The 1977 publication of The Silmarillion. Like thousands of other Tolkien fans, I reserved my copy. Except for a couple of revelations I found, I was disappointed. I haven’t opened my copy again.
I preferred the 1988 BBC/Wonderworks TV version.
Oh yeah, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Thanks for reminding me.
Take a seventh grade kid, who has been bounced from one school to the next, has a deadbeat dad and a stepdad who stinks, and has been diagnosed with an alphabet soup of learning disorders (I exaggerate, but how many diagnosed early adolescents wouldn’t feel this way) and let him find out that the reason that he is a misfit is because he is the son of a god and he is made to be a hero. What’s more, his math teacher really is a monster and she does want to kill him.
The junior high aged kids that I knew loved the books. It may have been a regional thing, but the book signings were standing room only affairs, with activities that filled an entire parking lot. They opened a summer camp here that was based on the books. What’s more, Riordan wrote the first book so that it read like the first version of a script and could be easily rewritten for film.
But how far can you water down a concept? For the movie, Percy didn’t have to make the hard decisions in the Underworld (He didn’t mail the Medusa’s head to his dad either.) Annabeth never called him seaweed brain, Neither Aries nor his jerk redneck daughter existed and the gods were just boring.
Y2K.
The Star Trek reboot is up there somewhere. Terrible, terrible film.
But to be fair, most of the Trek movies range from mediocre to bad. I was bemused more by Matrix Reloaded.
Sounds to me like my parents’ generation got gipped on the comet front. Hale-Bopp was the shiz-nitt.
Spider-Man 3.
I enjoyed the first one and LOVED the second one (best sequel to any movie released in the last 25 years), the third one we got a whiny emo Peter Parker and the most worthless adaptation of Venom (favorite comic book character ever) you could possibly get.
Ugh.
The finale of MAS*H.
Ditto. My wife and I hadn’t been to the movies since our 1st daughter was born. She was about 5 months old, and we found a Drive-In (yes, a Drive-In!) that was playing it. We couldn’t in good conscience bring a screaming baby to a regular theater, but if she cried in our car, who would care? So we drove 45 minutes to see that crapfest. (and I’m not talking about the diaper changes in the backseat, I’m talking about the movie. It started on the wrong foot and never recovered: The long-anticipated showdown between Peter and Harry … BONK! Amnesia… nevermind. :P)
When I was in college, one of my sorority sisters took her younger sister (7 or 8 years old) to a re-release of Peter Pan and asked if I wanted to come along. I’d never seen it. Disney classic! Beloved by all! Of course I wanted to go.
*Seriously? *
Live 8.
Live Aid was a decade defining pop culture mega event. I remember watching every minute my mom would let me watch. Of course living in the outskirts of Philly helped. I was amazed that that many people were just a few miles away partying to the biggest concert event ever. The acts are a bit dated now but man oh man they were the elite of the 80s.
Which brings us to Live 8. Terrible lineup. I’m no old fogey that didn’t recognize any of the bands, but they had a whole lot of third tier flash in the pan bands like the arctic monkeys. Trying to do a show on all continents was overreaching. In general it just lacked the shear awesomeness of the 80s event. It did however manage to annoy me while I was trying t drive around the area.
Hmmmm… how do you feel about other Disney animation of that period? I love that movie. No, scratch that – I LOVELOVELOVE it.
The only reason that I opened this thread was to post this.
I love a lot of it. It was the story that put me off. Tinkerbell is a demanding little bitch. I would have gotten her with a bug zapper by the end of the first scene she appeared in.
You’re twice as quick as me; I watched the first two before deciding I would skip Dawn Treader (my favorite of the books) and instead, punch Gresham in the nose next time I saw him.
I can see that. I mean, basically trying to kill Wendy… that’s a bit over the top. But being a guy, I must say I have a certain appreciation for Tinkerbell.
And most of the so-called half-time entertainment doesn’t have the production value one would expect from a middle-of-the-road high school marching band, the “big name” singers lip sync to canned accompaniment that doesn’t match the instruments their band members pretend to play, and I’ve seen better pyrotechnics displays at hick-town 4th of July celebrations.
Woodstock '94 was said to be disappointing.
Zap if you believe in fairies…
KISS’ Psycho Circus album, promoted as the long awaited reunion album, the first one from the original band in 19 years. The minute it came out, it was obvious that Peter Criss and Ace Frehley were replaced by session musicians on most tracks.