Summary
- Some movies, despite having a solid premise, suffer from mediocrity, ultimately making them forgettable.
- Films like Venom: Let There Be Carnage can lose track of their own plot and ruin potentially interesting villains with single-minded goals.
- Red Notice, despite its all-star cast, offers nothing more than action sequences and jokes, resulting in an instantly forgettable film.
There is no worse cinematic experience than watching a truly mid-movie, not great, but also not terrible. Watching a bad movie at least delivers some sensation and emotional response that makes the film stand out and be memorable in places. Likewise, a great movie speaks for itself and manages to create something that connects with the viewer, tells a coherent story, and is genuinely enjoyable or engaging to watch. But when a movie is average, the plot seems to disappear and all memory of it starts to fade as soon as the scene changes.
Even some of the best movie directors and actors, as well as other talent both in front of and behind the camera, can make an utterly average film with not too much to say. These films are difficult to watch and endure because of how pointless and empty the stories feel, sometimes hollow or low-effort acting, and overall, poor direction and communication from the team putting the picture together. The results are okay films that are neither terrible nor great.
10 In Time
Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in a dystopian future film sounds like it could be something. Pop stars turned actors haven't always made big waves in film, but at the very least, Justin Timberlake gave a solid performance. In Time sets up a world where people stop aging at 25 and the primary form of currency is every individual's remaining lifespan. The wealthy can be young forever while the less fortunate live day to day with little time left. The movie has a solid premise and the story wasn't bad, but performances and the delivery pushed this film into mediocrity.
9 Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Venom starring Tom Hardy introduced a dark and gritty Marvel villain into the Sony Spider-Verse and received fairly well-rounded reviews. However, the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnagewent off the rails and lost the plot. Starring Woody Harrelson opposite Tom Hardy as the twisted villain Carnage, Venom 2 was as unhinged as its antagonist and struggled to keep track of its own story.
Venom 2 movie has decent action, ruined by disappointing visuals. The powerful and complex villains are ruined by their single-minded goals that reduce their characters to being flat, and wonderful actors struggle to give a coherent performance thanks to the ridiculous pacing and poor script. Had this movie leaned into what it did well in Venom, it could have been special. Unfortunately, it missed the mark and underperformed across the board to make something that ultimately equaled average and uninspired.
8 Snow White and The Huntsman
Kristen Stewart is renowned for her performances as mostly monotonous, Snow White and The Huntsman don't do much to change this stereotype. Stewart and Chris Hemsworth star in the titular roles opposite Charlize Theron as Ravenna and the film was visually impressive with wonderful action sequences, beautiful costumes, and visuals throughout. However, in the midst of creating something that looked impressive, the rest of the story, direction, acting, and overall plot fell flat. This is a truly unmemorable movie that leaves viewers wondering what just happened as the credits roll.
7 Black Adam
Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson spearheaded an incredible effort in marketing this film and telling audiences that it would be a brand-new beginning for the DCEU. Teasing major events like Cavill's Superman return and how this film would change the core of the already stale DCEU, few people expected this to actually be the end of the DCEU. Black Adam delivered visuals in spades with incredible action and special effects throughout, but that was not enough.
The twist about Adam's origins came as a pleasant surprise and there was some good chemistry between the main cast, but potentially Black Adam was trying to do too much at once and lost its credibility in the process. The story is told from both ends of a 5,000-year time span, there is a large ensemble cast but almost none of them had been introduced or established in earlier films. They still play as though they are familiar to the audience, and the stakes are minimal due to Adam's seemingly limitless power.
6 Cowboys & Aliens
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in a sci-fi Western sounds exciting enough that it just might work. However, it did not. The concept is simple, the title does exactly what it needs to in telling the audience what's going on and the actors are capable of delivering something that could be genuinely engaging and impressive. Despite everything the film had going for it, it managed to be absolutely mediocre and vapid when it should have been fun and action-packed.
The characters are unlikable and despite a title that would fit right in for a cartoon, there is no sense of playfulness or joy. Craig may usually play serious roles, but he's proven his strength as a more whimsical and entertaining character in Knives Out and Glass Onion, plus Harrison Ford built his career on cheeky and entertaining roles. All the seriousness of a Western with a concept that should have been more fun makes this utterly bland.
5 Uncharted
The beloved video game series had a disadvantage before it ever went into production, with video game adaptations having a bad track. Tom Holland, who has delivered incredibly popular performances as Peter Parker in the MCU struggled to convince audiences of his ability to play Nathan Drake. Whereas other action films like Pirates of the Caribbean or National Treasure delivered something new and impressed audiences, Uncharted underwhelmed with a sense that there is nothing new about it.
4 Army of the Dead
Zack Snyder has amassed an incredibly loyal following and banking on that, Netflix created Army of the Dead as an exciting zombie heist movie set in a deserted Las Vegas and starring popular wrestler turned action hero Dave Bautista. That sounds like a lot crammed into one thing because it is. Zombies are always in vogue, Bautista was peaking in popularity, and the hashtag Snyderverse was trending. However, Army of the Dead is an okay movie, with an okay story and some good scenes, but it's nothing special and was easily outshone by the prequel Army of Thieves released on Netflix later that same year.
3 Red Notice
Another Netflix original with an all-star cast, Red Notice came out in 2021 starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson in a double-crossing spy flick. The concept has been played out plenty of times before with a rotation of famous faces as super spies team up, betray one another, fall in love, and crack corny jokes throughout. Red Notice offers nothing more than action sequences combined with jokes in an instantly forgettable film.
2 The Incredibles 2
When The Incredibles introduced the villain, The Underminer, at the conclusion in 2004, audiences didn't expect it to take Pixar and Disney to take 14 years to scramble together the sequel. Released in 2018, the generation that saw The Incredibles in the theatre had grown past the film with zero payoffs for what was promised, and the sequel barely included the villain it originally teased. The Incredibles 2 didn't add much to the series and was predictable and hollow throughout.
1 Suicide Squad
David Ayer's Suicide Squad has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism since it was released in 2016. It featured a star-studded cast with Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, David Harbour, and more, but the story was cramped and incoherent. Cameos were laced to expand a universe that had no firm foundation, and it struggled to find its sweet spot. There are some laughs, it has a solid soundtrack, and the cast is great, but all together, the movie feels limp and boring.