Yes it’s that time of year again for the round up of my movie watching experiences in 2015. I was going to do a top ten of this but I looked at it and the latter ones were just on there to make up the numbers, so I decided to condense it. I try to see as many movies as possible but I don’t manage to catch them all, so this list is just made of from those I have seen. Also, I’m based in the UK so these movies are ones that have been released in the UK over the year. Now, I use ‘worst’ in my title for the sake of brevity, really it means most disappointing or most disliked. On a technical level there has no doubt been objectively worse movies released than those on these list, but of the ones I have seen this year these are the ones that I have disliked the most. I’ll give brief thoughts on them but if you want a deeper analysis then go check out my reviews! Right, that’s all the disclaimers over and done with!
#5 – Jupiter Ascending
Before the year began I was expecting Jupiter Ascending to be on my top ten list. I loved Cloud Atlas, the Wachowskis’ previous movie, and I’m a sucker for space opera. This looked like an expansive story with philosophical undertones…but in the end it was just a mess. It looked pretty, sure, but the story was eye-rollingly bad. I mean, I still can’t over the fact that they actually had a scene where bees swarmed around Mila Kunis’ character because ‘bees recognize royalty’! Eddie Redmayne did a complete 180 from his performance in The Theory of Everything and as much as I wanted to like it I couldn’t even justify any of the terribleness that was present in this movie.
#4 – Foxcatcher
Another one that I expected to like as I enjoy the three leads, but this was another where I simply didn’t understand the hype (spoiler alert – there’s another on the list lower down). It was relentlessly boring and it was one of the few times where I wanted to walk out of the theater because I just wasn’t having a good time, and the only thing I felt when it was over was relief.
#3 – Birdman
Okay, so that other film wasn’t that much lower down. Yes! Yet another year where the winner of the best picture Oscar makes it onto my worst of the year list, as did 12 Years a Slave. As with Jupiter Ascending I thought this would be one that I really enjoyed. I love superheroes, and stories that deconstruct them, and the fact that Michael Keaton was in the titular role was ingenious casting given his obvious ties to the caped crusader. But the end product was just weird and didn’t seem to say much more than the usual ‘actor struggling with fame’ angst. Yawn.
#2 – 50 Shades of Grey
Ah yes, any of you who follow my blog would know that this was certain to be on the list. There have been many more intelligent people who have written essays on this film about why it presents such a warped view of what constitutes a dom/sub relationship and romance, and I urge you to check those out. But aside from all those problems it’s just a boring film as well. The actors are bland and vapid, the romance is insipid and the only reason it isn’t number one on my list is because it has at least one redeeming feature – the music, which I thought was enjoyable. But otherwise it’s a horrible film, and the message it sends is not one that should be spread.
#1 – Fantastic Four
Sometimes movies come along and you read the reviews and you think, ‘nah it can’t be that bad’. That’s not the case here. As much as I dislike the previous entry there’s no way that Fantastic Four wouldn’t have been top as it’s not only a bad film in my eyes, but there are also objectively bad problems. I’ve heard it described as a broken film before, and that is wholly accurate as you can actually see the seams in the film where the reshoots have been stitched in in order to salvage some of the mess. The plot is all over the place, there are so many flaws, Dr. Doom is ridiculous, his plan is nonsensical, everything is just bad. Really, really, bad. And I wouldn’t even urge you to be tempted to watch it out of curiosity. Do something better with your time. I haven’t even mentioned the bit that really pissed me off, where the three guys wait a few hours for Reed’s buddy to show up (who two of them have never met) so he can go on the mission, but none of them think to ask Sue! Ugh, this film is so bad it makes me angry thinking about it.
And that’s why it’s top of my list.
So that’s that for another year! It’s actually been a pretty good year for movies and I had far more on my top ten of the year, which will be posting on the 31st. But what do you think? What were your worst movies of the year? Do you think there’s been anything that’s been as bad or worse than Fantastic Four? Let me know in the comments!
