Biggest surprises and disappointments of the year so far?

[DarkEco910]

Surprises:

Get Out
Saban's Power Rangers
Ghost in the Shell
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Spider-Man: Homecoming

Disappointments:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Transformers: The Last Knight (and I sat through this twice )
Atomic Blonde

Dunkirk and Wonder Woman are far and away my favorite movies this year so far, but I knew I'd love them.

[Rodney-2187]

Biggest surprises:

Ghost in the Shell
Atomic Blonde
Wonder Woman
Colossal


Biggest disappointments:

Alien: Covenant
Pirates of the Carribeaan: Dead Men Tell No Tales

[thecooldud]

Biggest surprises:

Beauty and the Beast
I was always going to see this as I do admire Miss Watson, but Disney movies of any variety are not really my usual forte. Was very surprised to completely love it in every way.

Life
Wasn't even on my radar and reviews were mixed but the positive ones were really positive, so I decided to see it. Glad I did. Very entertaining and gripping sci-fi horror.

Biggest disappointments:
John Wick 2. Enjoyed the first, but found this overblown and impossible to care about or engage with. Ultimately very boring.
Split. WTH was that all about?

[Trollhunter]

Surprises:
Wonder Woman
Get Out
Baby Driver
The Big Sick
Your Name.

Disappointments:
Baywatch
Ghost in the Shell
A Cure for Wellness
T2: Trainspotting
Free Fire

[Dead By Shaun]

Surprises:

• A Monster Calls
• Okja
• Colossal

Disappointments:

• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
• Alien: Covenant

I was looking forward to both Valerian and Covenant this year. I absolutely loved Prometheus (saw it twice in the theater) and typically enjoy Ridley Scott's films in general, but I thought Covenant was an absolutely uninspired and boring mess. I knew we weren't getting Prometheus 2, but this wasn't even a good Alien film. Easily my BIGGEST disappointment of the year so far. Valerian, on the other hand, I neither loved nor hated. But that's the problem... I wanted to love it! My hope going in was that Luc Besson would recapture the charm and magic of the Fifth Element, but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations. Despite its glaring faults (of which there were many), I still enjoyed it... just not nearly as much as I wanted to. With that said, I'll likely give it another shot when it hits the home market... aw, who am I kidding? I'll probably buy it just to appreciate all that eye candy

[Himmel]

Surprises:
Wonder Woman
Get Out
Baby Driver
Alien Covenant
GOTG 2

Disappointments:
Baywatch
Transformers

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

Biggest Disappointments:

Logan(overrated and completely ignores the series continuity)

OK, I'm confused. If continuity in this series is important to you, then you must have been disappointed with EVERY X-Men movie, right?

Because as much as I love these movies, and I do (well, forget Origins and Last Stand ... but otherwise), continuity is about as far from their strong point as it's possible to be.

[dcfan88]

My biggest surprise isn't my enjoyment of the film but it's success.
Had anyone told me before Split came out that it would double XXX's numbers first week and be number 1 for 3 weeks I would not have believed you.

as far as films go
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Logan
John Wick 2
Get Out
Power Rangers (it's on my surprise list because I was expecting a horrible movie)

Disappointments
A Cure for Wellness
The Bye Bye Man

[jess1581]

Biggest Surprise - Power Rangers. It took a corny premise, and gave it weight with relatable characters and even more surprisingly is that they held off on Power Ranger action. Good movie.

Biggest disappointment - Alien Covenant. Visually interesting, but it's a narrative mess, tone deaf, tries to be Prometheus and Alien simultaneously and failing to be either. The iconic alien is treated like an after thought and given embarrassingly cliche horror moments. More annoyingly is that instead of tying loose ends, it convolutes the continuity further.

Total predictability- 31, Rob Zombie does his typical shtick which is 70s style hillbilly shaky cam bullshit with again obnoxious unlikable characters muttering profanity laced yakkity yak when they're not acting like horny creeps. Admittedly this was more watchable than his other films, but this is the splatter version of Running Man... not original in the least.

[UFAlien]

Pleasant Surprises:
Kong: Skull Island
I've never been a Kong fan but this was actually really fun.

Beauty and the Beast
Didn't think I was interested at first. Wound up loving it - I like it better than the animated one.

Wonder Woman
Hated Man of Steel and didn't bother with BvS or SS. Wasn't gonna see this until the reviews were great and, whaddya know, it was really good.

47 Meters Down
Looked like a "so-bad-it's-good" proposition at best. Turned out I actually dug it quite a bit! Very tense.

Wish Upon
For not, IMO, being absolutely horrible. It was just okay, but that's an achievement of sorts considering the expectations.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
I knew this would at least look good, but I was surprised to find that it was also tons of fun.

Crushing Disappointments:
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Crappy 3D, choppy editing, and retcons galore made it a totally unsuitable ending to the franchise.

Rings
Not as bad as Sadako 3D, but just an ineffective, pointless, lifeless misfire.

Get Out
It was okay, but it was JUST okay, IMO. Didn't live up to the hype. Not scary at all.

Alien: Covenant
Alternated between boring and unintentionally goofy. Totally mucked up the series mythology. Pretentious.

It Comes at Night
Did I call Covenant boring and pretentious? Because this makes it look like a Michael Bay flick. There's no plot, no backstory, no scares, no nothing. A complete waste of my time and a great example of exceptionally lazy filmmaking being hailed as "art."

Special disappointing mention: Power Rangers, not for the movie (I liked it) but for faking me out with a solid domestic opening and then absolutely nosediving and winding up a box office bomb.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

It Comes at Night
Did I call Covenant boring and pretentious? Because this makes it look like a Michael Bay flick. There's no plot, no backstory, no scares, no nothing. A complete waste of my time and a great example of exceptionally lazy filmmaking being hailed as "art."

Can you explain that bolded part of your comment? Because I'm really confused by it.

[Predatorix38417]

Best Surprises:
Get Out (Brilliant)
Kong: Skull Island (Looked like it was gonna be good or bad, was great)
Split (M. Night is back! Bring on Unbreakable 2!)
John Wick: Chapter 2 (it was gonna be good, but it was as good/better than the first)
Cars 3 (surprisingly compelling and deep, major improvement over 2)
Wonder Woman (In DC we hope)

Disappointments:
Dunkirk (not bad, but not the perfect movie people were saying it is)
Despicable Me 3 (a huge letdown and lack of effort)
Transformers 5 (I give up)
Valerian (As someone who enjoyed Fifth Element and Leon, this was garbage to me)
Pirates 5 (Fun enough but still a dead man walking franchise)
The Mummy (RIP the Dark Universe)

[jamesdevil]

Biggest Surprise: Wonder Woman / The Lego Batman Movie

Biggest Disappointment: The Circle / The Comedian

The Circle was so depressing for me I didn't go to the theater for a few weeks after. Just incredibly disappointed James Ponsoldt would follow two of the most lovely films I've ever seen with that.

[Pondosinatra]

Hmmmm I guess I'd have to say I was disappointed (annoyed would be more accurate) with A Cure For Wellness. As for surprises, none really. Loved Atomic Blonde but I knew I would going in.

Haven't seen Covenant yet, waiting for it to show up - but based on this thread looks like I'm going to be disappointed.

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

OK, I'm confused. If continuity in this series is important to you, then you must have been disappointed with EVERY X-Men movie, right?

Because as much as I love these movies, and I do (well, forget Origins and Last Stand ... but otherwise), continuity is about as far from their strong point as it's possible to be.

Continuity was actually ok for a little while. The original trilogy was fine. Origins was a bad movie, but for the most part didn't crap the bed in the continuity department. The most glaring plothole(or unresolved plot point to be more exact) was why Sabretooth didn't recognize his brother in the first X-Men which is set after Origins. But maybe he also got amnesia at some point over the next decade and a half.

First Class is where things really started to get messy. It was quite clear that Charles was not a paraplegic until sometime after the mid-80s according to The Last Stand and Origins, yet he's in a wheelchair at the end of this film. Also, a character like Moira who was a Brit and in her 30s in the early 21st century in The Last Stand is suddenly American and close to the same age in the early 1960s in First Class.

It was when they went back in time(creatively in First Class and then literally in Days of Future Past) that they f'ed up the storyline and turned it into an incoherent mess(The Wolverine notwithstanding).

[UFAlien]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Can you explain that bolded part of your comment? Because I'm really confused by it.

The idea being Michael Bay movies, while certainly of questionable quality, are neither boring nor pretentious.

[feintmotion86]

Best surprises:
Baby Driver
Atomic Blonde
Logan
Kong


Disappointments:
Alien Covenant
The Mummy

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

The idea being Michael Bay movies, while certainly of questionable quality, are neither boring nor pretentious.

This is where we differ. While I think Bay has made a few good films, I think the majority of his work has been boring (the Transformers movies, for example). And he's managed his share of pretentious work (Pearl Harbor is a good example).

[Zillamon51]

Biggest surprise: Power Rangers was way better than it had any right to be. I didn't really think a "serious" PR could work, but this mostly does.

Biggest disappointment: Alien: Covenant kinda tried going back to basics, but failed miserably. Ridley Scott and co. bungled trying to make Alien into heady, contemplative sci-fi with Prometheus, and apparently can no longer even get just the straight horror aspects right either.

[Creed]

Surprises:
Ghost In The Shell
Get Out
A Cure For Wellness
Logan

Disappointments:
Transformers: The Last Knight