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Almost there! This was definitely not my favorite ranking to write. I enjoy enjoying movies, but these movies suffered from but sometimes my expectations are too high. That was the case for these five movies. Keep in mind that these are not the five worst movies of 2021. These are the movies that I had high expectations for and those expectations were not met. Like if I expected a movie to be a 9/10 and it was a 7/10, it would be on this list. I still like half of these movies. Some of them are bad, but some are still good. Just not great. Check out my most surprising movies of the year by clicking on this sentence.
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NO SPOILERS FOR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING FILMS!
5. Jungle Cruise
Instead of being the fun but flawed adventure movie that I expected it to be, Jungle Cruise was an under-cooked CGI mess. The Rock and Emily Blunt had fantastic chemistry. I will give them that. But everything else was just abysmal. From the cliche main plot to the illogical, tension-free finale, this movie just fell flat. There are plans for a sequel, and maybe they will improve on this movie. I just didn't get the entertainment I expected when I watched this film.
4. Last Night in Soho
Last Night in Soho looked promising. I enjoy Edgar Wright's movies, so, naturally, I was interested to see what was in store for this movie. I enjoyed the trailers and thought the concept was cool, but the movie is not the fun psychological horror-thriller that it promises. It's a very dark and bleak movie that pulls no punches. It makes you feel gross when you come out of the theater, and I did not enjoy that feeling. I can appreciate the craft of this movie, but I really didn't enjoy it or it's convoluted message.
3. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a movie that I had high hopes for. The original Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies, but neither the sequel nor the remake had quite been able to capture the pure magic and fun that Ghostbusters is. While Afterlife did have the nostalgia and fan service, it was still missing the magic. The trailers seemed like they had the magic, but the movie didn't. The story was very similar to the original, but it lacked all of Bill Murray's charm and the sheer excitement that the original Ghostbusters had. So, unfortunately, I was let down.
2. Candyman
Candyman was another one of my most anticipated movies of 2021. The original Candyman is what I would call the scariest movie of all time. Personally. This year's Candyman was good, but it wasn't what I expected or what I really wanted from a Candyman flick. The biggest disappointment was the absence of Tony Todd's original Candyman for most of the film. I also think that the trailers and marketing showed way too much. And the movie wasn't nearly scary enough. Once again: still a good movie. I wanted it to be great, though. And it wasn't.
1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi opened with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and critics were calling it "the best Marvel origin story since Iron Man". It came out on Friday and I saw it on a Monday, so, by that time, audience reactions had been out and they were even better than critics. The audience score was a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. So much hype was surrounding this movie. But then when I walked into the theater, I saw a film that was stuffed to the brim with forced humor and CGI. Now, I still liked parts of this movie. The action was great and the Mandarin was one of the best MCU villains. But I felt Marvel squeezing it past the MCU requirement checklist a little too much. I wanted to love it. And I didn't. I was greatly disappointed in Shang-Chi.