Forums / Media / Moving Images

I originally went to discuss this in a friend's discord yet got barely any results. I'm not talking about personal opinion here, I'm more-so talking about public/popular opinion. with the release of Mario + Rabbids, a game everyone thought was gonna suck balls but after release ended up being praised as pretty much universally 'suprisingly good' it got me thinking what other films or games have had this reaction from people

One other Example I can think of was The Pirates of the Carribean movies…at least the first 1-2. From what I've read most people thought it was going to be a stupid concept from the very start of it being based on a disneyland ride and thought it was going to be 'Michael Bay's Treasure Island'.

When it was released, people were suprised to see a film that was generally Charming, Adventerous, Legitimately Scary at times, Funny & Generally feeling a bit like the very ride itself even if as an adaptation it was pretty loose.

so I'd like to hear times you've seen things end up being suprisingly good on release. once again I'm not asking for personal opinions like 'well I thought movie/game X was going to be terrible but then I saw/played it and it was awesome' I'm more asking for 'Well I remember a bunch of people saying this movie/game was going to be abysmal but it ended up being pretty fucking good'.

Reverse Examples are allowed too[I'd personally believe No Man's Sky, The Phantom Menace & Mighty No. 9 are pretty good examples of the inverse] but I mainly want 'suprisingly good' stuff

I was originally against the idea of seeing The Lego Movie (I didn't even watch any trailers), because I thought it would be a standard "really bad CGI give-us-ur-monies" animated movie that you see so often nowadays. I relented and went with my friends who really wanted to see it and wanted me to tag along -
- and it quickly became one of my favorite movies in recent memory. We ended up laughing the most in an audience of kids and parents. The wit, writing, and visual humor is some of the best I've ever seen.
So I qualify it as a "surprisingly good" movie that I had literally no expectations for.
(also I'm pretty sure this board should be moved to the Media forums)

I couldn't put it on the media forums because I didn't feel like restricting the exact media I wanted to be discussed

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Don't @ me

The Heisei Gamera trilogy has no right being as good as it is.



Like, these aren't just good monster movies; they're good movies in general. The acting is mostly solid (ignoring the standardly cheesy dubbing), the cinematography and practical effects are top-notch, the miniatures are some of the best in the genre, Kow Otani (later known for his work on Shadow of the Colossus's OST) does a great job with the OST across all three films, and Gamera himself has a character arc. I repeat, a monster has a character arc.
These aren't perfect films by any means, they still have their characterization and occasional "Special Effect Failure" issues, but they're proof that monster movies can be more than popcorn entertainment (even though they work well as that).

Bright was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

the first Resident Evil film was good for what it was, the second one was okay, then it just all went downhill from there.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. When this game was first leaked, almost everyone reacted with confusion and dismay and pretty much everyone rip it to shreds.

It wasn't until the trailer, demo playing and eventually the final game release that everyone actually enjoy the game for its humor and simple game mechanics to introduce people to the tactical turn-based strategy genre. The world was fun to explore and everything is so colorful and bright! Each world is unique and there are things to do even when you finish the game, giving some replayability. Not to mention the game being surprisingly difficult. I enjoy this game as a gateway to the tactical strategy genre and liking the Rabbids as a whole.

Since Nostalgia Critic reminded me of it recently: the first Tomb Raider movie. Also the first Mortal Kombat movie and first Silent Hill movie. Some of the only live action video game movies I'd actually call enjoyable.

Mortal Kombat has a mostly good cast and enough kung fu action to feel like the movies that inspired the games (even if the movie is shockingly lacking in the blood and gore that made the games famous, because the movie's producers really wanted to make sure teenagers could see the movie in theaters back in 1995), plus Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon liked the movie so much he made aspects about it a part of the official game canon like changing Kano's nationality to Australian (it originally used to be Japanese-American) and I swear Johnny Cage's voice actor in MK9 was probably directed to sound and act a bit like Linden Ashby's Johnny Cage.

The first Tomb Raider movie is in a similar boat. Mostly good casting all around (plus Daniel Craig's fake sounding American accent is unintentionally funny), the action scenes are actually pretty well done, plus the chemistry between most characters are good. Plus the "video gamey" moments really remind me a lot of what the 90s era Tomb Raiders were like (and even a bit of the TR Legends trilogy), so it also stays true to the source material to a good degree.

The first Silent Hill movie, while it does have some casting issues (the little girl in the movie can be annoying), it actually manages to capture the look and atmosphere of the games surprisingly well. Some parts of the story could be better too (Lisa in the movie felt rather wasted when you remember how she was one of the characters in SH1 who has one of the most emotional moments), but honestly for what is basically a reimagining of the first game that also adds in elements from the others it's actually quite good IMO. Plus the fact they used Akira Yamaoka's music from the games in scenes where they fit in well really helped.

Also another one I'd like to add is The Terminal. This is a comedy drama starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones directed by Steven Spielberg back in 2004, and despite this cast and director I actually wasn't interested in the movie at all when it first came out as it looked boring to me in the commercials. My mom dragged me to see it one day because she wanted to see a movie she would enjoy (she's not big into things like super hero movies so a film like Spider-Man 2, released around the same time, didn't interest her, I saw it later with my dad [and fyi I was 14 at the time]), and I went in thinking "oh gosh I'm probably gonna get put to sleep." To my surprise I actually got really sucked into the movie, as I found myself really liking the characters and overall narrative. After seeing it I even told my mom "okay I'll admit it… that movie was actually really good!" Also as an FYI: in 2004 I hadn't seen Forrest Gump yet, the previous comedy drama Speilburg and Hanks did together. Because I liked The Terminal so much my mom handed me a VHS copy of Forrest Gump one day and said to watch it since it's a similar kind of movie and now I love Forrest Gump.

When it comes to movies, I would say Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Lego Movie. When it comes to video games, the entire Kingdom Hearts series surprised me by being pretty good.

I don't think anyone expected Deadpool to be a great superhero comedy movie after what X-Men Origins did to the character. Especially not the highest grossing R rated movie in history, I was surprised by how well it's grossing.