Tangent Thread - which movie did you go into with high expectations and they were beaten?

For me, it was easily Top Gun Maverick. I went in hoping for a very likeable movie and was blown away. I have always been an aviation nut, and there's plenty to like about a fighter jet movie. I remember reading about how the folks involved considered it a love letter to aviation, and about the practical effects they were using. You could tell just how excited that team was about their movie, which in turn, made me really excited for it.

Easily could have been a let down, but they balanced the fan service with the fun/serious nature with the current technology available to film it.

Misread the prompt. I'll say Jurassic Park. I was insanely hyped for it. I had read the book 3 or 4 times. I loved Spielberg's movies. And I was still just blow away by the spectacle.

D&D: Honor Among Thieves

Crazy Stupid Love

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Rocky. My girlfriend dragged me to this stupid movie about a boxer, and I loved it.

Gotta agree that Top Gun Maverick far exceeded my low expectations for that one, but I actually have three other answers for this question.

In the summer of 1977, I had just turned 10 and was sitting in the yard doing whatever 10-year-old me wanted when my Dad came out and asked if I wanted to go to a movie. What kid is saying no to that? Star Wars was all the rage by this time, but it was not something that interested me. Not one bit. In fact, I literally thought the movie would be terrible. At that time, my favorite science fiction was the Star Trek TV series, Space: 1999, Planet of the Apes, and Godzilla. Star Wars looked terrible from the ads that I'd seen on TV. When we left the Palms Twin movie theater in Sugar Land, I was a changed kid. The first thing I did when getting back home was get all the cardboard and tape I could find so I could build a fleet of crude TIE Fighters and X-Wings. I would soon have a (malicious) nickname bestowed upon me by my 6th grade peers - Mr. Star Wars.

Roughly on May 20, 1980, I convinced my dad to take me to the Westchase theater in SW Houston to see if we could get tickets for The Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars was my favorite movie at the time, and I was insanely excited to see the sequel. I knew it would be good, after all, it was a new Star Wars movie. That became my favorite movie for a while, but eventually both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi surpassed it. Then I got it on Beta tape in 1984 and upon rewatch, with the knowledge of how the story unfolded in Jedi, TESB reclaimed my favorite movie throne, where it remains to this day.

As a life long monster movie fan, I believe that I have already seen the best one that can ever be made, that being 1979's Alien. Sequels to monster movies present a lot of challenges with regard to rehashing what the viewers have already seen, so when I found out as a freshman at A&M that a sequel was coming, I was both very happy and very dubious. Aliens came out later that summer, and while it changed the window dressing very well on essentially the same story (humans trapped in a place with monsters and no way out), damn did it blow me away. Aliens remains one of the best sequels ever made.

Tombstone

I'm not a fan of westerns and was basically dragged to this at the theater while at A&M. I ****ing loved it.

Das Boot. One of my favorites of all time. After seeing run silent run deep and some other sub movies wasn't prepared that a sub movie would be that good.

The Dark Knight
I knew it was going to be really good, but didn't know how great it truly would be

Top Gun Maverick is a good one

Mad Max Fury Road blew me away. I never expected an action movie to look so beautiful.

But Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) takes the cake. That IP hadn't produced a good movie in decades, nobody was asking for it, there was no reason to expect anything from it, and it was awesome.

Cabin in the Woods. I heard some positive buzz on it, then intentionally avoided any spoilers.

Crazy Rich Asians. Didn't expect to love it before I first saw it...seen it multiple times since. Just love that movie.

John Wick - I can remember the trailer coming out and thinking it would just be a run of the mill action movie. Then the reviews started coming out and it sounded like there was a lot more there. I went to go see it and was totally blown away and told anyone who would listen to go see it. Now John Wick films are basically their own genre within action movies themselves.

Sideways

I remember making fun of that movie so much just based on the trailers. I was definitely not in the target demographic.

Fast forward about ten years and I finally got around to watching it. Loved it. One of my favorites now.

Glad I never saw it till I was a bit more mature.

Whiplash

Saw it on a recommendation here. Had no expectations. It was an incredible movie.

Edge of Tomorrow, I went in with very minimal expectations because their Advertisement campaign was non-existent for some strange reason. I think it was the fact that they couldn't decide on the title. I ended up seeing it again 2 more times that weekend with different friends that I was able to convince to go see it. It's definitely the largest gap between my expectations and reality that I can recall.

Hell or High Water. I went into a matinee randomly one saturday after it came out. I had heard nothing about it and wasn't expecting much. Very few people in there...the only person within a few rows of me was a country lookin old codger...but everyone in there was highly entertained start to finish. I will watch that one any time it is on.

Most Netflix originals do nothing for me, but Free Guy & The Adam Project were both really enjoyable. They didn't exceed the most but were pleasant surprises.

Hot Fuzz - Went with a group of friends to see one of the Spiderman movies and they were essentially sold out. We all decided to still see a movie anyway and picked the only other thing playing at the time without knowing a single thing about it.

It was for the greater good.

Guardians of the Galaxy. Had been following the marvel movies, but had no idea what to expect going into this one. A talking raccoon and tree? Is this where Marvel jumps the gun? I walked out with that being one of my favorites.

Inception - I love all things Christopher Nolan, and was really excited for this one. Blew me away on its originality and was one that we talked about forever afterwards.

Arrival - looked like a great sci-fi movie in the trailers, but it was a huge gut punch while viewing it. Haven't seen a movie in awhile that hit me that hard, in a good way.

Source Code. I really didn't want to see it, the trailers looked terrible. A buddy dragged me along to the theater and i came out pleasantly surprised. That movie was great.