With Christmas literally right around the corner as of this writing and 2017 coming to a close, I figure it’s about time to go over the movies that were released in 2017, both good, bad and disappointing. I would’ve done this last month, but there were still some movies that I needed to see before I start making these lists. For my first list, I want to go over what I consider to be the most disappointing movies of the year. Keep in mind that these movies aren’t necessarily awful, but there were some real issues in these films that really kept them from achieving their true potential. So, with that in mind, let’s go over some serious disappointment.
Alien Covenant
There were quite a few disappointing films this year, but Alien Covenant hurts the most. I’m a huge fan of the Alien films, even Prometheus. So, when I heard that Ridley Scott was going to direct another genuine Alien film, I was excited. This was the franchise that really launched the director’s career. Oh, man. When I left the theater, I was legitimately angry for a number of reasons. One, the story-line from Prometheus was quickly swept under the rug with that film’s main protagonist getting killed between movies. With the exception of maybe one or two characters, the characters in Covenant were cannon fodder, essentially. The original film was effective, because you got to know and connect with that film. We don’t get that connection here, except with David, Walter and Tennessee. Another issue was this film essentially being an origin story for the franchise’s key monster, the xenomorph, and it was…..lame. I’ve warmed up to the film over the course of several viewings, but this was my most anticipated movie of the year. It let me down considerably. 7 months after the film’s release and I still haven’t forgiven Ridley Scott for fucking this one up. I was hoping that maybe a director’s cut on Blu-Ray would help sort some issues out, but alas, no such luck.
Ultimate Justice
I’m not the kind of guy that wants to rip independent films to shreds, far from it. I can see the potential in that field and some stuff that comes from indie film makers are legitimately good. Ultimate Justice should’ve been one of those 80’s-style action films like The Expendables. Here’s the problem: It’s not. The film features a strong cast of physical actors like Mathis Landwehr, Matthias Hues, Mike Moller and Mark Dacascos, but it doesn’t really take advantage of these folks, with the exception of Mike Moller, but he can’t carry a movie like this on his own. On top of that, the German-speaking cast members were dubbed over and it’s painfully obvious. The dubbing really brings down what is otherwise on okay action film.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
I like Tom Holland as the new Peter Parker/Spider-Man. I like Michael Keaton as The Vulture. I like the fact that the film is not another origin story for the character. What I don’t like is being handed another mediocre Spider-Man movie that fails to expand on what we already know about the character. I also don’t like the fact that Tony Stark has to be a major player in nearly every MCU movie. He just distracts from what’s going on. I honestly prefer the Andrew Garfield movies, because I’m not liking the whole “awkward Peter Parker” shtick anymore. It’s old-hat and it’s not amusing. Sorry, guys. This one just didn’t do it for me.
Birth of the Dragon
This is another one that should have been a knock-out punch. Instead, what we get is a movie about Bruce Lee that doesn’t focus on Bruce Lee. The blatant bait-and-switch by the director to focus on one of the character’s students was a really stupid move, and audiences were quick to nail Goerge Nolfi to the wall for it. So much so, that he had to re-edit and shoot more scenes featuring Bruce Lee, played by Philip Ng. The damage was already done, and the film was already mired in controversy long before it was released. When Philip Ng is on the screen as Bruce Lee, that’s when it’s good. When he’s not on the screen, that’s when it sucks. Again, like other films on this list, Birth of the Dragon isn’t a terrible movie, but it fails to capitalize on the one thing that should have made it stand out a bit more: Bruce Lee.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Guy Ritchie is usually a pretty reliable director with films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Sherlock Holmes. But with King Arthur, Ritchie was way out of his element. Never mind that movies about the legendary King Arthur have existed before this one. The problem with this film is not with the cast. It’s with the direction of the film and the story. It takes the most memorable elements of the legend and throws them out the window or it subverts certain ideas to try and craft something new. But what really gets my goat is the whole Rock’N’Roll approach to the film. The music, the editing and the visuals just don’t mesh with what Guy Ritchie is trying to convey. It has its moments and is kind of fun, but this was a missed opportunity.
The Villainess
In spite of a strong opening and closing sequence, The Villainess is let down by an extremely bloated and slow-moving middle act. Some of the advertisements led people to believe that this movie was a combination of Kill Bill, La Femme Nikita, and John Wick. Quite frankly, those were much better movies than what we ended up with. Don’t get me wrong, the good parts in this film are very, very good, but you have to slog through some really slow-moving parts to get to them. Honestly, and this comes down to personal preference, but I don’t like the direction went in, and I don’t like the way it ended. I love good Korean films, and The Villainess could have been one of them, but decisions on the part of the director keep it from reaching those heights, so to speak. It could have been so much more.
There were a lot of movies that were released during the summer of 2017 and the majority of them were clunkers like The Mummy and Transformers. But those were really obvious targets. I wanted to focus on ones that shouldn’t have disappointed me but did. So, those were my most disappointing movies of 2017, at least the ones that stuck out the most.