24 Overhyped Movies That Let People Down Hard

"I kept waiting for the 'fantastic' part, but it never arrived."

We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what overhyped movies let them down the most. Here's what people had to say:

1. Avatar (2009)

20th Century Fox

AKA Pocahontas meets FernGully meets Dances With Wolves. I didn’t even think it was that pretty, to be honest.

—chelseam428983126

It was boring, clichéd, and honestly just not amazing to see. Most of the designs of the creatures and worlds looked like something I had seen before in a Final Fantasy game. Nothing felt original or delightful. Plus, the acting was terrible from everyone in the main cast except Sigourney Weaver.

—bovafett182

2. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Marvel

There was so much hype around it after Infinity War, but it felt like such a letdown. It felt like the short stories I wrote in elementary school with great exposition before I got bored and ended it with “and then they all won the lottery and bought 15 kittens. The end.”

—ellas48d9106f9

It was great if you just talk about the cinematography. But what a horrendous and disappointing storyline. It felt like the writers just didn’t care because the movie would make money regardless. In my opinion, it was not the right ending for the main group of Avengers.

—sylviagiovanna

3. The Hangover (2009)

Warner Bros

I watched it the other day since it’s on Netflix and didn’t laugh once. Didn’t even crack a smile. Didn’t even breathe heavy as a form of ~laughter~. It’s comedy meant for 12-year-old boys.

—emmae43b847000

It didn't age well. It came out when I was in high school, and my friends and I skipped class and snuck in the theater to see it. Back then, it was hilarious. Watching it again as an adult was cringey.

—s47972f0e5

4. Ma (2019)

Universal

I thought Ma was going to be your typical silly slasher film, but it took itself way too seriously in some scenes. The only good part is the way Octavia Spencer brings her character to life. The characters make the stupidest decisions — I know that’s pretty standard for horror movies, but the characters here really lack common sense.

—sophiarias

After seeing Get Out, I was super excited to see another movie that was seemingly similar, but it just wasn’t good! It wasn’t scary, and all of the “good parts” were basically given away in the trailers.

—sophies4bbee07d4

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Artisan Entertainment

I remember when it came out when I was a kid, and all I heard was how terrifying it was. My husband and I rented it a year or so ago since neither of us had seen it. It was slow, boring, and not scary at all. We kept waiting for the scary part, and then it was just over. I was totally unimpressed after hearing the hype for so many years.

—laceyg413aac175

I watched it on DVD and not in theaters, so I get how it would have seemed scarier on the big screen. But when I got to the end, I had to go back and watch it again because my reaction was, "That's it? Did I miss something?"

—alanamuir

6. A Star Is Born (2018)

Warner Bros

It was so incredibly boring. The scenes between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga felt super awkward the whole time, and Lady Gaga's acting in this was not as strong as it should’ve been. It's one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, especially considering how hyped up it had been for months prior.

—schmooksiepoo

It was so hyped up, but really it was just Bradley Cooper with a terrible accent, a half-assed song, and a terrible and predictable storyline.

—coralb4355f88b0

7. Suicide Squad (2016)

Warner Bros

I liked the idea of villains being the heros for a change, but the storyline was just all over the place and didn't quite make sense. Characters were introduced one right after the other with no real background. I was especially disappointed with Katana because I thought she would play a bigger role, but her character was ultimately forgettable, unnecessary, and stereotypical. Oh, and the Joker and Harley Quinn's relationship? It totally put me off.

—EleenaRaine

The first teaser was released like a year before the movie came out, and it looked really promising. But the movie was actually terrible, and Cara Delevingne as the villain was a terrible casting choice.

—princesspeach7

8. Toy Story 4 (2019)

Disney/Pixar

Even though I enjoyed watching it for nostalgia purposes, there wasn’t really a villain and the plot didn't feel very significant. Also, Buzz and Woody’s relationship seemed so different than in the other movies, and none of the other original toys really made a significant appearance. To go from such dramatic final scenes in Toy Story 3 to an overall mundane movie was so disappointing!

—jessskellly

It just wasn't as good as the other movies. The antique shop was a boring setting, most of the original characters were barely in it, and the ending kind of upends the big final scene of Toy Story 3.

—psychicmuppet

9. Love Actually (2003)

Universal

I saw it years after it came out, by which time I'd heard from a lot of people how it was such a great feel-good Christmas movie. It consists of someone getting cheated on, a kid running through an airport without getting stopped by an angry security guard, and someone trying to steal his best friend's wife. What is feel-good about any of that?

—petdragon

My friend made me watch it with her when she found out I had never seen such a quintessential Christmas movie. It was so bad. All the people were terrible and didn’t deserve happy endings except for that kid and his dad. What a huge letdown.

—ktk8895

10. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

20th Century Fox

A few years ago, I read the Maze Runner books and really enjoyed them. Then, I watched the first movie, and although there were some changes, it mostly followed the book. I saw The Scorch Trials that same year, and it was nothing like the book! There wasn't even a mention of the "Scorch Trials," so the film's title was meaningless. It deviated from the books so much that I didn't even bother going to see The Death Cure.

—catears

11. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

20th Century Fox

All my friends and I had read the books in middle school and absolutely loved them, so we couldn’t wait to see it come to life in a movie. The creators of the movie took the story in a completely different direction, so much so that I kept forgetting it was about Percy Jackson. To say it was a disappointment is an understatement.

—robynb4b9c5f183

That movie was a huge disappointment, especially for a fan of the series. The acting sucked, and they screwed with the plotline so much that it made me question if the writers had ever read the book.

—melonette000

12. This Is 40 (2012)

Universal

This Is 40, the sort-of sequel to Knocked Up, looked hilarious in the trailers. I went to see it, and it was so awful. The only funny parts of the movie were the ones shown in the trailer. An hour and a half I'll never get back.

—vbunton

Knocked Up was brilliant and hilarious. This Is 40 was so depressing and hard to watch that I turned it off less than an hour in.

—indianaj3

13. Geostorm (2017)

Warner Bros

I LOVE disaster movies — it's my absolute favorite genre. They made Geostorm look like the biggest disaster film in a decade, but it turned out to just be a government conspiracy film with maybe 10 minutes of weather. I was so let down.

—kaylas4ec6f44a3

14. Heathers (1988)

New World

I kept hearing how amazing it was from so many people, but once I actually watched it, I thought it was horrible. They made insensitive jokes ("Bulimia is so '87!"), and watching a movie where the whole idea is just murder, suicide, and bullying gets repetitive and weird/depressing.

—mayakkingsley

15. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Paramount

Indy movies were the best, and I grew up consistently checking them out of the library and watching one every week! So I was quite excited when there was a reboot, and I watched the trailer every day. Finally, I saw the movie opening day, and I could have cried at how disappointed I was. Aliens? Really?

—katiec48ce17b55

16. Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Universal

The trailer was so cool, and the (true) story is awesome. But my god did Steve Carell give me the willies in that movie. He was so pervy and gross, and the whole tone of the movie was just unsettling.

—hannahb4a394d8cc

17. Frozen (2013)

Disney

All I heard for about a year was how amazing the movie was, and when I finally got around to seeing it, I was so disappointed! Aside from two songs, the music was quite bad. I also wasn’t impressed with the storyline of the characters. I felt really let down by the movie!

—kellith6

18. La La Land (2016)

Lionsgate

The opening number was incredible, but nothing after lived up to it. So it was just a slow decline from the very beginning.

—ktk8895

I got so hyped to watch it, but when I did, I was very disappointed. The songs are great, but I didn't really understand the plot and felt like a lot of scenes were unnecessary. Don't even get me started on the finale because I just wanted to throw my TV out the window.

—hawkingpeggy

19. Man of Steel (2013)

Warner Bros

We went to see it for my wife's birthday as she is a huge Superman fan. While the effects looked really good, I couldn't get past the entire Krypton sequence, Zod screaming all his lines, Jonathan Kent's pointless sacrifice, the random DNA plot, and the ping-pong–like fight scenes. They also ruined two essential parts of Superman lore. First, Superman does NOT kill, and second, Lois isn't supposed to discover his secret identity almost immediately.

—pjpelly

20. The Kissing Booth (2018)

Netflix

There was so much hype online about The Kissing Booth, but I just found it overly cheesy and not cute at all.

—sonalischroder

It's so problematic from the start.

—reigneting

21. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)

Warner Bros

They did such a terrible job adapting the book. They changed Lena’s story from her not searching for love and being herself to a Romeo and Juliet situation. There were lots of other things that were pointlessly changed, and then they went and made a second movie that, instead of following the second book in the series, follows the fourth book. So much story was lost. It was very disappointing for those who loved the books.

—garfield0212

22. Ready Player One (2018)

Warner Bros

Although some of the writing in the book was poor, I still enjoyed the storyline and the overall message of the book. The film, however, completely misses the point and decides to focus solely on the nostalgia factor. A huge disappointment.

—mkrobertson92

The compressed timeframe of the film completely butchers the Parzival/Art3mis relationship. In the book, they had months of contact where he read more into the relationship than there really was. The film cuts this down to under a week, and yet he feels close enough to tell her his name when they’re on the search for the second key.

—jbmasta

23. The Giver (2014)

TWC

I had read the book in grade school and absolutely adored it. Then I watch the movie and was let down. They changed so much of the story and even the main focus of the plot. It wasn't the same story in the end.

—catielu21

24. And, A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Disney

My best friend and I LOVED the book when we first read it as an assignment in elementary school, and when we heard as adults that Disney was making a movie, we were super excited. We watched the movie, and at the end, we were both just very disappointed that they missed so many important parts of the book. The imagery and actors were amazing, but we couldn’t shake off the disappointment.

—hannad41db656d6

Comment below and let us know which movie disappointed you the most!

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

25.