By Kenneth Parker
Over the years we all have had experiences where we went to
go see a movie or sat down to watch a TV show and were devastated on what we
saw. Whether it was high expectations or
just the fact that the product was bad, we were let down by the hope of
something better. Often this happens
with sequels but it could also happen for something that looked good in the
trailer or had all the elements for a good outcome. In any case, we are left shaking our heads
and either being sad or even mad, wondering how this could happen.
I have chosen a few of my own personal experiences, some you
would expect to see while others might be controversial. Not everything on my list is a bad
product. Some are excellent but because
of expectations or other factors, they are deemed a let down to some
degree.
Prometheus – I
want to say that I absolutely love this film.
It has so many elements that are great.
The look of the film is one of the best of any film I have ever seen in a
while. The effects, music and design are
superb. But, I had huge expectations for
this film. I really wanted this to be on
par with Ridley Scott’s other films, Blade
Runner and Alien. WOW – talk about setting the bar too
high!! That is what I did. I think most people expected higher than what
we got. Sure, some elements blew me
away. I love the entire story of looking
for your creator and finding something different. Like the scientists in Prometheus who were disappointed with what they found, audiences
followed suite.
There were a number of character design failures in Prometheus. Some scientists were acting dumb, doing
stupid things and being unprofessional.
Other characters sacrificing themselves with little motivation and
others not being able to run left or right away from the rolling
spaceship! These problems among others
were not horrible but they were enough to turn off a lot of people. You compare these characters to the ones in Alien and it is like night and
day. The ones in Alien are realistic and likable and well defined.
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| Must go faster....must go faster..... |
We also have a confusing array of aliens and black goo which
interacts with humans with so many different outcomes that the story logic
falters. The connection with the Alien universe is there but was never
an importance to me. I didn’t even care
if we even saw the ‘alien’ at the end of the film. It is enough to know we are dealing with the
same universe. This is not the case for
all movies.
Still, enough of the story of faith and belief as well as
the story of the Engineers gets through that I see the quality of this
movie. At the time I was deflated quite
a bit as I knew this was not this perfect movie I had hoped for. As time as gone on, I think this film is
within my top 50 and is my 3rd favorite ‘Alien’ film. I have recently watched it and have enjoyed
it greatly and hope for a sequel. A
better sequel.
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| Whatever...... |
Alien 3 – Again, Alien 3 is not the worst ‘Alien’ film…
um… actually it is. This film certainly
rebooted the entire franchise within the first few minutes of the opening
credits. The characters we grew to like
and the mother-daughter relationship that was so powerful in Aliens are all wiped out during the
opening credits. It was obvious the
writer wanted to go in a new direction and instead of having Ripley waking up
and realizing that Aliens was just a
dream, they decided to wipe the slate clean by killing off the surviving
characters unceremoniously. This set the tone for me for the rest of the
film. You could have had Stanley
Kubrick, Ridley Scott and James Cameron creating the perfect movie after that
and I would have still been upset. The
movie ignores the previous movies in order to go in its own direction and it
sucked. The movie was probably okay but
light years back from the first two films.
I barely recognize it as canon really.
The next movie was better and the fact that I had accepted what the 3rd
film had done by that point, expectations for the 4th were much
lower.
What a drop for a movie franchise. Most movie series do this eventually but this
was turning its back on excellence and going in a different direction. Sometimes movie franchises and series need to
do this and perhaps Alien 3 did, but
it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
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| Stupid adults... let's save the day. |
Thunderbirds –
one of the common factors that leads movies to this particular list is the
product’s inability to capture just a portion of what would make this movie
superb. In the case of Jonathan Frake’s Thunderbirds he took the primary elements
on what made the original Thunderbirds
TV series so popular and good and chucked them in the trash. He then boosted up his own elements of
children saving the day and goofy humor to create a low intelligent kids romp
which in of itself wasn’t horrible, but missed the target completely.
Fans of the original often site the ship design as a primary
problem with the film. Not at all. The
designs were fine. It was the fact that
the story sees all of International Rescue being totally inept while the young
kids save the day. If this was a TV
series, it would have made an excellent dream episode where young Alan dreams
that he saves the day only to wake up and see his older brothers laughing at
the idea. You would have thought Frakes,
if anyone, would have known not to have the kids save the day. People, including kids, want to see the
adults save the day.
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| Number One.......how could you? |
The idea that a movie about Thunderbirds would be considered seems to me to be an easy
bet. What better idea than to have a
movie about epic rescues and action with futuristic vehicles and so on. It is an idea that you would think would be
difficult to screw up and Riker did just that.
My expectations were not very high for this but I did expect
something a bit better. It is not the
worst film ever and I can see my daughter watching it in a couple of years and
enjoying it.
Escape From LA –
Similarly to Thunderbirds, I felt
that the character of Snake Plissken would be a bankable franchise that would
be extremely hard to derail. Take the
character and put him into any type of situation in the dark future and you are
done. Put Kurt Russell and John
Carpenter back into their respective roles in the movie and you have a
winner!! Except, whatever you do, John,
don’t copy Escape From New York too
much. And don’t parody LA too much and
don’t make the movie more biting commentary and less action. And whatever you do, don’t have Snake
Plissken surf a Tsunami!! |
| I almost could have accepted it without this moment |
The film was a massive disappointment on all levels. I understand the humor that Carpenter was
presenting for us and the ending was pretty cool but it was too similar to the
original, with the same lines of dialog and scenes that were too close to Escape From NY. The story was way too much in your face
commentary on society. As a parody, it
is a pretty good movie but where is the action and originality? How could this
have happened? What was Carpenter
thinking? He was trying to recreate the
magic of Escape From New York but he
kept it too close to the original.
Expectations were high and this was one of the reasons why
this film is on this list. The movie failed to deliver us the character Snake
in an environment that would satisfy viewers.
Horrible let down.
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Star Wars -The
Phantom Menace – this is probably the most popular example of this type of
let-down. Talk about high
expectations. While I think most people
would have rather seen a continuation of the original trilogy, we trusted
George Lucas in his plan to cover the past in this new trilogy. We knew the films would have to deliver some
good material as we already knew the outcome of the story.
Correct me if I am wrong but the initial response to The Phantom Menace was positive. Most people who watched it, loved it. As time went on though I think people
realized that it wasn’t that good and that high hopes and false attachment to
this latest installment created a level of denial. For kids who were seeing Star Wars for the first time, perhaps they loved it but was it
really as enjoyable as when kids saw the first movie in 1977?
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| Yousa don't like Jar Jar Binks? |
The ongoing trilogy did improve but rarely reached any level
of the original trilogy. The
disappointment is similar to so many other let-downs. How could Lucas have screwed it up? I would argue that there was no way he would
be able to live up to the expectations of the return of the Star Wars franchise. It was doomed to disappoint.
Lucas failed in many aspects with casting and script. He continually ruined characters and ideals established
in the original trilogy and he probably didn’t even realize it. These kinks in the armor, coupled with the
fact that most people had preconceived notions on how good this movie was going
to be, really was the formula for it becoming the biggest disappointment in
movie history.
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| Now this would have been cool!! |
Beneath The Planet of
the Apes – most sequels don’t live up to their originals and I could go on
and on with so many. I mention this one
mostly because I just re-watched them this summer and was shocked on how bad
this first sequel was compared to the classic Planet of the Apes. Attempts
to capture some of the tone of the original and really force so many plot
problems that did not fit the story of the original were frequent. The movie series would improve but Beneath, in my opinion was a huge drop
in quality and really did nothing to improve the movie series at all.
Its ending makes little sense as hero Taylor decides to
destroy every living being on Earth just because he hates the Apes and the
mutated humans. It is a forced story
that doesn’t even set up the next sequel.
How would three apes recover a spaceship and get it working in time to
leave the Earth’s surface before the bomb blew up?
There really isn’t much in this film that is any good.
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| Wake up, its almost over.... |
Solaris (1972) –
This is one of the only movies on my list that isn’t a sequel or an adaptation
from another movie or TV show. It is a
movie I just recently watched after hearing about it for years and years. It
was one of only few of the usual top sci-fi movies that I had not experienced
and I finally decided to watch it before I began my top 25 sci-fi movies of
all- time list. Solaris did not make
that list. It was boring and while the
idea was imaginative, it was a huge let down.
I have seen movies like this in the past that are revered as the best of
the best only to find that my expectations were too high.
Even so, I try to have an open mind but Solaris tries to be like 2001:
A Space Odyssey and fails. There is
a 5 minute car ride for God’s sake. I
didn’t hate it, I love an occasional nap during the day time.
Was it because my expectations were too high or is it just
not my type of film?
The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy Movie – Everything that this franchise had done was
superb. Radio Play, audio recordings,
books and TV were all funny and excellent.
Then this movie comes along and the highlight is seeing the original
Marvin Android in a scene and that is it.
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| I know how you feel Marvin... |
For years Douglas Adams wanted to do a movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and many years after his death it
finally happened and it wasn’t in the same galaxy as the others. Again, on its own for people who have never
experienced this story, perhaps it was funny and original. Maybe it was because I had seen it all before
so many times that nothing was funny. Of
course this franchise is no stranger to disappointment. Many fans love the books but not the play or
series while others love the play and not the books or series. I like all of these but am a fan of the
series and books first. So to each his
own.
The Prisoner
(2009) – Normally I do not have high expectations for American remakes. They usually take an excellent idea and are
only able to make it a shadow of the original, at least with Sci-Fi series
anyhow. Life on Mars is an example of this.
Gene Hunt? Really….. ?
Anyhow, the original The
Prisoner is one of the best TV series ever and a present day remake should
have been pretty spectacular. Imagine a
series of guest performers coming in each week playing a different Number
2. Imagine the weirdness and social
commentary that would be unleashed in this new series. What a great concept and one that is
timeless. It is easy to bring this show
into the 21st Century, right?
WRONG WAY!! This mini series
conformed to the usual American series formatting. It was not an individual stand out. It became a faceless nobody behind a mask of
obscurity.
Why do these things happen?
What decisions were made to not follow the blueprint of excellence?
Doctor Who (2005)
– Okay, now here is the controversy. I
am a big Doctor Who fan and when the
show returned in 2005 I was all in and was ready to see this new series excel
to the point where it would soon be better than the best of the classic
series. There is no reason to doubt this
unless producer Russell T. Davies decided to take the show less serious, add a
lot of jokey humor, cram agendas down our throat and skimp on plot and make it
all about romance and sex.
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| Now The Gunfighters and Delta And the Bannermen look good! |
I will then say that the first 4 seasons were overall good
with 3-5 excellent stories a season and 3-5 more that were good while the rest
were Meh.. or horrible. Not bad but the
general tone of the series was not something I felt made for a good
series. It tried and writer Steven
Moffatt would save the season each year with excellence that the rest of the
writers would only hope to approach.
Goofy monsters such as the Slitheen and a Master than makes Anthony
Ainley seem like Lawrence Olivier all did not help the cause. I was disappointed right out of the gate and
felt with some minor tonal changes and not forgetting the plot, the series
would have been a lot better.
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| When good actors go OTT |
Now, when my favorite writer took over as producer, based on
his writing up to that point, it was obvious that we were in for a new age of Doctor Who that would put the classic
series to shame. Alas, Doctor Who fooled me again and suddenly
I wished for the return of Russell T. Davies and his ability to give us
characters we cared about. What happened
to Moffatt? More disappointment. I still hope for a few excellent stories a season
and with Moffatt, that is harder to do than ever. I have lowered my expectations again, hoping
to share in the delight that other fans somehow get from this series. Good news was that this past half season was,
in my opinion, a vast improvement (apart from the “Nightmare In Silver”
garbage). Unfortunately that half season
was probably the least liked series of episodes since Doctor Who returned, if
the internet chatter is correct.
Figures.
We all have expectations, whether they are high or low or
perhaps you just want to be surprised.
These notions can change the way we perceive a movie or TV show. What are we looking for and when are we
seeing it? Are you a fan of the original
version and dislike the idea that someone is remaking it? Do you not like the changes the series is
undergoing? Do you feel you just are not
on the same page as the producers of the product. Whatever the reason, we all have our opinions
and root for certain films and expect excellence in others. What sort of Sci-Fi disappointments have you
had?
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