What was your biggest pop culture disappointment?

[Savonarola]

I saw this article at The AV Club in the wake of the final episode of Game of Thrones. I was wondering how Languish would answer this; what book/game/movie/television show/whatever do you think was the biggest disappointment?

For me it was "Highlander 2: The Quickening," starring Sean Connery at a low point of his career and Christopher Lambert at a high point in his.



I was in college when it came out; a number of my friends were monster fans of the original movie.  We had to wait a week after release because the one movie theater in Houghton, Michigan didn't release it until a week later and even the "Big" "City" of Marquette, Michigan didn't have a theater that played it as well.  (Which turned out to be fortunate, Marquette was 100 miles over bad roads away.  Highlander 2 was enough of a cinematic punch to the solar plexus as it was; journeying to see it would have been adding insult to injury.)

[crazy canuck]

Star Wars episodes 1-3

[Caliga]

Dungeons & Dragons: the movie

[Josquius]

Matrix sequels

[Malthus]

The Hobbit movies is my choice - I loved the LoTR movies, despite their various sins, seeing them in the theatre as the came out, and I have seen the extended versions more than once; and of course I was a huge fan of the books.

But the Hobbit movies were, sadly, tedious.

They amplified every flaw in the LoTR series, rather than those movies' virtues. Parts were boring and other parts were laughable, or sometimes both at once. 

I went into these thinking how could this project go wrong? I mean, Jackson was already immersed in this universe ... I went in with high hopes.

[Barrister]

I think it was Revenge of the Sith.

So, I went opening night to Phantom Menace - loved it on first watch, but quickly could see many flaws.  But still, it had been 15+ years since the last Star Wars movie, so I couldn't really hate it.  Attack of the Clones kind of dragged, but I liked the end battle with all of  the clones, in particular when they start mixing in the Imperial March.

But Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be the big payoff.  You actually get to see how Anakin turns into Darth Vader.  How could you screw that up?  Well George Lucas found a way.  I remember apologizing to my then-girlfriend (now wife) for taking her to it.


Now I did go back to it a couple years ago with my kids.  With suitably low expectations it wasn't that bad (it wasn't good, but not that bad).  But in terms of disappointment felt at the time?  Revenge of the Sith in the theatre was it.

[Savonarola]

Dungeons & Dragons: the movie

I had a friend who watched it in the theater and then called up our gaming group one at a time to tell us "I've suffered for all of us; don't see The Dungeons and Dragons Movie."  I took his advice and have never seen it.

[Malthus]

I think it was Revenge of the Sith.

So, I went opening night to Phantom Menace - loved it on first watch, but quickly could see many flaws.  But still, it had been 15+ years since the last Star Wars movie, so I couldn't really hate it.  Attack of the Clones kind of dragged, but I liked the end battle with all of  the clones, in particular when they start mixing in the Imperial March.

But Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be the big payoff.  You actually get to see how Anakin turns into Darth Vader.  How could you screw that up?  Well George Lucas found a way.  I remember apologizing to my then-girlfriend (now wife) for taking her to it.


Now I did go back to it a couple years ago with my kids.  With suitably low expectations it wasn't that bad (it wasn't good, but not that bad).  But in terms of disappointment felt at the time?  Revenge of the Sith in the theatre was it.

You must be a particularly optimistic person, to have gone into the third prequel with high hopes. 

[Syt]

Disappointment implies high expectations, and off the top of my head I have a few notable ones:

- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
I very much enjoyed Jackson's adaptation of the books; as good an adaptation as one could hope for, despite some silliness and unnecessary changes. So I was looking forward to The Hobbit: AUJ. Watched it with a friend at the IMAX, in 48 FPS projection. I was rather astonished by how unremarkable it was. It captured some scenes of the books nicely, but it left almost no impression on me, and I still haven't seen the other two movies.

- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
I was a big Star Wars nerd in the 80s/90s, far more so than today. A friend similarly so. So imagine my surprise when in June of 1999 he drove up to my apartment, picked me up and then drove with me to another friend. He had a VHS bootleg of TPM. The movie was out in the US, but Germany would have its official release 4 or 5 months later. Due to the magic of camcorders and the internet, though, almost anyone with a passing interest in the movie had seen it by that point. It was one of the last big blockbuster movies to have such a time delay between release in North American in Europe (delays of months or even of a year or more were not uncommon before - the idea of movies or TV shows premiering at the same time in the US and Germany was a pipe dream). Anyways, I had enjoyed the Special Editions, the first time I had seen the movies on the big screen, so I was hyped. And was left very underwhelmed. I partly put it down to the bad VHS copy of a shaky camcorder recording, but when I got the original home video release a year later this only partly changed. I don't hate the movie, but it left me very "meh."

- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I really loved Morrowind. I loved the lore, then openness, the story, the bizarre world it was set in. I didn't play through the main campaign till last year, but I spent a good chunk of time in the early 2000s roaming Vvardenfell, mostly just doing random exploring. When Oblivion was announced I was greatly looking forward to more of the same, but better and prettier. After a few hours with the game I was left rather disappointed. The game looked good, and the combat was fun for its time. But instead of the Ashlands and Mushroom forests of Morrowind I was now in a generic European medieval setting. Some of the quests were interesting, but I quickly dropped playing it. I still occasionally return to it in the hopes the spark catches, but it just doesn't.

- Gothic 3
I loved Gothic 1 and 2. Well designed quasi-open worlds (gated by hard enemies), a mature world that makes reasonable sense, and a fun adventure to go on. Yay! Gothic 3 promised an even larger world, more openness, and more of everything. After the small island there'd be the vast mainland with cities, and war, and stuff! Unfortunately, the developers bit off more than they could chew, and the publishers lost their patience. The released game was a hot mess. The "tutorial" dropped you in the middle of a huge fight between orcs and humans that was just ridiculously hard. Like in previous games, your underleveled hero could get NPCs to escort them along dangerous roads - only the NPCs were broken. For example, a ranged character would only defend himself if he took damage. Which sucked when he was attacked by melee enemies. Then there were basic, normally harmless enemies that could stun-lock you to death. The game was a broken mess. Shortly after release the devs and publisher parted ways. I think the game eventually got fixed, not least thanks to fan patches. Piranha Bytes went on to keep making the same games again and again - Fantasy setting, hero gets three factions to join. Rinse repeat: Risen 1-3, Elex, ... JoWood released a sequel-in-name-only that was panned by fans and critics, and later went under.

Of these, I think Gothic 3 stung the most, not least because of the aftermath. PB had proven themselves passionate, innovative developers before, releasing relatively unconventional RPGs. But since G2 and 3 there has been little innovation except for new settings ("Pirates/Carribean fantasy!" "Post-apocalyptic fantasy!"). JoWood went under - they were never great publishers but tended to have interesting titles. Their brand was absorbed by THQ Nordic - again, they release interesting, but usually a bit janky games ... and they have signed Piranha Bytes again.

[Syt]

Dungeons & Dragons: the movie

I had a friend who watched it in the theater and then called up our gaming group one at a time to tell us "I've suffered for all of us; don't see The Dungeons and Dragons Movie."  I took his advice and have never seen it.

I saw the movie in the theater with a girl I was dating (it was her pick). Fucking hell, was that an aweful movie.

I had low expectations, though, so I wasn't *that* disappointed.

[Syt]

Oh, honorary mention: The new Conan movie with Jason Momoa. I think Momoa was great as Conan. And the part with his childhood, and the heist on the prison are not bad. Everything after that, however, was horrible. I guess my disappointment came from going in with low expectation, enjoying the first half hour or so, and then being treated to utter drivel.

[Malthus]

I missed the glory that was Dungeons & Dragons: the Movie.

I can't say the Highlander sequel was a huge disappointment to me, for the simple reason that by the time I got around to seeing it, I had already heard that it stunk (I saw it and found it stunk even more than I expected, but still).

[Barrister]

You must be a particularly optimistic person, to have gone into the third prequel with high hopes. 

Well for a trilogy that was supposed to be about Anakin's fall into evil... the first two movies had barely shown anything yet.  Phantom Menace just shows him as a kid - he isn't evil at all.  Second movie at least he's an adult, but shows him as a bit petulant and he falls in love with Padme.  Revenge of the Sith was where the meat of the story was going to happen.

[Eddie Teach]

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

[frunk]

Star Trek movie reboots.  I was never a huge Star Wars fan so I haven't been that disappointed by the prequels, but the Abrams retread is just terrible.