Top 5 Biggest Surprising and Disappointing 2021 Movies
We are almost done with 2021, and we are continuing with my end of the year lists. Today I’m sharing my 5 biggest surprising and disappointing 2021 movies. Let’s get started!
DISAPPOINTING:
Raya and the Last Dragon: To be clear, I still liked this movie. So even though this movie is on the list it’s not a bad movie. I really dug all of the marketing for this movie, it looked like it was going to be another really solid Disney animated movie. And this movie had things about it that are great. It’s a Disney movie so the animation style here is top notch and great it looks gorgeous with what they do here. The characters were a lot of fun, it’s fun seeing Awkwafina as a water dragon in this movie. But I also found it to be forgettable, when I watched it I had fun with it. But the following week I couldn’t really tell you much about the specifics of the movie. And this is also a movie that didn’t make any big mistakes but also didn’t do anything that was fantastic either. Everything in this movie is in the good range. So I wanted more from this movie, and I wanted to like this movie more than I did. Because a globe trotting adventure with magic and creatures should be something that I really enjoy.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse: This is an Amazon Prime exclusive that has Michael B. Jordan in the lead and as a producer on the project. And I haven’t seen any of the Jack Ryan movies that they have put out, even though they seem like movies I would enjoy. So when I heard that Michael B. Jordan was doing a straight forward action movie, I was excited because I just like him as an actor. He’s a good leading man that is believable in movies. I didn’t need this to be an A+ movie, I needed a solid B movie. And I got something that was far below that, this is one of my least favorite movies of the year. It was predictable, they wanted to have this twist reveal in the third act on who the real villain of the movie is. And you think it’s this one character, and it is that one character by the end of the movie. Also, it’s a very clunky movie where things happen that don’t tie into the plot of the movie. Even though my expectations were somewhat low, the product that I got was far below them.
Cruella: Of all of the 2021 movies that I’ve seen this year, this might be the most frustrating one of them all. Because so many things about this movie are fantastic, Emma Stone and Emma Thompson are fantastic in this movie. Both of them give top 10 performances of the year, and maybe the best of their careers. The movie has a lot of style and uniqueness to it with the way that it’s done, shot, and put together. It’s great on all of those levels. And just in general, I dug the trailers for this movie. I thought this movie looked interesting and something that could be really good. So I watched it, and like I said it was frustrating. This movie was so close to being a great movie, just small changes to how the character of Creulla was written and make her more sympathetic as a character. But she’s not, she is way too unlikable and unreasonable with other characters that are trying to help her. And the middle act of the movie got very cyclical with like 5 different fashion show montages. This is such a frustrating mix of amazing elements and bad elements.
Dune (2021): The latest Denis Villenuve movie that came out back in October, and this was a movie that I believe was only my most anticipated of the year. And then most definitely was one my most anticipated fall 2021 list. So I was super excited to watch this movie and check it out. All of the reviews for the movie had been extremely positive, I heard some people calling it the best movie of the year. So I watched it the day it dropped on HBO Max and things about this movie are fantastic. On a technical level this is a masterpiece and the best of the year. Because the cinematography, score, visuals, production, and costume are all fantastic. It also does great world building for this world that feels like Game of Thrones mixed with Star Wars. BUT this is very clearly ½ of a story. I heard some people on the internet describe this movie as the pilot episode to a tv show. It set everything in motion for the rest of the show to expand upon. And I think that is the perfect way to describe this movie. But then we have to wait 2 years to see episode 2. So I wanted more closure in this movie, and if it did then it might not have been on this list.
Eternals: Now before I start talking about this movie, I like this movie. I have only seen it one time in the theater, so maybe after rewatching this movie my thoughts on it change. But as of now, this is a movie that has the potential to be the next great MCU movie. And this movie does a lot of things right, the scope and ambition of this movie is just great. They really go for it with this movie, this is not a super safe MCU movie it’s a risky and ambitious MCU movie. It’s also probably the best looking MCU movie, I think the visuals here are just fantastic and I sure hope this gets award love for technical awards at the Oscars. But this movie on a story and storytelling level is messy and clunky. This movie needs to set up 10 lead characters and explain who they are. So the movie is constantly cutting from scene to scene and none of the characters felt developed or interesting. Maybe it would have worked better if Sersi and Ikaris were the leads and the rest of the Eternals were the side characters. But it treats all 10 Eternals as a lead character. But I think an Eternals 2 could work because that movie doesn’t need to set up any of these characters.
SURPRISING:
Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Now in general, I like the DCEU and think they have made some really good movies. And prior to this movie coming out, I liked Justice League (2017) . I thought it was a good movie that was flawed. And so I wasn’t feeling this movie, and thought it was unnecessary. So when it dropped back in March I decided to check it out just because I was hearing some positive buzz about it. I watched it, and I really dug it. This is one of my favorite DCEU movies and one of my favorite movies of the year. I think this movie is a true superhero epic that sets everything up so well and has great pay off in the second half of the movie. This movie makes you feel and care for our heroes, Cyborg and The Flash being the two prime examples of this. And I think Zack Snyder crafted a great Justice League movie with stakes, great action, and great characters.
The Mitchells vs The Machines: An animated movie that was originally called Connected and the first trailer was released back in March 2020. I watched the trailer and I thought it looked like a generic animated movie with a message about family. So when the movie dropped on Netflix under the title The Mitchells vs The Machines I didn’t realize it was the same movie. And I was hearing everybody just loving this movie so I was a couple weeks late to checking it out, but I loved it. I thought it was an entertaining and heartfelt animated movie with a great animation style. This movie was created by the creative team behind Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse, and you can tell that when you watch this movie. It has lots of energy to it with the way the story is told and the type of the story that is being told. And most importantly, the emotional moments of this movie really work and are great. So this is just a fantastic animated movie and another movie that is one of the best of the year.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The second MCU movie of the year is a really good one but I wasn’t thinking much with this movie. I enjoyed both of the trailers enough, they worked for me enough. But I was more excited about this movie due to the fact that it was another MCU movie. I was necessarily excited for this based on what they showed us in the trailers. So I was excited for this movie, but I wanted to be more excited. On Thursday September 2nd I saw this movie with my dad and my little brother and the three of us really liked it. All of us thought this was a really good MCU movie. I thought the characters of the movie were a lot of un Simu Liu and Awkwafina have a lot of chemistry with one another and it’s great chemistry. Of course, Awkwafina is just playing herself in the MCU and that works for me. The villain The Mandarin played by Tony Leung was great and he is one of the better MCU villains out there. I think the action for the movie is really well done, the bus chase being the stand out for me. So all in all this was a really good MCU movie with a lot more to offer then what the trailer promised.
No Time to Die: Prior to August 2021, I hadn’t seen a single James Bond movie and the first one I watched was Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first movie. I went into this movie expecting another really good James Bond movie. But I watched this movie and I loved it. I thought this was a great final movie for Daniel Craig as the character. They gave him this emotionally satisfying conclusion to his character arc that felt right. What they do in the final moments of the movie really did work for me and I thought worked. The action here is bigger and better than ever and it’s probably the best action of the entire franchise for me. And I have only seen Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, and a large portion of the Roger Moore James Bond movies. And so far, this is my favorite James Bond movie that we have gotten. And I don’t want to spoil my end of the year ranking, but this movie will do very well on that ranking. So I figured I was going to like this movie, give it a B+ or so, but I loved it.
Ghostbusters Afterlife: This movie was very similar to No Time to Die as I watched the previous movies within the last month and a half of this movie coming out. I hadn’t seen the original movie until October. I was never super excited for this movie, the trailers didn’t do anything wrong. All of the trailers were perfectly fine for this movie, so my expectations were a solid B movie. I figured I was going to like this movie but have some issues here and there. I went to go see this movie and about 30 minutes in I was thinking to myself “I’m really enjoying this. This is a very good movie”. Some time went by and I thought the same thing. And so the movie ended and I watched this movie with my mom and grandparents and all 4 of us really liked this movie and had a lot of fun with it. When I did my ranking of the movies, I had this at number 1 and I stand by that. This is the most well rounded of the Ghostbusters movies. It had great characters, great comedy, and some great heartfelt moments that worked for me. I really dug this movie and another one that is going to rank very well at my end of the year ranking of 2021 movies.
There you have it, my 5 biggest surprises and disappointments of 2021. What were the movies that surprised and disappointed you the most? Also, on January 2nd and 3rd I will be dropping my ranking of the 2021 movies that I’ve seen. The list is about 32 movies. So look out for that coming in a few days. Thanks for reading!
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