A slightly different choice: Contact after reading Carl Sagan’s novel. I thought that at last we’d get to see an intelligent representation of how SETI works and how we and aliens might interact. I was disappointed in the space trip, and really wished that Matthew McConaughey wasn’t in it.
“Star Trek-The Motion Picture”. I was both thrilled and vaguely disappointed.
. . . The trailer still looks good. I remember being horribly disappointed by the movie.
Starship Troopers. It took me years to work through the confusion of wondering how a movie with so many boobs could be so terrible.
Exactly my experience! I saw it with my dad at the old American cinema on Lake Street in Minneapolis, now since long gone. The thing I remember best, besides Sammy’s dance number and Peter Falk as the bad guy, was the little black kid at the orphanage.
I saw it on video about 20 years ago, and everything was just as I remembered it!
Not that I was super keen to see it but I can remember how much Star Wars was promoted and hyped pre-release.
Prolly Empire Strikes Back or Superman II.
In more recent years I remember feeling a tingle of excitement at the end of Nolan’s Batman Begins, when they showed the playing card. I’ve since adjusted my feelings about that trilogy.
I think most of us had that same level of anticipation, but it’s not a terrible movie if you have the right expectations. When I heard Lucas was directing, I knew that it would be his vision and not necessarily what Star Wars fans wanted, so I just took it in without expectations of where I wanted it to go, and found it enjoyable if not nearly up to the standard of the original trilogy.
Now Force Awakens, I had very high exepctations and wasn’t disappointed.
Agree. I was so exited to see Prometheus the first time that I overlooked it’s flaws.
- I had read the Times Magazine article on Clarke years before and I got the Life Magazine with pictures. And I convinced a teacher to set up a class trip to NY to see it.
Even better than I had imagined.
Biggest disappointment was Phantom Menace. My wife got us tickets for our anniversary. Bleah.
Star Trek: First Contact, and another vote for Marvel’s The Avengers.
The Matrix: Revolutions.
The Movie? Regrets.
I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Imagine my crushing disappointment when it turned out to be infinitely worse than both the book and the original movie 
Those were great. But we actually lined up in predawn for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, both very good.
The plot is a bit off today, but it still has two GREAT musical numbers in it- Style and Mr Booze.
Worth buying the DvD just for those.
It had some great moments. I dont hate it, at all.
Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are certainly highlights, kinda sucks that Lucas killed his best characters off in the first movie.