Top 10 Least Favorite Movies of 2011

The way I see it, the term "least favorite" could refer to something that's still a favorite, but just the LEAST favorite. This is not the case here. You've seen the 20 movies I've picked as my favorites of 2011, and now, we're going to look at the worst I've seen. Some of these I was hyped for and disappointed by, and some of these I knew were going to be bad but saw anyway for the sake of this blog. Now, I know many people enjoyed a lot of these movies, so I'll try my best to give my reasons as to why I did not like them. With that said, let's take a look at my Top 10 least favorite movies of 2011!

10.Paranormal Activity 3

Say what you will about the other movies in this franchise, but I thought the first two Paranormal Activity movies were very thrilling in the way that they were detail-oriented. They always had my eyes scanning all across the picture, wondering what would happen next as I tried to capture every little detail on the screen. Paranormal Activity 3, on the other hand, is just way too obvious. It continues the story smoothly with little to no plot holes, but it's so boring that I stop caring after a while. The movie is set up to make the sources of the scares obvious. In some cases, this would mean making the source the only object on screen, like keeping the camera focused on a door. In other cases, this simply means making the source stick out like a sore thumb, like a lit chandelier that's about to fall and crash. If that's not bad enough, the movie also has several attempts at mixing in humor, which falls into the trap that plagues many horror franchises by eventually making it too silly. It's not as bad as other horror franchises have gotten, but it's still a disappointing entry.

9.Transformers: Dark of the Moon

As a defender of the first Transformers, I can honestly say that this third entry is the movie that everyone made the first movie out to be. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a generic summer blockbuster with stellar effects, well-constructed action, and in this case, some impressive 3D effects, all given to a boring story. For every 5 minutes that you get with the robots, you get about 20 minutes with the human characters. On top of that, they're completely unnecessary, as all Shia Labeouf does throughout the movie is job hunting. As a result, the characters feel underdeveloped, the movie is bloated to a 158-minute running time when it could easily have been 90 minutes, and while the action is well-constructed, there's never any real suspense due to a lack of conflict. It's not as insulting as the 2nd film, but it's still a forgettable, unnecessary, and boring entry.

8.Cars 2

The first Cars is often times considered the black sheep of Pixar, and while I do agree with that, a black sheep is still a sheep (meaning I still enjoyed the first Cars). Cars 2, on the other hand, is a goat. It fails as both a piece of genuine storytelling and a fun family comedy. It's as if someone came up with a concept for a straight-to-DVD sequel and decided to put tons of money into it to make it look like a major release. The animation looks great, but the characters are bland, it's not clever enough with the idea of spy cars coming to life, and none of the jokes made me laugh. Mater does not work as the protagonist. Every attempt to create a dramatic scene with him feels like something out of a sappy soap opera. By animation standards, all of this is pretty typical, but by Pixar standards, Cars 2 is a major disappointment.

7.Tower Heist

Yet another snorefest on this list, Tower Heist is as boring as it is pretentious. It's a standard heist movie about four guys, led by a man played by Ben Stiller, who group up with a criminal played by Eddie Murphy to steal gold from a man who screwed them over. The movie misses the chances to be as intelligent as something like Ocean's Eleven and instead shoots for a lot of humorous moments. The problem there is that not only are the jokes not funny, but it doesn't even seem like the script has any real jokes to offer. If that's not enough, Brett Ratner's directorial style is dull and flat. As a result, the production looks cheap, and any set-ups for action scenes are too low on scale. The end result is simply forgettable.

Trust me when I say it goes from dull and boring to uncomfortable from here on out.

6.The Hangover Part 2

The first Hangover worked as a comedy because it not only grabbed its jokes through the personalities of its characters, but it also managed to give its raunchy and vulgar humor a sense of joy. The Hangover Part 2, on the other hand, is a carbon copy of the first movie that's more disturbing and scary than it is funny. For one thing, the jokes seem more like something you would see in a horror film, and the reactions of the characters are pretty close to that as well. A good example would be when the guys find the cut-off thumb of a friend of theirs. Am I supposed to laugh at that? But the other problem is Todd Phillip's directorial style, which lately has been dropping to a filthy and uncomfortable level. This is a good example of how not every great success needs a sequel.

5.The Green Hornet

Going into this movie, I didn't even expect it to be anything great. Just a simple, fun, mindless superhero movie would've done the trick. Unfortunately, The Green Hornet got two of those right and left out the fun. The first problem with this movie is that it's blatantly derivative. It just throws all of its cliches together for what seems like no apparent reason and without proper structure. Why is the hero's dad such an asshole? Because that's what the father is supposed to do. How can Jay Chou lock onto his enemies with some kind of infrared vision? We don't know, but he needs to have something to make him a super cool fighter. Where do they get all of these gadgets? They just found them in their "secret lair." It's a lazily put together movie in every way; lazy script, lazy effects, lazy performances, and all released in the trash heap known as January. The only difference here is that it's also obnoxious in a desperate attempt to get the audience's attention. It breezes by quickly to create the illusion of exhilaration. Seth Rogen roars throughout most of the movie. Frankly, it all just comes off as annoying. The end result of all this is a movie that's neither fun nor inspiring, thus failing both goals of any superhero movie.

4.Sucker Punch

You know how some pieces of art are so abstract and out-of-the-ordinary that you have no idea how to interpret it? This is nothing like that. This is more like if some video game obsessed schmuck decided to write a script incorporating all of this favorite things; hot girls, robots, Nazis, dragons, the list goes on; not caring enough to put in a coherent story structure alongside that. Sucker Punch delivers some impressive art work through Zack Snyder's signature visual style, but ultimately, the movie is too confusing to turn that art work into a plausible movie. It tries to blur the line between reality and fantasy, but it spends so much time in its fantasy that it forgets the reality of everything, resulting in several plot holes and underdeveloped characters. Eventually, it does return to its reality, but the way it does so is so confusing that the movie loses me completely. And when you can't comprehend what goes on on-screen, you know you have yourself a stinker.

3.Conan the Barbarian

Give this one credit, folks; it was at least as bad as I expected it to be. Conan the Barbarian fails as both a dumb action flick and the inspiring tale of a slave rising to the top that some find the original Schwarzenegger movie to be. To its credit, it's at least more visually impressive than the said Schwarzenegger movie, but only at certain times when it actually knows what it's doing. Other times, it throws random geometric shapes onto its visual representation of its confusing script, with the result feeling uncomfortable. The characters are cardboard cutouts set upon a boring, derivative, and often times confusing story of fantasy epic cliches. The action scenes are horribly filmed and even worse in their editing. Take my advice and just stick with the Schwarzenegger movie.

2.Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

More confusing than Sucker Punch? Hard to believe, yes, but this fourth Pirates movie is a travesty of a blockbuster. Its plot involving Jack Sparrow setting out to find the fountain of youth is disjointed and nonsensical. The main problem is that it keeps finding excuses to pad out the plot without ever really going anywhere. It makes up all this bulls**t mythology about Blackbeard and how to find the fountain, it pulls a romance story out of nowhere, and it constantly goes against the common norm just so it can lazily keep the plot going. For example, when mermaids are brought on land, they don't DIE. Their fins just magically disappear and they can walk on land just like humans. This wouldn't be so bad if the movie had some visual flair, but off of a $250 million budget, the production value is terrible. The production design? Bland. The CGI? Decent, but nothing too special. The cinematography? Lifeless. The action scenes? BOOOOOOOORING. The only redeeming factor in all of this is Johnny Depp, who as always makes Jack Sparrow entertaining. Unfortunately, Sparrow does not work as a main character. He's never had any personality outside of his comedic relief persona that's made him famous in the previous movies, and this REALLY shows in his boring role in Pirates 4. I didn't expect this movie to be particularly good, but the last thing I expected was this utter waste of time, money, and energy.

And the #1 worst movie of the year is.....

Anybody who has read my reviews knew this was coming. Green Lantern is an absolute disaster of a comic book movie. It takes the cake. No redeeming factor about it. Not one good thing came out of it. With that said, I will discuss the two biggest problems first. The first is that it squanders what is supposedly a strong and complex comic book franchise on cliches one after another, and not even properly structured ones. We have the hero reveal himself to his "best friend," and then the friend suggests that he should go get the girl for no reason except so they can have a pep talk about courage. Oh, and did I mention that the hero used to be friends with the villain, who's twisted for some reason? Reynolds is a great actor, but his character is so bland that he's never given enough to do. I mean, this is the great DC superhero that everyone's been telling me about? The other problem is that it had an incredible budget behind it, so much so that the studio actually went overbudget. Apart from the fact that this hero was not as well-known as Batman or Superman and spending so much money on it was a stupid idea, the production value is an unbelievable travesty. The CGI looks like something off of a TV special, the production design and cinematography are lifeless, and the score is dull and surprisingly out of place. Maybe if this was a TV special based off of a not-so-well-known hero, it wouldn't be this bad, but as it is, it's a travesty, and by far the worst movie of 2011.

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