43 Hyped Movies That Completely Disappointed Fans

Buzz Feed

19-05-2025

A while back, we asked the BuzzFeed Community* about the movies that people were super excited for...only for everyone to genuinely hate them upon actually seeing them. Here are 43 movies with wild hype that fell disastrously short.
It Chapter 2
Prometheus
And Alien 3
Justice League
This was before we knew the DCEU was unsalvageable and how terrible a person Joss Whedon is. I thought the guy who gave us the first Avengers movie was going to give us an equally great movie with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Instead, we got Henry Cavill's CGIed mouth."—chienychienchien
The Dark Tower
Incredibles 2
Downsizing
"This movie had a very misleading trailer, and the movie itself just seemed rather pointless. Despite the intriguing concept, the actual 'downsizing' aspect of the characters deciding to get shrunk down is basically only relevant in the first 20 minutes or so.The movie then just collapses, loses any sense of direction, and becomes a depressing mess about social, political, and environmental issues. It's almost like they welded two or three movies together with about 20 different plots going on at the same time...and then it just ends.Downsizing tries to do everything and ultimately does nothing."—[deleted]
Jurassic World
And also Jurassic World: Dominion
Quantum of Solace
The Flash
Suggested by overtheloveMaybe this is on me, but I genuinely thought this movie was going to be good. Warner Bros. and DC pushed it SO hard, despite all the Ezra Miller drama, that I thought it must actually be too good to let disappear. Plus, if nothing else, the movie featured the return of Michael Keaton!!!But the movie ended up being an awful CGI mess. It was mostly only good for the memes. The whole newborn-babies-falling-to-their-deaths-before-being-saved scene was actually so completely over the top (and the CGI babies were so bad!) that I felt like I must be watching some D-list horror movie and not one of the biggest superhero films of the year. Who even came up with that?!?
The Matrix Reloaded
Wonder Woman 1984
Ender's Game
Suicide Squad
Army of the Dead
"The trailer promised a big, fun action zombie romp set in Las Vegas. What we got was a bloated, contrived mess of ham-fisted scenes that had way too much build-up for not enough payoff, and a tone that was far too serious for a film of this sort. Zack Snyder seems far more interested in cramming in as many Easter Eggs as possible in the hopes of creating a franchise instead of making a film that can stand on its own merits.Dave Bautista is actually a good actor when he has good material to work with and a director who knows what he is doing. He has good screen presence and decent charisma, but was completely wasted here. As another review once said, it just looks like he's holding in a sneeze when he is trying to convey emotion.If Zack Snyder could have just exercised a little restraint when it comes to his ideas, he could have given us a tight, fun little 90-minute film. Instead, he's so convinced of his own brilliance that he refuses to cut out any of his multitude of potential ideas, no matter how unrelated they are to what's actually presented as the plot. It's like making soup, but instead of just leaving it with chicken, vegetables, and noodles and having a perfectly decent final product, Snyder insisted on adding chocolate and olives just because they were available."—Cursedbythedicegods
Batman v Superman
Thor: Love and Thunder
Looper
Spider-Man 3
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
"I adore the books and was so excited when they announced there would be a movie... and then I saw the first trailer and immediately knew it was going to be horrible. The characters suddenly went from 11 to 21, huge chunks of the plot were missing, and the big reveal at the end felt like it was just thrown in there at the last second. The whole movie was just trash."—marisak4212bc09f
Eragon
The Last Airbender
"I was beyond excited that there was going to be a live-action movie of a beloved animated series. Then all the reviews I read made it sound (and rightfully so) like one of the worst movies of all time. I was so sad to read such bad reviews."—joannaw4377e18ce
Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace
Also, Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens...and really all of the sequel trilogy
Mulan (the live-action version)
And the live-action version of The Lion King
Artemis Fowl
"I loved every single book growing up — thoughtful, funny sci-fi with some serious themes. The movie? Garbage."—sheeplosion"I like to forget that movie exists because it was my favorite series growing up, and they did the books sooo dirty with the CHEESY, CRINGEY, AND UNWATCHABLE special effects and bad screenwriting and acting."—moco98"I loved the AF books; they remind me of Terry Pratchett books. The film was unwatchable."—nevl
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Death Note
"Some of us were willing to give it a chance. You had Willem DaFoe as Ryuk, and LaKeith Stanfield as L. How. Could. We. LOSE?!?? I have never, in my many years on this earth, ever felt so disrespected by a movie of a CHERISHED manga AND anime. Just…the straight up audacity!!!!"—smileyk
Godzilla (1998)
And Godzilla (2014)
Kung Fu Panda 3
Glass
"Glass. My answer to this question will always be Glass."—[deleted]"The trailers were so fucking hype. Props to whoever made the trailers, because they really made the movie look good."—[deleted]
Terminator Salvation
The Giver
"The Giver was horrifically disappointing; even more so because there were actors I love in it. Brilliant book, godawful movie (that had little to do with the brilliant book).—denisef13
Wild Wild West
"People forget how HUGE of a star Will Smith was at one point. He was the highest paid actor and the highest grossing actor in the world — then came Wild Wild West. You know the movie was terrible when the soundtrack was better."—jamesarthurwrites
Overlord
"Overlord (2018) — a WWII horror film. The trailer had me looking forward to seeing it as I was in the mood for a scorch-the-earth type of horror adventure. It had a great opening, but though it wasn't bad, the rest of the film was a bit of a let-down. Not only did it have a slower pace, but overall, it was pretty much a patchwork of famous scenes from earlier WWII and horror films, and the ending was eh."—prolix
Hocus Pocus 2
"I had waited years for it, wanted something that continued the storyline, yearned for something that continued the lore, but NO, what I got was a ham-fisted, mediocre musical combined with bad Disney Channel-esque sitcom dialogue. They even retconned how the sisters became witches in the first place. The Sanderson Sisters were evil; that was the point of the first movie. They were fiend-worshipping women who wanted to steal the youth and vitality of children, killing those children in the process. Clumsy execution, awful writing, even worse direction, and MASSIVE overhyping led to a bitter disappointment of a movie. It could've been so, so much better."—SarahDaugherty
The King's Man
"I love the first two films — I even have a Kingsman tattoo — and was super excited for the prequel, really loved the idea of learning more about this spy society and seeing adventures with it in the past. Instead I got such a dull movie, with an unlikable protagonist and such a dumb twist. The action scenes, still very cool, but otherwise, I was so let down."—constanvee
Ghostbusters (the 2016 version)
Pearl Harbor
And finally, all three of The Hobbit movies
What movie was super-hyped that you ended up hating? Let us know in the comments!