League - it was straight up disappointing and Steppenwolf was bad.

Matrix Revolutions - I don’t care what people say but I enjoyed the second, it's a solid and good action film. The third is just machines and outdated effects so I hated it.