By Luca Newton
Unfortunately, back to the negatives - today, I'll be going in detail on the biggest disappointments for me last year..
A hefty amount of films were watched by me last year through the cinemas and general streaming services. A far amount more than I'd ever actually done before. Due to this I have a hefty favourites list of the year, but by that same extent there are a handful of films that underwhelmed and disappointed me. To count on this list, I will have had to expect to love the film, but ended up not liking it much. Before I get into this, just know that these are just my opinions, and aren't at all the objective truth by any means. I'd like to see which films disappointed you, that didn't disappoint me. Let's not waste time though..
Also, I may be discussing vague spoilers, not too much but if you wanna go blind for any of these films, I'd suggest just quickly skimming my list and coming back after you've seen them!
#5 - Ghostbusters Afterlife (dir. Jason Reitman)
To kick off the list, a film that I hadn't had like HUGE expectations for, but I expected to enjoy. Ghostbusters Afterlife is a reboot sequel (or "requel" in Scream terms) of the beloved Ghostbusters film that had 2 separate attempts at a follow-up with a direct sequel, then a straight up reboot with all women.. so they decided to settle on a reboot that keeps continuity from the original, but tells a story through a new generation. On paper, this sounds good, and I know people love it for that reason. Hell, I loved the new Scream and The Force Awakens which basically did the same thing. So, why did I leave the cinema heavily exhausted and massively disappointed? Why was I satisfied with the new Scream and not the new Ghostbusters? I think it was ultimately down to the writing for me, and how they handled stuff.
The film follows a young girl, Phoebe who is related to Dr Egon Spengler. After the timely death of Egon (that parallels reality with the death of Harold Ramis), her with her family move to his old house he left in his will. The rest of the story I couldn't tell you. It's mainly about Phoebe rediscovering her past, and there is literally no other aim to it. It's a literal delve into the past, when I was waiting for something to go forward. But I don't mind nostalgia and references - I mean, I actually love it when done right. Here, I wouldn't say it's done right. Personally, I felt the characters suffered from poor writing. Phoebe would have been likeable had she made any impact on me, because I legitimately did not care for her. Finn Wolfhard's character had absolutely nothing to do, which lead to him being just.. THERE most the time. The character I did like was Paul Rudd's.. he was genuinely charming, but I would attribute this to the fact it is SCIENTIFICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to not like Paul Rudd. Now, Podcast on the other hand? This boy got given a consistent script of absolutely POOR dialogue, I felt bad for the actor. Ultimately the film had hardly any, well.. ghost busting. It left me disappointed. I will say, however, I liked how they handled the late Harold Ramis. I think it was done tastefully.
I'd say the film is made with enough care that I wouldn't say it's terrible, it's not one of the worst films of the year.. it just could've been great and I sadly did not like it. I'm happy that others enjoyed it more than I did. though.
#4 - Don't Look Up (dir. Adam McKay)
Adam McKay is a generally seen as a divisive director, but is also highly acclaimed at the same time. Despite the split in opinions on his films, they're a sure lock for the Academy's selection of best pictures. As was the case with Adam McKay's new Don't Look Up, for Netflix. The film sported a genuinely insane cast spanning from Leonardo DiCaprio to Meryl Streep. With the trailers, and the concept of it being a political satire on how a literal meteor can be hurdling to Earth and it still can be denied and become a political movement interested me. However, I wasn't impressed. I loved aspects of it, but it largely fell flat.
I am a fan of the message it's trying to put across. Especially in this situation that we're currently in both with the worldwide pandemic, but more intentionally global warming. Both big issues that this film really apply to. So, as someone who really wants this message to be put across, I really wanted to love this movie. I am not like others who are pissed off at the message, as I feel they are part of the problem ultimately. I think it truly comes down to execution. The film isn't funny or witty like it thinks it is, none of its gags had me laughing and instead I was kind of confused why some gags were still running. It handles its important message in a really smug and obnoxious way, which can be good, but I think is mishandled here. The editing is ATROCIOUS. I get it's McKay's "style", but it ruins a lot of the film.
It's still got something important to say, and is actually pretty entertaining. Also I absolutely love the ending of the film, it's handled really well. Other than that, I was left disappointed at how badly a film of this importance was handled.
#3 - The Harder They Fall (dir. Jeymes Samuel)
Only few movies fell harder for me than The Harder They Fall for me, and that's a damn shame because I was so very excited for this film. Jeymes Samuel's directorial debut with a stacked cast of the greatest black actors working today with the main draw being a stylish western? You had me hooked. It left me extremely disappointed.
The actors are all great, let me get that straight. Jonathan Majors continues to be one of my favourite actors working today, he REEKS charisma and you just can't hate him in anything he's in. Lakeith Stanfield was another standout for me, he just EXUDES cool, I wish we saw more of him because I ate up anything he showed up for me. I think the soundtrack and direction are also pretty good. My issue with the film is that it was entirely aimless and too long. The story didn't warrant a feature-length and it halts any enjoyment you would get from it. It also feels like a parody of the western genre, even though that is definitely not the intention of it. There's something about it that feels too clean?
I enjoyed parts and didn't think it was bad, but there was so much potential wasted here in my opinion. I am, however, interested to see what Jeymes Samuel does next and I'm glad he's getting praise for his movie, I just couldn't enjoy it, which is really upsetting as it was one of my most anticipated films of the year.
#2 - Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
This one will get the most flames, hence why I put it in the thumbnail. Dune Part One is an adaptation of the beloved novel by Frank Herbert, at least the first half of it. It's from the director of masterpieces like Arrival. Everyone was praising and loving this movie. All this culminated in me being very excited to see it. I was ready to be sucked into Arrakis like everyone else was, I even chose to go to an IMAX screening.
The result? An insanely boring and aimless slog. Now, it's not bad by any means. It has incredible CGI and VFX, the world-building was pretty good and the score is incredible. The issue is, it is a slow burn that never really goes out. You're constantly building towards something that never happens. When the film ends, it feels like it just started and it's actually over and you have to wait 2 years for the film that actually does things to progress the story past overlong exposition and build-up. And I don't mind setup and a film to really focus on the characters and the world to make the next part that bit more impactful, it's just that the film here is not doing that. Maybe tit's the writing or the lack of focus, but our main character Paul is genuinely one of the most generic, boring protagonists you'll ever see, and I know he made the trope, but I wish he'd have a semblance of an interesting character trait. I have completely forgot his character, it's just very uninteresting. I feel like the best character was probably Lady Jessica because she had personality and emotions - every other character was completely emotionless. It made it very hard to connect to anyone, which made the final act particularly not as tense as it thought it was. I wasn't invested, I was bored.
I definitely would have liked Dune more if I was able to connect to any of the characters, or if they gave us some genuine moments in the build-up. Instead we are left with a boring movie that will become irrelevant when the second part comes out. But it was pretty I guess.
#1 - Last Night in Soho (dir. Edgar Wright)
Nothing pains me more than saying this, but Last Night in Soho is by far the most disappointing film of 2021. It isn't BAD but it's mediocre, and Edgar Wright is one of my absolute favourite directors of all time. He had an extremely consistent track record with all his films being at least 9/10 for me. He knew how direct these witty films with heart. Baby Driver is absolutely within my top 3 films, I absolutely adore it. So, I hear about Last Night in Soho, a horror film by Edgar Wright starring Anya Taylor Joy - I was interested. Then the teaser came and absolutely hooked me with how stunning it looked.
Come to the time I'm sitting down to watch it finally. I was so excited for it. It just didn't deliver. The first half was really good. Not exactly peak Edgar Wright, but it was charming and intriguing. In particular, the first time Eloise goes into the past and explores the streets of Soho in the 60s was STUNNING, and so interesting, direction was top notch. It's a phenomenal and keeps the film away from being bad. I really did like the first half. The issue was the plot sort of losing intrigue halfway through, and becoming a mystery detective film in the second half with sloppy writing and nothing really that interesting. They try to scare you, but the scares just aren't scary and in the second half that relies on them, it was detrimental that they were scary because there is no substance there. They had a lot of potential for the scares with such a visually dynamic concept, but it's lacking in originality. What is worse is that the ending is HORRIBLE. It has an absolutely tasteless message and completely ruined the movie for me.
I still wouldn't call it bad, but perhaps that's just me desperately wanting to like this film.. It just didn't do it for me. I thought it had a horrible message, it wasn't remotely scary or interesting and looses all of its steam halfway through. It's a worthy watch, but I was so disappointed with it. I really wanted to love it, I was expecting an incredible film. It severely undelivered. I hope Edgar Wright's next film is better.
That's all the films that disappointed me this year. There are films I like elss, but had no expectations for to begin with, hence why Matrix Resurrections isn't here for example. My next post may or may not be a blog focused on the new Scream movie.. My favourites of 2021 will probably come in a week or so..
Thanks for reading.
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