The Most Disappointing Films of 2016

Well 2016 is coming to an end with just over a month left and what an eventful year it's been for cinema. Over the past 11 months we've seen a variety of fantastic films ranging from all genres and in the following month we are sure to see some more. However, this post is not about my favourite films of 2016, that post will come later in the year (after Rogue One probably), no this post is about the films this year that left me feeling a bit disappointed. Yes those films who raised my expectations with their clever advertising but ultimately did not live up to the hype, there have been quite a few of them this year, a lot of them superhero films, and I feel the need to express how I feel about these let downs. This is not my list of the worst films of 2016, these films aren't necessarily bad and I'm sure some people did really enjoy them, it's simply a couple of films that just didn't really do it for me. Also potential spoiler warning if you haven't seen some of the films on this list. In no particular order:

X-Men: Apocalypse

Ah the X-Men franchise, it's first two entries were so fantastic before being bogged down by the likes of The Last Stand and Origins. Then Matthew Vaughn came in and saved the franchise again with his prequel First Class before Bryan Singer connected both timelines with Days of Future Past. Then came Apocalypse, a film that had so much to live up to but ultimately fell flat. What should have been the X-Men's most epic adventure yet was, in fact, a familiar story with a messy plot and an overload of characters. Even the films baddie Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) does very little to leave a lasting impression. The films story ticks off the usual X-Men film tropes, Xavier gets taken by the villain, his relationship with Magneto is on/off, Wolverine eventually shows up (in the most shoehorned Wolverine appearance ever), and the film in general just feels really predictable. Not to mention the fact that after fixing the timelines in the previous films they are even more jumbled up now and James McAvoy still hasn't made the transition into Patrick Stewart. Don't even get me started on Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. I feel like this film could have done so much good, it could have given us a fantastic antagonist, an engaging story and further linked it to the original trilogy, unfortunately it does none of those things. On the plus side however, the Quicksilver scene manages to top that of Days of Future Past which is in itself quite an achievement.

31

Okay so Rob Zombies films aren't always very well-received which is understandable, he makes the films that he wants and doesn't try too hard to appeal to the masses. Despite this I usually enjoy his films (apart from Halloween 2) and was really looking forward to his most recent effort 31, a film that follows a group of carnival workers who are kidnapped and forced to play a game of survival against a troupe of killer clowns. The film looked gritty and relentless, something that Zombie does best, it also boasted a talented cast including Meg Foster, Richard Brake and Malcolm McDowell. However, the film didn't really bring anything new to the table and its tone often felt very muddled. Sometimes it felt like it was trying to be tongue in cheek with its zany characters and settings, yet other times the relentless violence and characters actions gave me the impression that Zombie was trying to do something more serious. It failed to maintain a consistent tone which was a shame because it is certainly one of Zombies more visually striking films. The violence wasn't anything out of the ordinary and not nearly as graphic as other Zombie films such as The Devil's Rejects, and while Richard Break gave a phenomenal performance as the sadistic Doom Head, none of the other characters really left a lasting impression. It looked as if it would be a zany, off the wall piece of exploitation but ultimately it was your usual recycled tropes with some cool visuals and a thin plot.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

I'm not afraid to say that I enjoyed Dawn of Justice, Affleck was an incredible Batman and its visual style was certainly captivating, I simply didn't enjoy it to the extent that I wanted to. A live action blockbuster with both Batman and Superman should be something epic, something that goes down in cinematic history, but this wasn't exactly how I expected it. A large portion of the films first act feels like one giant montage, the scenes are incredibly short and jump from one to another without really getting a chance to play out. Just when we find ourselves getting immersed in one scene it cuts to the next without letting us really engage with it in the way we'd like to. On top of that, for a while it doesn't really seem like it's going anywhere and lacks that sense of direction that we're used to with these kind of films. I felt as though the writers were trying to cram way too much into the film, they needed to establish Batman while following up to Man of Steel while establishing Wonder Woman while establishing Lex Luthor while shoehorning in Justice League cameos, it goes on. At times it feels like the film was doing this in an attempt to catch up with the Marvel Cinematic Universes 8 years of world building. It has some great qualities without a doubt, and I still haven't seen the extended (and supposedly improved) version, but I don't know, I was expecting something much less messy. Still, its tone and some of its characters have my hopes high for future DC films, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

The Girl on the Train

Gone Girl was undoubtedly one of the best films of 2014, so when this film was described as 'the next Gone Girl' I was obviously excited to see it. What I was expecting was a suspense thriller with as much mystery as it had tension, what I got was a suspense thriller without the suspense. Don't get me wrong, the story is captivating and the identity of Megan's killer was a surprise to me, however the gradual build up just didn't feel tense at all. There was no point during the film where I felt on the edge of my seat or my heart racing rapidly, I was just sort of sat there waiting for things to get a move on and at times I genuinely felt bored. The editing was another thing that irritated me about the film, it alternates between a couple of different narratives which could have been executed really well, however the whole thing just feels like it was thrown together at random in an attempt to present a non-linear narrative. To be fair it was a really intriguing mystery story and Emily Blunt was incredible as the protagonist Rachel, not to mention that beautiful up state New York setting. But the story felt too sluggish most of the time and apart from Rachel, I was never really invested in any of the characters to the extent that I would have wanted to be. It's a bit of a paradox as although the film felt slow and dull, it simultaneously felt very rushed and didn't really give much time to development. It had potential, lots of it, but unfortunately it just didn't embrace that potential.

Captain America: Civil War

Civil War is one of my favourite storylines from the Marvel universe so when I heard the story was being worked into the new Captain America film I was ecstatic. I was expecting this to be Marvel's biggest and bestest film yet, and while it does have a huge scale I felt like it was just lacking something. 'But Marvel can do no wrong' I hear you yell, it's not what they're doing wrong it's just simply what they're not doing. The whole film just felt really bland and forgettable, it should have left me feeling like 'wow' but instead left me feeling like 'meh'. It was typical Marvel playing things safe yet again and not really going into new, more exciting territory. Sure Tom Holland's Spider-Man was a brilliant addition to the MCU and to be fair each character is given a considerable amount of attention, but despite the large scale and numerous characters nothing about this really felt fresh. Even Tony Stark's wisecracks have just become worn out and annoying. It just feels like the same Marvel team up we got in both Avengers films when it should have been a fresh, universe changing event the way it was in the comics. To be blunt, somebody should have died for god's sake, and I don't mean Starks parents I mean Captain America himself or maybe Rhodey seeing as he got shot down during the airport scene. I will give it to the film, it balances out its characters nicely and continues to build the ever expanding MCU, but would it kill the people at Marvel to try something a bit less predictable? Still, it's not nearly as bad as Iron Man 3 but we don't talk about that.

Nocturnal Animals

I had heard a lot about this films after it screened at festivals and such and I found the premise really interesting, the whole idea of the story within a story intrigued me and I could not wait to see this film. Basically what happens is that Susan (Amy Adams) receives a book from her ex-husband played by Jake Gyllenhaal and the film jumps back and forward from her narrative to that of the book. The story within a story, also entitled Nocturnal Animals, follows a man named Tony (also played by Gyllenhaal) who hunts down the men who killed his family with the help of a detective played by Michael Shannon. The events that occur within the book take up the majority of the film, it's a gritty revenge tale set in the Texas backroads, meanwhile in the 'real world' we learn about Susan's past relationship with her ex-husband. I really enjoyed this film when I was watching it, especially the story within a story, but what made it so underwhelming for me was what was happening in the 'real' world. Susan's story, while it does raise some questions, is pretty dull to say the least and never really amounts to anything. I was invested in her story for the most part but by the time the film came to an end the whole thing felt extremely anticlimactic, it spent so much time building up to nothing. The story within a story is fantastic, well-paced, well-shot and highly captivating to say the least. While the other story is relentlessly stylish, it lacks the sufficient substance to balance it out. Now I get the ending is meant to be symbolic or whatever but I didn't really feel like it worked, I just felt let down. The performances are incredibly all round and director Tom Ford injects incredible style into his film, but the payoff just feels highly underwhelming which is a real shame considering how well-crafted the film was.

Suicide Squad

As a huge DC fan and after Dawn of Justice didn't do so well I had really high hopes for this film. While I was initially skeptical due to the tattooed Joker and the soundtrack pulled straight from the radio of Hot Topic, I pushed these worries aside and assured myself that the film would be just fine. Long story short, it wasn't great. I tried to like this film at first, I tried to be fair and look at its good aspects but the more I reflect on it the more I realise that the bad outweighs the good here. The first act feels downright messy, cutting from one characters flashback to the next characters flashback while fitting in as much songs as it could in the process. It spends a good portion of the film merely setting thing up and while the tone is quite fun, it just feels a bit too sloppy. It does pick up in the middle but falls flat in the climax that's essentially the same thing we've been seeing in almost every recent superhero film: a giant bloody beam shooting into the bloody sky. How many times do we have to see the bad guy shoot a beam into the sky? Too many apparently. The cast is pretty impressive to be fair, especially Will Smith and Margot Robbie who arguably get the most screentime. Jared Leto isn't a terrible Joker and does the best with what he has, but after all that Joker hype he never really does anything to leave a lasting impression and gets about 15 minutes screentime in a 123 minute film. The films villain played by Cara Delevingne is criminally underdeveloped and her goals are extremely vague, does anyone really know why she shot that beam into the sky? She makes most of the MCU villains look like Hans Landa. I wanted so bad for this film to be good, for it to redeem the mistakes of Dawn of Justice and give fans faith in the DC Extended Universe, but it didn't. It was even more sloppy and uneven than its predecessor and while it did inject some humour to the DCEU, that simply wasn't enough to save Suicide Squad. Although if one good thing came out of this it's that Jai Courtney actually gave a great performance, that's right, the man who reduced Kyle Reese to a dull shell of his former self gives one of the stand out performances in this film.

Stay tuned over the next month because I'll be talking about my favourite tv shows of 2016 and my favourite films of 2016, until next time!