No matter how grand a year it was at the movies, we all have those disappointing and diminishing experiences in the cinema. And those can still make quite the impact. Whether it was the latest tentpole production that dashed our hopes at a smart popcorn flick, a festival favorite or awards darling we just couldn't help but scratch our heads at, or a favorite director dropping the ball, here are the films of 2013 that made us frown or feel rather furious.
Pacific Rim
James Marsh - Asian Editor
There is some fun to be gleaned from Guillermo del Toro's mecha-on-kaiju mash-up and some of the design work is sensational, but the film is a vacuous empty exoskeleton of what might have been. The plot itself makes no sense (big guns or bombs would've faired better against giant monsters, no?), the characterisation is minimal and the dialogue downright risible, leaving even talented performers like Idris Elba and Ron Perlman with little to do but stand there and snarl. Add to this some of the worst accents in the history of acting, and it compounds into a force capable of sinking the entire project. Pacific Rim is not terrible, but it's a crushing disappointment.
Kwenton Bellette - Contributing writer
Del Toro is vastly overrated. Pacific Rim's story is like Evangelion-light with added stupidity. Yes the effects and fights are great, but everything in between is all sorts of awful.
Dustin Chang - Contributing writer
Kurt Halfyard - Contributing writer
I love Guillermo del Toro. I do. To hear him lecture on the cinema he loves is a joy. So why didn't we get something smarter than this fireworks show? So much could have been done with the idea of the "drift" or Ron Perlman's band of organ salvagers. Instead we just get glossy, but banal monster and robot punching.
Behind The Candelabra
Joshua Chaplinsky - Contributing writer
Simply put: not gay enough. Soderbergh had the opportunity give us something with real depth here, but despite some great performances, the finished product feels so... safe. Behind the Candelabra is a glorified Lifetime movie.
Blind Detective
Pierce Conran - Contributing writer
I don't think Johnny To's latest was bad but since I thought it was going to be a follow up to Mad Detective I was ridiculously excited. Though the screwball comedy that emerged wasn't half-bad, I was still pinning for something that didn't exist.
Blue Is The Warmest Color
Ben Umstead - East Coast Editor
I'm not here for controversy as I was genuinely psyched for Abdellatif Kechiche's Palme d'Or winning coming-of-ager. In the end though the dark side of hype must have gotten the better of me as I found the story of Adèle, at best, only midlly engaging. Thumbs up for a genuine effort (with mad props to Adèle Exarchopoulos) but this one did not resonate with me beyond its screentime.
Charlie Countryman
Ryland Aldrich - Festivals Editor
The Complex
Andrew Mack - Contributing writer
The Counselor
Jason Gorber - Featured critic
I still had high hopes we'd get a good Ridley film, and a McCarthy script that translated to screen adequately, yet both seemed way out of their elements with this flawed yet provocative film. If it didn't have some moments of greatness (catfish and all), it wouldn't have been so damn dissapointing.
Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of The Gods
Eric Ortiz Garcia - Contributing writer
I wanted to love this movie but I guess I'm not 10 anymore!
Drinking Buddies
Jaime Grijalba - Contributing writer
I really don't know what to put here, but since I heard some good stuff about this movie and then it turned out it wasn't good, well... there's that.
Elysium
Ard Vijn - Contributing writer
It wasn't really bad, but it sure wasn't as awesome as it should have been. District 9 promised a lot more to come out of Blomkamp. Hell, the Citroën advert promised a lot more to come out of Blomkamp!
Iron Man 3
Ernesto Zelaya Miñano - Contributing writer They made a complete joke out of Iron Man's biggest nemesis. There's no way to take the movie seriously after that.
Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons
Niels Matthijs - Contributing writer
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Christopher O'Keeffe - Contributing writer
Mud
Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg - Contributing writer
After the strange, terrifying, left-of-centre film that was Take Shelter, I expected more of the same from Jeff Nichols. Instead, this was boring. And I still cannot understand why everyone thinks Matthew McConaughey is a great actor.
Only God Forgives
J. Hurtado - Contributing writer
Passion
Jim Tudor - Contributing writer
Shield Of Straw
Patryk Czekaj - Contributing writer
Although Miike Takashi is one of my biggest cinematic heroes, I would really like to forget about Shield of Straw. It's a tedious, messy, frustrating film that never used the potential of its thought-proovking premise.
Stoker
Ben Croll - Contributing writer
As a Hitchcock inspired Vanity Fair pictorial, Park Chan-wook hit a homerun. Why they decided instead to turn it into a film, I'm still puzzled.
The World's End
Brian Clark - European Editor
The Zero Theorem
Todd Brown - Founder And Editor
Sorry, Terry. You're my very favorite filmmaker of all time but this was painful to watch. Indulgent, bereft of much to say, failing to say what little it has to say in interesting ways, and just a pale shadow of earlier work.