It’s a common misconception that the most disappointing movies of the year are also the worst films. There is some overlap between them, but you won’t find films like Madame Web or Kraven the Hunter on this list. We never expected those movies to be any good, so it was impossible for them to disappoint us. The real disappointments are the films that had the potential to be something more than they turned out to be. An interesting premise, a great cast, and even highly anticipated sequels can go a long way toward building up expectations.
Although there are far worse films this year — which we’ll get to in our end-of-the-year round-up — the following flicks are our picks for the seven most disappointing movies of 2024.
7. Trap
Remember when M. Night Shyamalan looked like he might become one of the best filmmakers of his generation? If it seems like that was a long time ago, that’s because it really was about two decades in the past. After starting out so strongly with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and others, Shyamalan got himself bogged down in trying to have a stunning twist in each and every movie.
Trap kind of gave away its game with the first trailer for the film, which revealed that Josh Hartnett’s girl-dad character was actually a serial killer stuck at a concert with his teenage daughter that was specifically meant to trap him for law enforcement agencies. That was an interesting premise, and Hartnett’s been due for a comeback since Penny Dreadful came to an end.
To his credit, Hartnett eats up his role with abloom. He’s just stuck in a maddeningly stupid and implausible movie that barely resembles reality by the time that Shyamalan gets through with it. It’s almost as if the director has forgotten how to create characters who even vaguely act like normal human beings. And who did Shyamalan cast as the Taylor Swift-like superstar that everyone was there to see? His own daughter, Saleka Night Shyamalan. “What a twist!”
6. Argylle
What happened to Matthew Vaughn? His films used to be a lot of fun, and his first superhero flick — X-Men: First Class — was one of the best movies that 20th Century Fox ever made with Marvel characters. On paper, Argylle looked like it was going to tap into the same action-comedy vein as Vaughn’s Kingsman — the first one, not the lackluster sequel or even worse prequel. Vaughn also put a hell of a cast together for this flick, including Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, and Henry Cavill. That definitely got our hopes up.
Shockingly, Vaughn wasn’t able to deliver on any of that promise. It feels like a Matthew Vaughn film to a fault and hits a lot of the same beats that we’ve seen before. But this script bends itself into a pretzel to accommodate its twists and comes off as contrived and unentertaining. This is the kind of movie that Vaughn should have been able to make in his sleep, although we have to wonder if he actually was asleep when he made this. That would explain a lot.
5. Hellboy: The Crooked Man
The only way that Hellboy: The Crooked Man managed to avoid disappointing more fans in 2024 was by skipping theaters altogether. If you’ve ever loved the Guillermo del Toro Hellboy movies or even the one that had Stranger Things‘ David Harbour in the leading role, stay far away from this one. It will let you down on every level.
There are no redeeming qualities in this movie, and it’s shocking how cheap it looks, given that this film supposedly had a $20 million budget. Director Brian Taylor’s camera selections are as bland as can be, and some scenes are even inexplicably blurry. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola co-wrote the script, which only makes it more amazing that it couldn’t recapture the fun and excitement of the previous films. This movie is currently in direct-to-video purgatory, and it should stay there forever.
4. Drive-Away Dolls
It turns out that a film directed by one Coen brother isn’t in the same galaxy as a movie directed by both Coen brothers. Ethan Coen went solo with Drive-Away Dolls, a film he co-wrote with his wife, Tricia Cooke. And a lesbian gal-pal road trip with a severed head and a collection of something unmentionable in the trunk while being pursued by mobsters does sound like something the Coen brothers would do together. But from the poor execution, it seems that Joel Coen was very missed.
The Substance‘s Margaret Qualley comes out of it completely unscathed because her performance is the best thing in the movie. We just can’t say that an Ethan Coen solo movie is going to get our expectations soaring again.
3. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
If anyone’s surprised that an Oscar-winning director like Kevin Costner doesn’t always have the best instincts for what makes a good movie, then they clearly haven’t seen Waterworld or The Postman. Costner only directed the latter of those two, but he was also partially responsible for a lot of the mistakes made in the former.
Regardless, Costner’s affinity for Westerns led him to bet on himself with Horizon: An American Saga, the first of what was meant to be four epic movies. Costner’s work on Dances with Wolves was great, so it wasn’t a stretch to hope that this project could recapture some of that film’s spirit.
Instead, Horizon pulled up like a stagecoach with a boring and bloated script that was more perplexing than entertaining. Costner set the stage with so many characters that keeping track of them all is difficult, and most of them aren’t properly served by the story. Regardless, Costner hasn’t given up on his dream, and he’s still working on the third Horizon movie. Yet, with Horizon 2 on indefinite hold and without a firm release date, it’s hard to see how Costner can change the negative first impression that this film left behind. Was it really worth blowing up Yellowstone for this?
2. Joker: Folie à Deux
The first Joker movie may not have had Batman or a comic-book-accurate story, but it was unquestionably a big hit that a large portion of the fan base embraced. Until Deadpool & Wolverine came along, Joker was the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. The sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, had a lot of goodwill from fans, all of which steadily declined as it became clear that director Todd Phillips was determined to include some musical elements in the script for Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga).
To make a long story short, the sizable audience of the first Joker film stayed home, and those who saw the sequel were largely put off by its ending. This film is a tour de force for dashing fan hopes and expectations.
1. Megalopolis
In the year 2024, could the No. 1 pick on this list be anything by Megalopolis? To be sure, there were plenty of red flags on the way toward this movie’s release, and the buzz was anything but good. However, Francis Ford Coppola is legitimately one of the greatest directors in cinema history. The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now speak to that, and that allowed him some benefit of the doubt that Megalopolis was going to be more than just an out-of-control vanity project.
Think of it this way: Megalopolis is only disappointing if you were expecting something that reflected some of Coppola’s past work. As a stand-alone movie, it’s the most gonzo and insane film of the year with a nonsensical story, an all-star cast overacting in a script they barely seem to understand, a bizarre sci-fi touch, and metaphors for the potential fall of America. Not every screening of Megalopolis got the scene where Adam Driver’s Cesar Catilina talks to a live actor in the theater.
We can’t say that Megalopolis wasn’t ambitious or that it wasn’t the fulfillment of Coppola’s dream. It was just a letdown that it couldn’t live up to the 40 years of effort that Coppola put into it … along with a sizable portion of his personal fortune.
