10 Worst Films of 2018

So far, this is the first year I've seen enough movies to fill up a top 10 worst list. Either that sends a message about the qualitative state of films today or I'm just very unlucky with my ticket money. Readers are advised to remember that the entries in this list are chosen from the films I actually saw this year. I'm told there are worse movies that came out this year like "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" or "Venom". However, since I haven't seen them, it would be dishonest of me to put them here.

10. "Bad Times at the El Royale"

This is going on here for sheer level of disappointment. The film spends a half an hour building up superb suspense and intrigue. Afterwards, it turns into an entirely different plot. That might've worked in a "From Dusk Till Dawn" sense, but unfortunately the new plot isn't nearly as interesting as what we were presented with. What a letdown.

9. "Mile 22"

Speaking of wasted potential. "Mile 22" would've been fine if it had just been an action movie. Instead, Peter Berg tries to give us a Tom Clancy-esq political drama where the message is "accountability for soldiers is bad". Add to that horrible camerawork, obnoxious characters and a complete waste of Iko Uwais. Thanks, Peter Berg!

8. "Operation Finale"

A story about the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann sounds easy to make exciting. You have a setup pre-made for you to make tense situations out of. Instead, we have a standard, slow-paced drama with no interesting characters and one stand out performance from Ben Kingsley. Another $12 spent on disappointment.

7. "Death Wish"

I do think we need more conservative media in pop culture. Liberal ideology has basically dominated the box office and if we're going to be fair, we need to have more media with right-wing beliefs. Too bad that void was filled by Eli Roth's abysmal "Death Wish" remake. An hour and a half of Bruce Willis slogging his way through a mediocre performance is bad enough. But when the cinematography is uninspired, the dialogue is awful and the fight scenes are underwhelming it just brings the whole thing down to a new level of low. Thank God we have the Punisher show on Netlfix. Otherwise, conservatives would be stuck with this as their sole entry of artistic expression.

6. "Black Panther"

I don't like Marvel movies. I don't like it when mediocre movies are given too much hype. I don't like it when that hype is for any other reason besides quality. All of this was the perfect storm for me to dislike "Black Panther" on principle. It was only after I watched the film that I truly hated it. The CGI looks like it's from a last-gen video game. The story is Marvel predictable. They got Lupita "I won an Oscar for my first film role" Nyong'o and gave her nothing to do. Most damningly of all, though, the film holds itself with such self-seriousness that it's impossible to have fun with it. A superhero movie that isn't fun is like an ice-cream that tastes like loneliness. Now, please feel free to tell me how wrong or racist I am in the comments below.

5. "Ready Player One"

If my last two entries didn't tip you off yet, I'm resigned to the fact that I'm not going to make any friends with this list. "Ready Player One" seemed like it could be fun with its blatant nostalgic references to films and video games. The problem is that there was no actual meat to that heaping helping of grill seasoning. The characters are empty, the story only serves as a framing device for references and the film seems to be afraid to have too much fun with the properties it has expensively acquired. Rather than feeling like a unique experience, it comes off as bland and lazy.

4. "Solo: A Star Wars Story"

I'm not sure how angry I can get about a movie I nearly forgot I saw. Then again, the fact that I completely forgot I saw a Star Wars movie is probably cause for a fuss. Lucasfilm took the most interesting character in its canon and gave him an unwanted backstory that took away any sort of mystique. "The Last Jedi" was the Star Wars film that convinced me we would never have another good Star Wars movie. "Solo" is the film that made me stop caring about the franchise altogether, which is one-hundred times worse.

3. "Red Sparrow"

A common theme of this list is wasted potential. The one thing I hate more than a bad film is a bad film that had all the necessary ingredients to be a good one. So it is with "Red Sparrow", which took all the potential of its premise, cast and crew and completely squandered it. Jennifer Lawrence is going to be very lucky to have any sort of career after this.

2. "Mortal Engines"

To quote my father as we were leaving the theater, "I'm surprised that wasn't direct to Netflix."

1. "Tomb Raider"

This movie is the epitome of every by-the-numbers creative decision made in Hollywood for the last three years. Cheap looking sets and CGI. Bland color correction. Good actors forced to play empty characters. A boring story that barely knows where it's going. The action is barely stimulating and feels like its mainly there ti kill time. Everything I hate about modern movies has been stitched together in "Tomb Raider".