I'm sure all of us here have had at least one instance where we went to the theater to see a movie and it turned out to be radically different from what we were expecting? The ultimate example for me is "Alien 3".

I was expecting it to be essentially the same as "Aliens" in both style and plot; a direct continuation of where "Aliens" left off. I was expecting to see armed marines fighting large groups of aliens while Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop tried to make their way back to Earth.


Instead I got a bald Ripley on a prison planet inhabited mostly by Englishmen who acted more like they were in a religious convent than a prison while two major characters from the previous film were killed off for no logical reason. The whole vibe of the movie just felt "off" and awkward.

I wasn't so sure about Alien 3 either and I agree with you on the killing off of the 2 characters (I am guessing we are talking about the same people).

One movie I saw recently that was not what I was expecting at all was "Anna." I thought it was going to be a rip off of the original "La Femme Nikita", which would have bothered me since "Anna" was made by Luc Besson who did "Nikita". But I was pleasantly surprised. It was a different take I didn't expect. It had its moments of course that was typical of Luc Besson where things were somewhat off kilter (pretty good celphones they had in 1995) and some other signature Besson things, but it was a great plot I thought.

v6,
boNes

If you are also considering films that offspring dragged one along to see under protest and parental duty but turned out to be more enjoyable than expected, then:
Pirates of the Caribbean, the first one.
School of Rock.

The year is '95.

The movie we'd came to see was sold out, so we ended up choosing to see a film we knew little about and what we assumed was some lame historical romantic drama, called Braveheart.

You know, Braveheart is a very interesting film for me because while it has a LOT of historical inaccuracies, dramatically it still "works" on screen. Usually films that are way off the mark with historical facts are crummy movies across the board in all aspects.

Fight Club. I knew nothing of the source material and my entire assumption of what the movie was about came from the title.

Wizard

I had no desire to see this movie, but somehow ended up watching it sometime when completely bored and was pleasantly surprised by it.
The Box
"A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know."
It's a lot more involved than that and is actually scifi, not just some lame suspense drama. Great story!

The Matrix was nothing like I expected. From the ads, it sounded like some kind of horror, maybe conspiracy, movie. Saw it in the theater anyway and was completely BLOWN AWAY by what it turned out to be.

Rogue One was still SW of course, but the tone it took was unprecedented and it's tied with ESB for my favorite SW movie because of that. Dark and not an idealized version of a clean, white hat wearing rebellion.

I saw this on Netflix a few months ago and I enjoyed it for the most part but it shares the same trait that many Netflix original sci-fi movies share in that the story starts off really interesting and the mystery keeps you engaged but then the story just runs out steam by the final act as the different "twists" to the story are revealed.

I agree 100% with everything you said about Rogue One.

Killing off Hicks and Newt at the beginning were two of the greatest screenwriting and producer decisions I have ever witnessed on screen.

Cameron and his partner had set up a brilliant layering of character development by the end of Aliens, were we truly cared about the folks in the film, and then they threw it all away. The Alien franchise has never been the same, since. Even Joss Whedon was unable to save things in Alien Resurrection because... once again producers got in the way and reduced what could have been a brilliant script with Whedon's trademark brilliant dialogue and character development into... something average that could have been so much more.


Back on subject, The Matrix Reloaded was one of the greatest disappointments in cinematic history. The first hour was so dull and boring, none of the action in the second half could save the mess that had been started. What a disaster. I never saw the third film. How they went from the brilliance of the first film to a pacing nightmare of the second we'll never know.

Hancock.

If you have seen it, you will know what I picked this movie for the subject of this thread.

Project X with Matthew Broderick. It was made in his '80s heyday of comedies, and I think the studio felt they had to market it as such to fit in with his M.O., but while it had a few funny scenes (all of them in the previews), it was anything but a comedy.

Both Tom Holland Spiderman movies. Went in expecting a superhero flick, got a vapid 80's teen coming-of-age movie instead. Although "Homecoming" did have the redeeming virtue of another terrific performance by Michael Keaton as the Vulture.

Agree that Rogue One was both better and much darker than I was expecting. I love how the whole movie was encapsulated in a brief line in the Original Star Wars movie and gave a rational reason for what I had seen as an inexplicably weak plot point- the fatal flaw that allowed the Death Star to be destroyed.

Ended up watching a Japanese movie on TV late one night that I knew nothing about and was shocked how it went from slow paced and mundane to horror that had me literally saying "Holy crap!" out loud. That movie was "Audition." The less you know going in the better. Prepare to be traumatized.

I went to the cinema to see Natural Born Killers, but when I got there it has stopped showing. Instead, I went to see a movie I had not heard about, Pulp Fiction.

One of the greatest feelings is when you're 15 minutes into a film and you realise it's going to be one of the best movies you'll ever see. I wish I could forget it & watch it again

For me I actually liked Reloaded quite a bit but Revolutions is where I started to tune out. That final fight between Neo and Agent Smith in Revolutions was just so confusing and over the top that I didn't care anymore.

Alot of these movies that people mention, I can't tell if they are saying it was not what they were expected in a good way or in a bad way...

"The Matrix" is one of those movies going into it that I had no idea what to expect. I saw the ads and trailers but WTF was the Matrix? Even the url was whatisthematrix.com. When we saw it opening night, we were blown away. It was the first time in a long time where people were so in awe at a scene that they couldn't help but clap for it, and the movie wasn't even over yet (the lobby fight scene).

Speaking of Keanu Reeves movies, "John Wick" was another one that surprised me. It had low-key ads and I expected just a shoot-em up but it was so much more than that and had so much depth.

"Overlord" was one that I expected to be totally cheesy. Historical inaccuracies aside, it was pretty riveting and entertaining and the opening scene where they jump for D-Day was pretty good. I found out later that they didn't CGI that scene hardly at all...the actors/stuntmen actually jumped or fell out of a real life fuselage.

"Happy Death Day" and "Happy Death Day 2 U" were both pretty good also. I was expecting just a slasher flick but it was actually well written and funny. In the same vein I also liked "Cabin in the Woods."

v6,
boNes

I've heard that "Overlord" was essentially the closest we've ever been to having a film adaptation of the Wolfenstein games by ID Software. Is that accurate?

Agreed on John Wick...expected just another forgettable action flick and discovered a universe full of AWESOME.

Hotel Artemis...turned out to be really cool. I swear it would fit perfectly in the John Wick universe, I hope that happens somehow.

Foreign, but let me add Brotherhood of the Wolf. Looks like some period drama/suspense and takes a bit to get going but it turns into a cool flick.
Whenever I see Marc Dacascos I think of this movie.

13th Warrior. Thought it would be ok, not great, and got much more as something of a Beowulf type story. Really liked it, one of Banderas’s best IMO.

Both of these movies were great. I loved the first one, what with the whole Groundhog Day horror vibe, but the second surprised me in not being a horror movie at all, but more of a sci-fi film.

Good call on Cabin! Loved the humor and backstory.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil is another surprisingly good flick.

I've only played "Castle Wolfenstein" and "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein" on my Commodore 64 so I don't know...

v6,
boNes

Ah ok, never mind then! The PC games by ID Software are a very different animal from the 80's games.

Overlord definitely had that vibe and was fun to watch.

Thanks for the Overlord mention. I watched that last night and aside from some minor pacing and editing issues, the movie was good. Great fun.

For me, "Unbreakable". I had no idea that I was watching a superhero origin story. I was thrilled by the end of that film.

Surprisingly, I have not seen "Glass" yet. Shyamalan's lustre has worn extremely dull for me, despite my enjoyment of "Split".

Highlander II. Five years after the original we heard there was going to be a sequel and we were psyched! Leaving the theater we were like, "What the ____ did we just see?". There's a whole sequence where you're watching the safety video for the plane they're on that seemed more like something you'd see on SNL. I just did a quick search to make sure the script hadn't started as something else first and saw it's listed as one of the worst movies every made.

Elf

Regarding Highlander II... You know a film is bad when you're sitting in the theater saying the lines out loud five to ten seconds before they actually say them.

Oh, did I mention that this was the first time watching the film, too.

Highlander II was that bad.

Unbreakable was a great surprise, I so much wanted a sequel as soon as it finished. Split was great for one reason: James McAvoy. Glass, not so much.

The problem with Shyamalan is he became a one-trick pony. All his films boiled down to establishing a comfortable calm through a meandering exploratory story and then slapping a "startling" twist on the plot towards the latter third. He would have done well to study Michael Crichton's "Coma" which engages not only the twist, but the masterful use of the thriller genre's plotting and pacing.

I dare say "Coma" is one of the finest examples of how to properly plot such a movie--a template, even, to strive for.

Both filmmakers wrote in the same genre, but Crichton was a true master.

That's how I felt after watching Speed 2: Cruise Control

I remember watching 'Coma'. It was a superb piece of entertainment. I may even look it up for a re-watch sometime soon.

"Flawless" (2007) starts as a nice, somewhat conventional heist drama set in the late 1950s/early 1960s with a dash of feminism. If you can read film language though, the film takes a 90° bend at some point which is masterfully announced with a single 20...30 seconds take that is seemingly irrelevant (but significant because of its length and apparent superfluousness (at first sight)). Michael Caine & Demi Moore are starring, so if you expect nothing (like I did) you will be very pleasantly surprised.

This is the equally masterful opening:

(oh, well, we can't set the time with this blasted forum software, here's the non-embedded link: https://youtu.be/S911KNRPA_4?t=68

I liked McAvoy before “Split” but that movie proved to me without any doubt what an exceptional talent he is.

Intrigued. I'm in.

Stargate! What a disappointing trash! A trash that should never had spawned a trash TV series.

Those are fighting words.

Stargate the movie was a brilliant, innovative, non-deductive concept that was well (not perfectly) executed and the series that it spawned was one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

I can't speak for the series as I've never watched any of them but the Stargate movie wasn't trash in my opinion.

I'm going to try not to be cranky this time... but I enjoyed both the film, and the series.

Cloverfield

I was thinking of a "War of the Worlds/Independence Day" kind of movie. When the credits came, I remember looking at my friends and saying "Wait, that was it?!". Ugh, such a disappointment.

The only annoying part of "Stargate" was the obnoxiously loud noise the moving lifts made. Otherwise, good movie.

Also, "Cloverfield" was good, and "10 Cloverfield Lane" was even better.

Loved Stargate... a good film. However, I just couldn't get into the series strangely enough!

Stargate is the only film by Roland Emmerich that I have on Blu-ray. All of his other films have ranged from mediocre to outright eye-rolling. I got to meet the guy who played “Skaara” at a convention a few years ago. Nice guy.

He was only one of two actors who played their characters in the series as well as the movie.

And as for Emmerich, I also love "Independence Day" and "The Patriot". Great flicks both.

Cloverfields sucked too, it sucked so much I didn't care to watch the sequels. Another one that sucked: Super 8 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved Stargate too. I remember how cool it was seeing the portal scene in the movie theater and it felt like you got sucked into a roller coaster. I also really liked Kurt Russel's character and the darkness he was swallowed up by at the loss of his son and the determination he had for his one way mission. I also thought the scene in the pyramid landing pad where the soldiers are being hunted by the unseen enemy was really creepy and cool.

I've only seen it once but I remember quite liking Super 8.

"Highlander II" is why the phrase "There can be only one" also applies to movie sequels. There is only one Highlander movie, the original (and the international cut at that, not the US one).

Same with Matrix, there is only one Matrix movie, there is some internet rumor that there were create two sequels, but I refuse to believe it!

"Truman show" I'd rank up with the topic. It's a Jim Carrey movie, so you expect slapstip humour but the movie is most excellent.

"Anna" (Luc Besson's) surprised me. I thought it was going to be a rehash of his "La Femme Nikita", but it wasn't and it was so much more and had a great ending. The girl in it, Sahsa Luus is a model in real life and she acted very well. Also, Cillian Murphy and Helen Mirren did a great job too, and also Luke Evans.

"Overlord" was also a surprise to me, even though it was far fetched. But hey, JJ Abrams and WWII go figure. Watch for entertainment purposes.

"The Decline" (French title "Jusqu'ue le Decline") was also decent and unexpected in plot.

v6,
boNes

This is about as close as we will probably get to to Castle Wolfenstein movie.

And to think they are currently making a fourth Matrix film. I'll give it a chance but my gut feeling is that it really won't bring anything new to the table. The Wachowskis have been largely a huge miss with everything they've done since the original Matrix film.

Won't be until 2022 because of the virus and Mr. Anderson won't be back. It's not The Matrix without Mr. Anderson. The Wachowski brothers are now the Wachowski sisters. Don't be shocked if The Matrix 4 will be full of feminism theme.