With all the Marvel superhero movies being produced, I wonder how many people’s adolescent memories are being disappointed by big studio renditions. (Movies made about DC characters don’t figure with me, because I never had any interest in them in the first place.)

The biggest disappointment to me, however, has been G.I.Joe. As a kid, I loved the toys and the comics, and while the first movie instalment was mildly amusing, it was clear that they were going to utterly destroy anything that I thought was good in the original stories (eg. just turning it into a sort of sci-fi/military thing).

So what characters/stories/comics/whatever from your youth have been destroyed in the cinema?

Judge Dredd.

Masters of the Universe
Transformers
Fantastic Four
John Carter

…..the list is endless

V for Vendetta
(Would second Judge Dredd)

The last Judge Dredd movie was OK, once they got inside anyway. Crap version of Mega-City, though, obviously didn’t have enough budget to do it justice.

The Star Wars Prequels are the obvious choice I guess. When were little we lived and breathed Star Wars, the special editions were cool, even if not everyone loved them, but the prequels were shit. I tried to defend them, tried to enjoy them but they were such a departure from the originals and a strange mix of very obvious silliness to sell toys etc and quiet long, boring drawn out political drama.

I decided that however good they were, they could never recreate being 5 and watching them for the first time again, but the last one was actually excellent and I’ve got high hopes for Rouge One.

‘Franchises’ are for the most part however a total turn-off for me, it usually means another super hero film, a remake of them one from 5 years ago, the same sickly sweet moral dilemmas, ‘super powers’ that are utterly flexible in their effectiveness to suit the script and piss poor acting.

His Dark Materials.
Shame,as the Golden Compass mess made sure that The Subtle Knife will (probably) never get made now.

I’m already disappointed by a movie that’s not even finished yet. 😥

The Dark Tower.

I’ve never seen any Die Hard or Fast and Furious so that means they must be rubbish 😉

Lord of the Rings was bad, the Hobbit was dire.

DC Comics stuff mostly sucks.

Transformers after a promising start went downhill very quickly.

Star Wars in general has been more awful than good.

James Bond goes up and down like a sine wave.

The original Die Hard was not that bad, but you’re right that the remaining ones in the series were poor. I think it may have been just cashing in on the ‘switch brain off’ action genre. The same’s probably true of Fast & Furious to be fair.

I don’t think that DC is alone in producing poor productions of classic comics. Marvel is not without blame in that regard, but does seem to make a better job of it.

I’m going to suggest Watchmen though. Awesome graphic novel. Not a bad attempt at making it, but could have been better. V for Vendetta has already been mentioned. I’m still not happy with how they butchered the original material.

Being a child of the 90’s most of the things they’re ruining now are fairly new to me.

I’ve quite enjoyed the marvel stuff (I know it’s not high brow entertainment but its a easy fun watch)even though Civil War seemed like a long advert for the next films.

The first judge dredd was woeful, that’s just based on watching the Karl Urban one first.

dragon – Member

Transformers after a promising start

really?

I think the teaser was good, the actual films were dire from the get go

the cartoon movie is a waaaay better film, the bit where optimus dies 😥

Twilight. 😐

The biggest disappointment to me, however, has been G.I.Joe. As a kid, I loved the toys and the comics, and while the first movie instalment was mildly amusing, it was clear that they were going to utterly destroy anything that I thought was good in the original stories (eg. just turning it into a sort of sci-fi/military thing).

This. The Action Force comics were great and often quite realistic – proper ‘boots on the ground’ stuff, often with ‘bigger picture’ political implications and ‘grey’ endings. The American GI Joe take seemed to remove the grittiness and add an unbelievable element, while simplifying the actual plot and making everything black and white.

Judge Dredd.

Judge Dredd yes. Have you seen Dredd (www.dreddthemovie.com/) though?

Lord of the Rings was bad, the Hobbit was dire.

Love the books. Thought LOTR was as good as it could have been. You’re always going to get dissenters, but to me it was an epic labour of love that visually represents the book well.

mogrim

The last Judge Dredd movie was OK, once they got inside anyway. Crap version of Mega-City, though, obviously didn’t have enough budget to do it justice.

It was a more contemporary version as opposed to the high fantasy of the comics (which the Stallone movie did quite well). Worked for me.

jambalaya

I’ve never seen any Die Hard or Fast and Furious so that means they must be rubbish

Die Hard is a classic in every way. But it was a victim of it’s own success in that a huge glut of action movies following tried mimic the formula to varying degrees of success, so looking back it appears pretty unremarkable because you’ve seen it all a thousand times.

Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift is a master piece of post modernist cinema.

Anyway, as per the OP I think the Hulk hasn’t fared well at the cinema.

the Hobbit was dire.

Really, really terrible. Just, well, boring really, as if they took the last 15 minutes of LOTR as the ongoing benchmark.

Golden Compass +many. Tragedy that they couldn’t do justice to the book.

It’s a shame that Stallone couldn’t do Dredd properly. He had the chin for it.

still waiting for the folk of the faraway tree movie, would love to see that. Glenn Close for Dame Slap.

the cartoon movie is a waaaay better film

Agreed. Despite not being a Transformers fan way back when.

the bit where optimus dies

30 years later, I still remember my brothers tears!

Judge Dredd – plenty of good visual elements let down by dire screenplay and agent demands (Sylvester wont do it unless we see his face…) I could probably write a dissertation everything that was wrong with it.

Dredd was light years ahead but the exterior visual stuff, as mentioned, just didn’t click. No Hammerstein either. But overall still a 9/10.

Transformers was a let down but TBH we shouldn’t have been surprised considering the director.

I’m going to throw another one in – Resident Evil. First movie was actually pretty good in a cheesy sort of way even if it wasn’t true to the games. But downhill on a very steep trajectory from there.

Oh and Alein vs Predator. Though again, from the above we should have expected that.

Emmanuelle.

I thought LoTR was pretty decent, but agree that The Hobbit was dire….

Hobbit was the obvious disappointment, followed closely by y the star wars prequels, just horrid

Last transformers movie seemed wilfully terrible, almost like Bay set out to spend the most amount of money for the least rewarding experience. Should be used in film school as an object lesson

Judge dredd, v for vendetta, watchman aren’t franchises.

The current dc output leaves a lot to be desired. Star trek movies have been mostly patchy with the wrath of khan being the standout by quite some way.
The first transformers movie was way better than it had any right to be, however since then the standard has been more of the destruction porn you’d expect from Michael bay.
Bond is very hit and miss. The Bourne movies seem to have had their day too.

squirrelking

Dredd was light years ahead but the exterior visual stuff, as mentioned, just didn’t click. No Hammerstein either. But overall still a 9/10.

The ABC robot was never part of the Dredd universe, it was just thrown into the Stallone movie on the chance that they could sell action figures of it if the movie was a hit.

I’m sure i’ll get flamed, but the Marvel films are starting to wear a bit thin for me. They all seem to be building up to something that never appears.

First Transformers movie wasn’t bad, the rest were just gash. THe same for the Matrix films.

Any of the tweenager movies are pretty bad, but then they’re not aimed at me.

Basically anything that promises an epic battle, takes a few movies to get to it only for it to be 6 or 7 folk having a bit of a ruck in a weirdly abandoned location. (Captain America Civil War, i’m looking at you!)

The confessions series.

I never felt like we really explored the protagonists motivation beyond the superficial.

I was just about to chuck int he matrix, ground breaking the first one was, the second and third weren’t even passable.

How about Terminator, 1 and 2 are good and great, but then 😯 👿

I’m sure i’ll get flamed, but the Marvel films are starting to wear a bit thin for me. They all seem to be building up to something that never appears.

You’ll be wanting to read up on the infinity stones then.

But I’d agree the novelty has well and truly worn off.

Anything that refers to itself as ‘a franchise’ and isn’t a Macdonalds is pretty much guaranteed to be absolutely bloody awful.

Mind you, I’m starting from the point of view that I’d rather remove my own kidneys withe a teaspoon than watch a Superhero/Comic Book film. On account of not being at primary school any more.

muppetWrangler – a very valid point. I also felt that the later Carry On films neglected to follow through on the complex, but delicate matters of sexual equality that were bravely raised in the likes of ‘Camping’ and ‘up the Kyber’

Mind you, I’m starting from the point of view that I’d rather remove my own kidneys withe a teaspoon than watch a Superhero film. On account of not being at primary school any more.

Not seen Deadpool then?

Not really for the Primary School audience that one.

I have to admit that thats the only one I’d even contemplate watching PP.

Its not a franchise (yet) though, is it?

I remember watching the trailer for Batman v Superman, and wondered who on earth would go and watch such ridiculously contrived nonsense

‘s kinda part of the wider x-men franchise innit?

Got Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead in it.

binners

Mind you, I’m starting from the point of view that I’d rather remove my own kidneys withe a teaspoon than watch a Superhero/Comic Book film. On account of not being at primary school any more.

Did you watch Old Boy?

ridiculously contrived nonsense

I make it a rule never to watch something that isn’t ridiculously contrived nonsense. That’s the best part.

Two hours of entirely plausible ordinary happenings to everyday folks would bore the tits off me. I get enough of that at work and at home.

Thought LOTR was as good as it could have been.

I really enjoyed them (for the most part – a few very painful scenes though) but I don’t think they have aged at all well, unlike Harry Potter which are still very fresh now.

Surely that one jumped the shark though PP?

Surely that one jumped the shark though?

Nah! the weirder and more outlandish the better as far as I’m concerned.

I thought it was much better than Man of Steel, which was dull as dishwater.

Not the worst Batman ( George Clooney’s bat nipples) or Superman (Superman IV the quest for profits) movie by a large margin.

perchypanther – Member

Mind you, I’m starting from the point of view that I’d rather remove my own kidneys withe a teaspoon than watch a Superhero film. On account of not being at primary school any more.

Not seen Deadpool then?

Not really for the Primary School audience that one.

Yeah they jumped all the way to secondary school with that one.

The Comic Book Film backlash is looong overdue, but I for one can’t wait – it’s a bad joke gone too far, the well is dry, all resources exploited, pretty soon a studio is going to put $400m into a comic book film and it’s going to lose 70% of it and that will be the last we see of them, for a decade at least.

I miss films about gangsters or thrillers about serial killers. I wish they’ve make some like that.

anything that is a franchise, basically