By Sheersho Zaman
Throughout the ages, the movie business has developed into a “titanic” industry (See what I did there?). Groundbreaking films have been brought to us by various great minds and they were made even better by all the actors and actresses with their brilliant acting. Now, it wasn’t as such that every movie that came out was gold and they all left a mark on the watcher. There were a lot of movies that were mediocre at best and a lot of others that was just bad. However, every once in a while there was a movie that truly redefined the meaning of the word “bad.” These were the kind of films that people not only refrained from watching, but given the unfortunate circumstance that they did watch it, it’s something they would want to erase from memory. Without further a due, here are a few of them:
1. The Happening
Ah yes, right of the bat! A M. Night Shyamalan classic. “The Happening” truly re-defines the genre. What exactly that genre is, remains kind of a mystery. It’s also kind of hard to explain what exactly this movie is about. When reading the IMDB synopsis, the general response is usually “what”. And that’s exactly what the movie is, a whole lot of “What.” All you need to know is there are a lot of plants involved, and very random lines. And Zoey Deschanchel. Is that enough incentive to watch it? Hopefully not. Stay as far away from this movie as possible. Or watch it for pure comedic relief.
2. Avatar: The Last Airbender
Fans of the TV show will out right deny there was ever such a movie out, and rightly so. Nickolodeon struck gold when they brought out this gem of an animated series, however then this happened. Once again its M Night Shyamalan responsible for this “unique” take on the Avatar universe. Not only does the movie live up to the expectations set by the animated TV series, which so skillfully and wonderfully expressed the complexities and controversies of war and oppression, but it completely took that and dragged it through the dirt. The actors were almost novice in a sense and the script was…”interesting” to say the least. This is the movie people bring up when the “good animated shows should not be made in to a movie” debate comes up.
3. Dragonball Evolution
Dragon Ball Evolution is pretty much the father of all bad movie adaptations. For something as iconic as Dragonball, one can imagine that regardless of the flaws of a film, it would still have the hardcore fanboys defending it. Unfortunately that is not the case for this film. It’s honestly a borderline traumatic experience that throws all of our favorite characters in such a poor portrayal. It does not come anywhere near to doing justice to the original anime.
4. Transformers: Age of Extinction
All the Transformer films are known to be not that great in terms of a cinematic experience. Michael Bay is known for one thing and that’s pretty much what the majority of the films are comprised of. Explosions! The fourth installment of the Transformers franchise introduces us to brand new characters. However what really fails in this movie is the script and development of said characters. It’s worth mentioning that one should just check out the “Everything Wrong with Transformers Age of Extinction” video on Youtube to get an idea of what’s being said here. Or you could watch the movie, which probably would not be a very pleasant experience
Before anything else, it should be noted that the above list is simply personal preference talking. One can like all of these films with all their hearts and it would be fine. This is just how it felt from a personal perspective and should in no way undermine your own feelings for the movies. That being said, the movies did lack something and felt like they were either doing too much or too little.