It’s that time again where the year has come to an end and everything needs to be sorted out into lists. I didn’t see every film in 2015 because that would most likely be impossible and there’s plenty I avoided because I didn’t like the look of them so this list is only based on the films that I saw and didn’t like which means it will probably leave off some really bad films since I didn’t subject myself to them.

Since my scale is entirely based on enjoyment you will notice that the list doesn’t necessarily correspond to the review score. My views on these things change over time as I think about them in relation to one another. I have made the headings clickable links to the original reviews so that you can see what I thought in more detail. This is of course a highly subjective list and it’s all open to debate so here goes:

10: Jurassic World

Jurassic World was the third highest grossing film of all time until recently but I just wasn’t a fan of it. Aspects of it were interesting such as the dinosaurs being tied to the idea of societal fads and how they never last for long periods of time which is why it isn’t higher on this list.

Chris Pratt brought a lot of charisma to his character and Bryce Dallas Howard’s character wasn’t as anti-feminist as many said so it gets some points there. Unfortunately the two young actors were terrible and slowed the film down considerably whenever it cuts to them.

The film basically boils down to another Jurassic Park film where Dinosaurs chase after people in the jungle and it didn’t even do anything remotely entertaining or different with this pretty tired plot. There was also far too much reliance on recreating iconic moments from the first one. This film proves that nostalgia isn’t always a good thing.

9: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

The final installment of The Hunger Games saga is a very dull affair that brings the whole series to an underwhelming conclusion.

It isn’t higher on the list because the source material that makes the basis for this film is the poorest of the trilogy of books so there’s not an awful lot to work with. It also has to fight an uphill battle right from the start since it’s technically half a film. Splitting the last novel into two films was a bad idea from the beginning and this installment does nothing to make a case for how necessary it is.

The running time is obscenely bloated and it takes far too long before it gets to anywhere resembling interesting. It seems that all the good stuff is happening off screen rather than being the focus like it should. A strong performance from the always great Jennifer Lawrence does nothing to save this.

8: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Another Young Adult adaptation makes it into the top 10 worst films of the year and deservedly so. The first film wasn’t all that bad but this one ruins any potential the franchise had.

The structure of this film is entirely predictable with the dull characters moving from place to place to catch their breath for a few minutes before something happens that means they have to move on again. This happens again and again until the film ends without actually ending.

Some genuine moments of tension exist but they are very few and far between and any intrigue is cast aside within the first 15 minutes. I’m unsure if the quality of this entry can be attributed to the book or not but either way it’s a waste of something that actually had potential.

7: Top Five

Top Five isn’t anywhere near the worst film of the year by any stretch but I just didn’t like it very much.

Much of this is completely subjective as it’s supposed to be a comedy and the style of humour here isn’t really to my taste.  I usually find Chris Rock pretty funny with his stand up so I was surprised that I didn’t enjoy this film a lot more. Many of the exchanges designed to be amusing drag on to the point where they become unfunny.

The film does portray the falseness of Hollywood quite well and I found the structure being akin to a stand up comedy show to be a clever touch but there wasn’t enough here for me to enjoy which is a shame as I know Chris Rock is capable of much better.

6: Insurgent

I promise that Insurgent is the last Young Adult entry on this list. I had almost no hope for this once since Divergent was so bad and wouldn’t have watched it if it hadn’t been for a friend wanting to see it.

This film fails to be engaging on almost any level. The characters are poorly defined to the point that some talented actors have nothing to work with, there is no real story beyond buildup leading to more buildup with absolutely no payoff and as a franchise it does a really poor job of justifying its own existence. I can’t believe there’s going to be another one of these things.

Shailene Woodley does have one or two moments where she gets to show off her considerable acting talents with some solid emotional beats. Her performance definitely elevates some really terrible material. The worst sin is that none of this mess is at all entertaining to watch.

5: Absolutely Anything

I would rather have done almost Absolutely Anything else than watch this. There, I got the obvious gag out of the way. Believe it or not that gag is funnier than anything else you’ll find in this mess.

Wish fulfillment is always a fun idea to play with as it’s always interesting to see what a normal guy will do when he has the power to get whatever he wants. Unfortunately any fun you might have with this film stops with the potential the idea has. Simon Pegg’s irritating character does the most unambitious things with infinite power and the supporting characters are insultingly bland at best.

Given the director’s connection to Monty Python this should have been a lot funnier and the fact that there’s almost nothing redeemable about it baffles me given the people involved. This also serves as the final film for the legendary Robin Williams who voices a dog here. This serves as a massive insult to the memory of one of cinema’s greats.

4: Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys is so bad that they couldn’t even spell the title right. That’s not entirely accurate in fairness but it certainly sounds good.

The best way to describe this film is that it exists as franchise maintenance and little else. All it really does is remind us that the Terminator franchise is a thing that was once popular and tries to keep it relevant but fails at pretty much every turn. Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day are up there with my favourite films of all time and this film suggests that the people involved have seen them but don’t really understand why people like them.

When you put Jai Courtney in anything the result is always a bad one and this one continues to prove that point. Casting him as Kyle Reese is such a profound misstep as he is completely incapable of bringing that classic character to life. Of course the script is such roadkill that he doesn’t have much to work with but the guy has previous on this sort of thing. Emilia Clarke is similarly miscast with very little presence of her own and Arnie is given far too much exposition which robs his iconic T-800 of anything that people might have liked in the past. Even the people who made this film had no faith in it as shown by them giving away a major twist in the trailer and poster.

3: The Lobster

The Lobster probably marks a film that I didn’t get more than it being objectively bad. It’s so high on this list because I found it such a horror to sit through.

I like the idea of a dystopian society where being single is frowned upon and this world is used as a satire of society’s obsession with relationships and how it is still frowned upon to be alone after being a certain age. The problem I had is that this works in theory but in practice I found the execution to be sorely lacking.

Scenes drag on endlessly to the point where they become painful to watch and the plot just meanders along without really going anywhere for me until the sweet mercy of the end credits kicks in. I’m positive that this film has an audience but I’m also positive that I am not in it.

2: Pixels

I really wanted to like Pixels. It should be very up my street since the focus is on retro video games and I love retro video games so what went wrong?.

Like with Jurassic World, nostalgia isn’t always a good thing as proven here. The whole thing is silly but in the right hands it could have been an endearing sort of silly. Adam Sandler and friends are definitely not the right hands to make this work. Sandler plays his usual “small boy trapped in a grown up body” with the usual offensively immature shtick that made me stop watching the garbage that he tends to be involved with in the first place. One major sin it commits is that anyone who enjoys playing retro games is portrayed as being a directionless loser so the film laughs at people who enjoy these things rather than laugh with them. Alienating what should be your core audience is not a good start.

I will give it some credit for some entertaining set pieces that are well put together. Life size Pac-Man and Donkey Kong has some entertainment value but any credibility is lost when we as an audience are supposed to believe that any world would elect Kevin James as the president. He is shown to be incompetent at almost every turn and every other character in the film is beyond irritating. There’s a lesson to be learned here, no matter what Adam Sandler is involved in you should avoid it like the plague.

1: Fantastic Four

I had a good idea that Fantastic Four -or Fant4stic– would be my least favourite film of the year while I was watching it. It was looking pretty bad before that point but actually seeing it confirmed it.

It could be said that I’m slightly bitter as I feel that these characters will be better served in the hands of Marvel Studios but that’s not the case as I love the X-Men franchise and that isn’t owned by Marvel. I do think that these characters belong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I’m not against them being out on their own as long as the films are good.

This film could be studied as a manual for how not to adapt superheroes to the big scene as it completely misses the point of these characters at every turn. The casting is terrible as none of them feel like the Fantastic Four. I’m not talking about casting a black actor as the Human Torch either, that doesn’t bother me but when he bears no resemblance to the character I’ve been reading about then it does bother me.

The whole production was plagued with problems from day one and all of it shows on screen as the story jumps around so clumsily it’s hard to figure out what this film is really supposed to be about. It feels like this started life as a dimension hopping superpower story and had the Fantastic Four slapped on it at some point later. Whatever went wrong this definitely shouldn’t have been made and the complete lack of success speaks for itself. Even if the rights aren’t given back to Marvel Studios then I definitely don’t want to see any more of these. Nobody involved in this knew what they were doing and that’s why it is my least favourite film of 2015.

 

My best of list will follow soon but I hope you enjoyed my reopening of some cinematic wounds.