The Dark Tower : OT: Most disappointing, and most surprising movies.

The DT is probably going to be either surprisingly good, or a big disappointment to fans. I am wondering what movies have disappointed you, or surprised you by how good they were.


The movie that disappointed me most was The Phantom menace. It nearly ruined my childhood love of Star wars.

Two recent surprises were The Witch, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I went in expcting nothing and loved them both.

While TPM was disappointing,, how did it ruin your childhood love of SW? I remember the disappointment of The Prequel Trilogy, but it could never take away what SW meant to me as a kid and as an adult.

I'm really not trying to criticize at all, but if you're holding onto something that hard, maybe it'll pay off to ease up a bit? TPM may lack severely, but as long as you can fastforward it can still be entertaining, right? Even bad movies can be entertaining. Of course, just my opinion.

Stormy, it didn't really ruin it. I was just so excited, and wanted a good continuation of the story. That was not it

What are you wearing right now Jerry?

Tina, I am completely taken off guard by your question. Jeans and a hoody is the answer.

May I ask why you are asking?

If we're going to get all familiar like, not talking DT, i need a visual!
Sorry jerry, don't take me too seriously (i don't!), but thanks for coming to the party anyway haha.

Anyways, to reply seriously - Can't comment on Star Wars as it's not my thing but off the top of my head i thought Sound Of My Voice was great and was surprised it got buried under Another Earth as i thought it was the superior movie out of the two. And Circle was surprisingly good for a netflix cheapie, i almost didn't give it a chance but am glad i did. As for being disappointed, i can't really say as i've been pessimistic with film ever since the writers strike and seem to have conditioned myself to going in with low expectations.

Actually i was disappointed with Green Inferno! Eli Roth didn't uphold the cult status of Cannibal Holocaust imo.

No problem. I just thought my wife was checking up on me for a minute. :)

I always wanted to see another earth. I haven't heard of the rest, but I will check them out. They both sound like my type of movie.

I haven't seen The Green Inferno either. I much prefer supernatural horror to gore, though I did watch The Hills have eyes last night. Interesting movie.

What was wrong the cannibalIsm of GI?

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I just thought my wife was checking up on me for a minute.

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Too funny.

Original or remake? Both are decent. (i'm a fan of all horror, found footage genre is doing a lot for supernatural/paranormal imo even if it's overkill sometimes, i think it's giving low budget film makers a great chance to bring new vision to the genre)

Yeah, most of my picks would come under indie.

I think my issue with Green Inferno was that it had big shoes to fill being the faux lost documentary in Cannibal Holocaust, that and i hadn't quite given up hope in Eli Roth being a decent horror director. The trailers were better than the movie unfortunately and didn't capture any of the essence of CH. Gritty, raw, nerve wreaking, audio/visual echoes GI seemed to miss the mark on all of these and i thought Eli Roth would bring his best instead of his increasingly lazy trademark (knock knock for example).

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Original or remake?

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It was the remake. I am surprised I haven't seen the original. I like Carpenter alot.

Craven ;) But i can see the mix-up, i prefer Carpenter myself. I just did a quick imdb check and didn't realise he did They Live. A lot of King fans like Koontz also (well i do on a good day) - As corny as They Live is, i couldn't believe it wasn't based on Koontz's Twilight Eyes. Maybe it was? Haute Tension was almost a 1:1 ripoff of Intensity and Koontz kept quiet.

"They Live" was based on the Ray Nelson short story, "Eight O'clock in the Morning". You can read it at the following link if you're interested:

http://www.whale.to/b/eight_o.html

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see

hey thanks!

I had Carpenter on the brain because I was watching It follows, which was stealing a lot from Carpenter.

Koontz is Okay. I like Phantoms quite a bit.

It Follows was pretty good! But the intro caught me off guard - I thought it was going to be more horror comedy, but maybe that's just me I do recall being alone in spitting my drink out trying to stifle laughter when the legs popped up on the screen.

Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms yo!

I'm a fan of They Live, and Twilight Eyes is my favorite Koontz book. I found your comparison of the two interesting, as I think there isn't much the same, except perhaps the "human skins covering something else" aspect.
What else do you find familiar about them?

It's been so long since i've seen it Primarily yes the concept of 'goblins' walking among us wearing human skins. That and them being in positions of authority amassing their plans and trying to eliminate the people that can see their true form, while the protagonist starts a rebellion. The scene that i remember best (apart from chew bubblegum and kick ass of course!) is when he first puts on the glasses and draws so much attention to himself that he exposes himself to them - it reminds me how Slim still has to condition his eyes when he looks at them to block out their true form or it would alert them to his gift. I'd have to say Twilight Eyes is my favourite Koontz book also (closely followed by Watchers and Lightning).

Jurassic World was a major disappointment to me.


It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .

It was ok, but they do get more stupid with each one. Sci-fi and horror movies should be believable within their own reality.

Jurassic World had the potential to return to some of the more cerebral aspects of the first film (and, by extension, the original novel). Every time Masrani spoke with Wu, I was thinking "Yes! This! Give me more of this!". Unfortunately, the film quickly became a typical "all beauty and no brains" Hollywood summer flick.

Seeing tamed velociraptorssomething that was almost certainly done for the cool factor and/or to easily cement Owen's status as a badassalso hurt. They are supposed to be these almost alien reptilian (I know they had more in common with avessettle down ) serial killers from an unfathomably savage time.


It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .

IKR, JW was beyond cringe-worthy and the product placement was insulting.

Suppose I kinda enjoyed the part where they found the original JP.


"This is What You Want This is What You Get"

Just to keep this simple I'll stick (mostly) with the Alien & Predator series:

Most disappointinghmmmso many to choose from, how about Alien 3 & Alien: Resurrection. I actually like #3, I just wanted a different movie.

Resurrection on the other hand, that Joss Whedon writes complete garbage, he gives Science Fiction a bad name. Damn near killed the series.

AvP & AvP2, a few decent action sequences don't make up for how horrible the story or characters are.



Alien & Aliens, those were the most surprising, I never expected to enjoy them so muchthey showed me what type of horror I like, horror with a purpose.

Predator & Predator 2, decent movies, especially for their time. When I was young the skinning part kinda freaked me out, but in a good way. :)



Predators was pretty damn good, definetly surprised after that AvP junkanoo. I'd like a sequel.

Prometheus has its moments, I seemed to like it more then everyone else though yes, it had plenty of faults.



Alien 5 & Alien: Covenant, I have high hopes, both directors have blown me away before and I'd love for them to do it again.



Cross-over: I'd like to see a Alien vs Terminator (vs Predator?) crossover where the Terminators are finishing us humans off, Terminator 2 type of setting, then the Aliens come down and battle them, we are stuck in the middle but not very important to the final outcome, or are we? Perhaps we ally with one side or the other.

So many amazing Dark Horse comics ripe for juicing.


"This is What You Want This is What You Get"

I agree with all that, though I like Resurrection more than you. Predators was another one of my surprises. The opening was great.

Resurrection had interesting actors, setting, and theme that could have been blended together much better with a better script, so I'll give you that. It was a bit quirky, didn't really fit the Alien vibe, even Alien 3 felt closer to the originals.

So f-ing stoked for the new chapters! They better not disappoint.


"This is What You Want This is What You Get"

just a fun fact -

did you know that Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton are the only two people to have been killed by a Terminator, Alien, and Predator



I'm a Gunslinger. I deal in hard calibers.

Nice! But now i'm thinking that McConaughey (child representation) killed Paxton in Frailty and my internal is now scrambling to do a "6 degrees" of Elba killing McConaughey and i'm stuck!

Disappointed-The Force Awakens (hopefully, episode 8 changes that)
Surprised-Star Trek '09


Listen to themthe children of the night. What music they make!

Are you among those that thought they copied too much from the original, or that Rey was too strong, and too quick with the force?

The Force Awakens failed to impress me so much so, that, upon immediately exiting the theater, I wanted my $5 USD back. It was as if I had taken beer goggles off after a night of questionable intercourse.

Bland and overpowered main protagonist. Deuteragonist that had potential and yet was wasted by being a goofball second-stringer to make said main protagonist look heroicall the while embodying a thinly veiled racial stereotype. Established characters acting out of character. Soundtrack which failed to live up or even come close to it's predecessors. Plot which was a near carbon-copy of Star Wars/A New Hope. Even the big final battle was a bore compared to the trench run on the Death Star

What's not to love?

All I can say in it's favor is that the cinematography in regards to Tatooine 2.0 was occasionally interesting.

Even the destruction of the Hosnian system impacted me less than Leia witnessing the destruction of Alderaanand that new take on an old classic featured better graphics and actual people on the planet being blown up!


It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .

You have some valid points, but I enjoyed it on the whole. There are certain things that I am giving the benefit of the doubt until the story plays out. I think there are reasons why Rey is so stong, and why Kylo's training seems so half assed.

Definitely flawed,but there's some interesting stuff there.

I seem to be one of the only ones on this board who enjoyed it thoroughly! Maybe I didn't see all the flaws because of all the melancholy tears I shed

Books are a uniquely portable magic. ~Stephen King

The movie of me grabbing Wolf's mom by the p$ssy.

It's been hard to disappointment with a movie because I go in with such guarded expectations. Even the ones I eagerly anticipate.

Being pleasantly surprised, however, happens quite often. I think that's because I go (in spite of myself) into movies with presumptions and they take me pleasantly off-guard when they are not what I expect. Some pleasant surprises have included

Wild Tales
To Be Takei
The Big Short
Deadpool
Night Moves(1975)

As far as movies I hoped to be a lot better, there are plenty. However, my instincts are pretty good at picking out the over-hyped. I think the last time I was majorly disappointed was The Phantom Menace. It really put me on guard on all movies after that.

I would like to give a shout out to my oldest pleasant surprise. I knew nothing of the Farrelly brothers in 1998. I hadn't seen preview one, and my ex was wanting to see it. So I was expecting the harmless rom-com when I went to see There's Something About Mary. Instead, she was utterly aghast, and I was laughing so hard I was crying at the sheer unexpected level of shocking absurdity of this twisted comedy.

Damion Crowley
Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you.R.E.

I had to go look and see what the Farrelly bros have been doing. I haven't heard about them in forever.

It's not really surprising because I read the reviews, but Arrival is as great as they say it is.