19 Movies People Sat Through, Hoping They'd Get Better — But They Didn't

D.I.S.A.P.P.O.I.N.T.E.D.

There are few things as disappointing as watching a film you've been looking forward to, only to realize — the longer it goes on — that it's not as good as you'd hoped it would be.

Paramount Pictures

And this week, when Redditor Bocephalus asked, "What is the single worst movie you sat through hoping it would get better, but didn’t?" the answers brought back some...memories.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Here are just a few of the films that viewers held out hope for, only to be disappointed:

1. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

20th Century Fox

"I was so hopeful that it'd be good because, you know, fucking Apocalypse is in it and all. My enthusiasm dwindled as it wore on, but I just couldn't give up the hope it might turn out okay. It sure didn't."

—P00pf4rt5

2. The Invention of Lying (2009)

Warner Bros. Pictures

"This may be cheating because, in my opinion, it started off really good. It got really bad near the middle once the novelty of the setting ran out. I figured it was just a temporary dip, and the movie would know what to do with itself by the end to figure out how to be interesting after the first 20 minutes. It didn't."

—BBWolfe011

3. Allegiant (2016)

Lionsgate

"It was super disappointing, especially since the first two films were fairly decent. I could've watched paint dry for two hours and it would've been a more productive use of my time than watching that film."

—Fractite

4. Slender Man (2018)

Sony Pictures Releasing

"I'm a really big fan of creepypastas and horror films, and I was so disappointed at what they made. It could have been a really, really good film, but instead they somehow forgot how Slenderman worked and gave it totally new abilities."

—anonymus5876

5. Skyline (2010)

Universal Pictures

"I kept watching and waiting for it to have a redeeming quality. Somehow, it just kept getting worse."

—nekkidmancer

6. A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"The only reason I sat through it in the first place was because my brother watched it and said it was decent!"

—greenbongo001

7. Downsizing (2017)

Paramount Pictures

"It was a huge disappointment because the idea of the movie was nice and new, but it turned out to be very slow and boring."

—katakitoo

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

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"I'm not sure how enjoyable it is if you haven't read the books — but if you have, it's unbearable. The only similarity to the books are the names of the characters. That's it. The story has absolutely nothing to do with any of what happens in the books. It's just pure disappointment."

—ShibertInu

9. Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Warner Bros. Pictures

"You can jump in and watch any five-minute segment at random from the film and be impressed — but if you try to watch the whole thing..."

—qpgmr

10. The Emoji Movie (2017)

Sony Pictures Releasing

"I was honestly hoping for a Lego Movie situation where everyone thought it would be terrible but it would actually be really good."

—NijiPanda

11. Justice League (2017)

Warner Bros. Pictures

"Not gonna lie, I genuinely had some hope that this one would actually turn out okay since it came out right after the pretty decent Wonder Woman movie. I was so upset that they resurrected Superman...I don't know why I had hope in it."

—miss_nicknames

12. The Last Jedi (2017)

LucasFilm Ltd.

"It started off with a 'yo mama' joke and I immediately knew I was in for something I was not prepared for. I had to force myself to keep watching by praying/hoping there would be some redeeming moments. There were not. No lightsaber fight. The choreography of the fight in the throne room is the most horrible thing I've ever seen. I have no idea how it made it past editing."

—CommonSense8102

13. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

Netflix

"It was getting some good press at the time and was newly released on Netflix. I try to avoid spoilers, so all I knew about it was that it was horror, people liked it, and it's got something to do with a house. Probably haunted.

The movie is terrible. I watched it to the end, thinking that something was going to happen that would make me like it...because hey, people liked it for some reason, right? Turns out the people who liked it just liked the setting and costumes."

—Ankheg2016

14. The Love Guru (2008)

Paramount Pictures

"I love other movies written by Mike Myers (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers, etc.), but this was just painfully not funny. What a waste of an hour and a half of my life."

—sleepycat33

15. The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Focus Features

"I was pretty excited to see a not-so-serious Bill Murray zombie movie, but all I got was a ham-fisted surreal message about humanity or something. I'm not entirely sure what I saw."

—jamayonaiz

16. Bird Box (2018)

Netflix

"I'm about to get yelled at, but for me it was this one. All of my friends recommended it to me and everyone I talked to had such high views of it, so my expectations were high. I tried watching it, but not even a fourth of the way through it, my soaring expectations were tumbling to the ground after being shot out of the sky."

—rickdiculous_user

17. Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"I loved the original, I loved the trailers, and I went in with high expectations that it would be good. Boy, was I wrong! It's a very inaccurate representation of the internet, and it clearly didn’t have the heart of the original — even the characters were a mess. It’s a poorly written movie with a bucket-load of shoehorned, outdated internet jokes and Disney references."

—RISEINREVOLUSION

18. Paranormal Activity (2007)

Paramount Pictures

"Everyone was hyping this thing so hard and it was the most boring 'horror' movie I've ever seen. I kept waiting for something to happen. I have no idea how it spawned so many sequels."

—CircusMasterKlaus

19. And finally — Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Warner Bros. Pictures

"I began mentally checking out when they retconned Jacob and Credence’s endings from the last film. I officially checked out when they began to try to figure out who Credence is. I seriously don’t want to watch any later films, but I do kind of want to see how much worse they can get."

—GallifreyanPrydonian

Now it's your turn! What's one movie you sat all the way through, hoping it'd get better, but it just...didn't? Share your choice in the comments below!

Some entries have been edited for length and/or clarity. H/T Reddit.