The movie flops of the past year

Breakdown Manta and bankruptcy superheroes - The movie flops of the past year

The lights go out, the curtain rises, the audience gazes expectantly at the screen: this magical moment in the movie theater makes every cinephile's heart beat faster and faster. So it's all the worse when the following two hours turn out to be a big disappointment and you have to go home frustrated by the choice of films. The following films from the past twelve months have probably left some people feeling this way. What stands out: The superhero genre in particular seems to be experiencing an existential crisis.

"Babylon - intoxication of ecstasy"

On paper, the cinema year got off to a great start with the 190-minute blockbuster"Bab ylon": a great cast with superstars Brad Pitt (60), Margot Robbie (33) and Tobey Maguire (48), plus Oscar prodigy Damien Chazelle (38) in the director's chair. However, the "La La Land" filmmaker not only worked on his leitmotif of "Hollywood excesses during the Roaring Twenties", but also overdid it. The exuberant chaos in "Babylon" may have been intentional on Chazelle's part, but not on the part of the audience: the costly film only grossed around half of its production costs worldwide.

"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania"

The charm of "Ant-Man" has so far been particularly evident when the hero suddenly has to deal with tiny everyday objects such as toy trains. In "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania", however, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, 54) and his family found themselves in the titular fantasy world, in which his unique selling point did not come into play at all. As a result, Ant-Man's third solo outing felt like a two-hour cutscene from a video game in which - apart from the actors - almost nothing was physically present on set - and it shows in their performances. Many probably expected much more from the start of the fifth Marvel phase.

"Scream VI"

Ghostfaces were already divided on the predecessor. However, part six of the decade-long "Scream" series finally went beyond the pale, even for die-hard fans. With the self-reference typical of the franchise, "Scream VI" aims to be incredibly clever, but falls into the biggest genre pitfalls and clichés. After the film, it became clear that the story of Ghostface has been told and is only digging itself a deeper grave with every new installment. The fact that both new leading actresses - "Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega (21) and newcomer Melissa Barrera (33) - will not be returning for the already planned seventh installment says it all.

"Manta Manta - Part Two"

If "Manta, Manta - Zwoter Teil" were a car, it would certainly not pass the MOT. Of course, the original from 1991 didn't necessarily shine with sophistication and polished dialog either. However, it had its heart in the right place and worked as a gruff declaration of love to a car. Meanwhile, the collection of embarrassing gags, problematic role models and unlikeable characters in the sequel by and with Til Schweiger (59) is many things, but not a worthy continuation of the cult film.

"Transformers 7: Rise of the Beasts"

Yes, a new installment of the'Transformers' series was also released in 2023. So far, success has always proved the action bombast right. However, "Rise of the Beasts" is likely to have been forgotten by most moviegoers, despite or perhaps because of the usual robot bashing. Because: without a human (and famous) driving force, the spark just won't ignite. Shia LaBeouf (37) and Megan Fox (37) are known to have been out for some time, and Mark Wahlberg (52) is also absent from the prequel.

"The Flash"

To say that "The Flash" was not under a good star early on would be the understatement of the year. The escapades of lead actor Ezra Miller (31), the crisis of purpose and the resulting personnel realignment at the film studio - and ultimately the film itself... The lightning-fast superhero seems to have driven his franchise into the wall with equally impressive speed. Instead of hymns of praise for the return of Michael Keaton (72) as Batman, after the film's release there were mainly prophecies of doom about the special effects of "The Flash", which reminded some viewers of Playstation 2 graphics. Downright frightening: if this is the movie that all the DC hope was put into, what does that say about "Batgirl", which was deemed too bad for release?

"Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fortune"

A worthy farewell for Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones - that's what fans of the iconic archaeologist with whip and hat have been hoping for. But what "Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fortune" proved above all is that nostalgia is difficult to create artificially. You don't get a new audience out from behind the stove or into the movie theater with an 80-plus year old man who plods from action scene to action scene. Meanwhile, the long-established Indy fans were confirmed in what they thought after "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull": It would have been best to just let Indiana Jones and Sean Connery ride off into the sunset after part three - The End.

"The Marvels"

The Marvels" recently continued a trend that has been observed for a while: slowly but surely and after more than a decade of huge successes, it seems that something like comic film oversaturation is setting in. The accusation that the film was unsuccessful at the box office because it features three women in leading roles is somewhat deceptive. Of course, many a misanthropic badass may indeed have taken offense at this. But all criticism should not be swept under the carpet, for example: The plot of "The Marvels" is so convoluted that even Marvel experts might not have quite followed along. In addition, Brie Larson's (34) character Captain Marvel alias Carol Denvers is unrecognizable compared to her first solo film.

"Saw X"

When the number in a movie title reaches double digits, it's rarely a sign of quality. "Saw X", the tenth outing in the torture-porn series that saw the light of day in 2004, may be far better than its predecessor "Saw: Spiral" with Chris Rock (58). But that alone says nothing. Although veteran Tobin Bell (81) aka Jigsaw returned in the tenth part of the series, the sophistication that characterized at least the first two "Saw" films did not.

"The Tributes of Panem - The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes"

Did we really need to know how Coriolanus Snow became the monster who watches over the Hunger Games in the 'Tributes of Panem' films? The prequel "The Tributes of Panem - The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" is dedicated to the youth of the antagonist later played by Donald Sutherland and answers questions that no one has ever asked. Compared to the heroine's journey of Katniss Aberdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, 33), the prequel offers more or less the same dramaturgy, only with new characters. And that makes "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" one thing above all: unnecessary.