The Most Surprising and Disappointing Movies of 2019

When I talked about the worst movies of 2019 a few weeks ago, I had mentioned that this past year was one of many disappointments for me. A lot of people had amazing cinematic experiences throughout the year, and while some had enthralled me, plenty of others left me feeling cold. Even when my expectations were nonexistent, I ended up being let down by a lot of films.

However, where some faltered, others triumphed. In fact, 2019 was also a year of considerable cinematic surprises. And that is what I intend on sharing with you today: the movies that surprised and disappointed me the most.

Keep in mind, though, that a movie’s inclusion on this list does not mean that it’s great or bad. You may or may not see some of these on my actual Top 10 Best Movies of 2019 list, but even so, these movies are simply ones that went below or above my expectations. For this post, I ordered Top 5 lists for both my disappointments and surprises and I will go through each of them in order at the same time. 

With that, let’s get started!

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#5 Disappointment — It: Chapter Two (Andy Muschietti)

The original It was one of my biggest surprises for 2017, so you can imagine how let down I was by the lackluster, adult-centric conclusion to that narrative. All of the cards were seemingly in place for an effective, fun, and compelling second half of Stephen King’s story. You had Andy Muschietti back as director, other members of the production crew and creative team returned, Bill Skarsgård came back to play Pennywise, and there were awesome new cast members such as Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy. It’s just a shame that so much of this movie felt incessantly repetitive and cliched to the point where I couldn’t see any real justification of the near-3-hour runtime. Oh well, at least this doesn’t change the original’s status as a good one-off story.

#5 Surprise — Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Jake Castorena)

The awesome crossover we should have gotten was Batman v. Superman, but that ended up being one of the most embarrassing superhero films ever made. The one I assumed would suck, Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, became everything that BVS wasn’t — and I can’t begin to tell you how happy that made me. I’m not even that nostalgic for the turtle bois but I had a blast anyway. And I mean that in a completely unironic way, for this short but sweet animated joint provides the exact kind of action, tongue-in-cheek humor, and ridiculously awesome fan service moments you would expect from something like this. The cast and crew knew exactly what they were making and they put some legitimate effort into giving us a memorable, worthwhile cartoon.

#4 Disappointment — Yesterday (Danny Boyle)

Oh, this one was painful to include. As a huge Beatles shill, I was really hoping that this would somehow carve out a fascinating, inventive story out of the idea of someone adopting their music after everyone in the world forgets about them. With Danny Boyle involved as the director, my hopes were even higher. But what the plot ended up being was about as cliched and predictable as you would expect from that premise. The romance was undercooked, the humor was weak, and the story honestly didn’t make sense even when the concept was already wacky, to begin with. Despite how lackluster the movie was, though, the soundtrack consisting of remixes and covers was excellent. If you’re going to use your money to support this film in any way, do it for the music.

#4 Surprise — Paddleton (Alex Lehmann)

The Netflix Original Paddleton will not be an easy movie for most people to stomach because of its heart-wrenching premise, that of Ray Romano’s character helping his neighbor played by Mark Duplass comfortably live out the last days of his cancer-ridden life. Given that the ending is about as emotionally devastating as you may expect, I truly must reiterate that Paddleton is a tough watch. If you give it a chance, though, you will find that there is a lot more entertainment value and heart to compensate for the sadness. Running at just under 90 minutes, this quick but powerful story may simultaneously brighten up and ruin your day just like it did mine.

#3 Disappointment — Ad Astra (James Gray)

A lot of the film critics I follow went bananas for this space drama from director James Gray. I was a big fan of his previous film The Lost City of Z, so I also hoped for something at least equally transcendent and beautiful. Indeed this was gorgeous to look at, but underneath the shiny coat of paint, I found a hollow chassis with a two-cylinder engine. Despite some great concepts, incredible visuals, and a memorable performance from Brad Pitt, there were simply too many lame plot points and idiotic moments for me to fully get behind this pseudo-intellectual attempt at recapturing the awe of Interstellar. But I can say that seeing this was worth it for one reason: enjoying the experience with the Roundtable crew and then making fun of it for at least 30 minutes straight right after the credits rolled.

#3 Surprise — The Kid Who Would Be King (Joe Cornish)

One of the most criminally overlooked movies of the year was The Kid Who Would Be King, which is essentially if director Joe Cornish took his awesome sci-fi film Attack the Block, made it for kids, and then incorporated Arthurian lore instead of aliens invading the projects. It makes me sad that this was dumped in some random weekend in January with minimal marketing, for despite some lackluster visual effects, this was a legitimately fun adventure that people of all ages and backgrounds could enjoy. Its story generally avoided cliches, had a memorable cast of characters, Rebecca Ferguson hammed it up as the villain, and I surprisingly got a lot out of the emotional and thematic moments. If your family has trouble looking for a good movie to watch on a random night, this is the one to seek out.

#2 Disappointment — Midsommar (Ari Aster)

Hereditary was not only one of my favorite films of 2018 but is actually now one of my favorite horror films ever. That may not mean I ever want to watch it again, but its effect on me was so profound that I eagerly looked forward to what director Ari Aster did next. I didn’t have to wait long to get another ambitious, gorgeously-shot horror film from him and A24, but imagine my dismay when I discovered that Aster simply gave into hubris and just plunged into excess. I am very happy for the large majority of film fans who loved Midsommar, and I indeed have a huge amount of respect for the performances and technical achievements, but the story did nothing for me. I’ll still look forward to Ari Aster’s next film, but I just hope he backs down and simply lets his movie do the talking.

#2 Surprise — Greener Grass (Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe)

The only reason why I watched this is that my man Karsten Runquist put it on his Top 10 Films of 2019 list. I previously had no interest in Greener Grass, but now that I’ve seen it, I want to slap the previous version of myself that almost brushed it aside. If you can imagine a film that meshes together with the madcap insanity of Monty Python, the sharp social commentary of The Twilight Zone, and then lampooned suburban Utah’s culture with intentionally awkward humor, then that’s basically what this movie is. Because of that, Greener Grass is either going to be a film you go for or absolutely despise. Thankfully, I can say that it caught me on a good day because I absolutely went for this bold but hilarious vision for poking fun at White America.

#1 Disappointment — Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J. J. Abrams)

I still love Star Wars, but after getting burnt out from defending my take on The Last Jedi for the past couple of years, The Rise of Skywalker broke me. This insanely messy mishmash of idiotic ideas put me off so badly that you can now consider me one of those fans that hate Disney for what they’ve done to the franchise — or, rather, what they haven’t done for it. Episode IX has just proven to me that Disney cared more to push a trilogy out so that they could start earning back their investment rather than taking their time to plan out a sensible, meaningful, and exciting story. Instead, they repurposed elements of the original movie into a lesser shell of itself, made a risky but undeniably creative second installment, and then finished things off with plot points so underdeveloped and reactionary that you would’ve thought that J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio wrote the script by taking feedback from fans on Reddit. If you want more of my specific thoughts on why I dislike The Rise of Skywalker you’re more than welcome to check out the Roundtable discussion I had with Justin and Jared, but in short, this was more disappointing than any other film this year simply because of my love for Star Wars. I want this franchise to be the best that it can be, and currently, it’s going in some exciting directions with things like Jedi Fallen Order and The Mandalorian, but I never wanted the final film in the Skywalker saga to be lame fan faction that retroactively makes the previous installments less meaningful. I’m happy that a lot of you enjoyed it, but as for me, I now consider Return of the Jedi to be where the Skywalker story ends for me personally.

#1 Surprise — Ready or Not (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett)

I could have sworn that this was going to be garbage. The poster did nothing for me, and I never expected it to be anything but unnecessarily gory shlock. And while Ready or Not was a bit extreme with its violence and profanity at times, I was otherwise dumbfounded by how much fun I had with this thriller that came out of nowhere. That’s probably what is most surprising to me about it, because like with Greener Grass, I almost completely missed out on something that had very high entertainment value and an effective message to boot. I’m grateful I chose to give this a try since it was creative, original, tightly-paced and knew how playful to be with its characters in order to keep me invested. It all culminates in a story that literalizes the very nervous thoughts that may rack any newly married young adult, let alone a marginalized woman becoming part of a wealthy family. Please seek this out if you’re even remotely curious because I’ll bet that it will surprise even the most cynical movie fans.