Sometimes, you watch a movie at the perfect moment in your life. And sometimes, that moment passes and you return to that same movie, only to discover that what you used to love about it just isn’t as compelling in the cold light of day. So there were plenty of responses when Redditor u/omnipotentmonkey asked the cinephiles of r/movies, “What is a movie that you initially liked, before drastically turning sour on?” Here are 17 of their answers.
Responses may have been editing for length and/or clarity.
1.“This one’s embarrassing. Garden State. Seeing this movie as a teen just going into university I thought, ‘Man, this movie gets me.’ Watching it back a few years later, it was unbearably wanky and insufferable, which to be fair probably means it did in fact get me at the time.”
2.“Yesterday. It started out as a nice, bright, fun idea, and beautifully shot. And then the plot turned itself in knots trying to provide some kind of story arc. What a mess.”
3.“Jurassic World. First time I saw it, I thought it was a decent popcorn flick. The second time, I realized how absolutely stupid and incompetent they made the characters just to get the plot started. Then, how painfully two-dimensional the characters were. I realized the whole thing was a dumpster fire.”
4.“27 Dresses. I watched it twice in a row, then bought it on DVD, watched it quite a few more times, then absolutely hated it.”
5.“When I was young I thought the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie was the fucking peak of cinema and the soundtrack was a masterpiece. Safe to say, upon rewatching it came to light that I’d made a huge mistake.”
6.“Titanic. I was absolutely floored by the effects and walked out thinking it was amazing. Twenty-four hours later, the horrendous writing caught up in my brain, and I thought it was a full pile of trash.”
7.“I was 18 when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came out (so the main target audience), and thought it was a pretty fun movie. I watched it again a few months later on DVD, and….just couldn’t understand what I was thinking.”
8.“Mine has got to be Silver Linings Playbook. I remember loving the movie as an unconventional Moonstruck-ish romance with quirky characters. I saw it recently and couldn’t stand how every scene is shouted with every line trying hard to be a banger. Annoyed me to the point I shut it off. Who talks to each other like that all the time?”
9.“Probably all three Star Wars sequel trilogy movies. Coming out of the theater, I really liked all three. Say what you will about them, but the audio-visual experience is still incredible and very much on par with the other movies (relative to time they were released). Minor issues that I’d noticed in my first viewing (primarily story based) just really felt magnified on the second, now that I was paying them more attention and actually critically thinking about them. Hate is probably too strong of a word, but my opinion on them overall is quite mixed nowadays.”
10.“Controversial choice: The Breakfast Club. I still like the movie a lot, but when I was a teen I thought it was a transcendent experience. Now I see it as a movie about a bunch of entitled spoiled kids. ‘When you grow up, your heart dies.‘ I guess it’s true? But you get wiser, too.”
11.“Cloud Atlas. Really enjoyed the film when it was released and thought that it had a great message. Watching recently, the thing is a bit of a mess.”
12.“Came out of The Dark Knight Rises thinking it was the best of the trilogy. On rewatching, I actually can’t stand it. There are some fun parts in it and I like Cillian Murphy’s small cameo, but the rest of the flick was just too polished and didn’t work at all. The football stadium scene is a joke!”
13.“Spider-Man: No Way Home. I watched this movie three times in theaters and I was completely blinded by nostalgia and the fan service. The first half of this movie is a real slog to get through, between the nonsensical decisions made by the characters to the typical Marvel-isms (the cringe jokes, super self-aware, never taking itself seriously, etc.). It’s just a complete mess that’s borderline unbearable. The movie becomes palatable during the apartment scene and does kind of makeup for that first half but still, I don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did in theaters.”
14.“Love Actually. It came out when I was in college and I thought it was so sweet…rewatched it recently and thought it was soooo cheesy.”
15.“(500) Days of Summer. Thought it was an artistic achievement when it was released. Put it on for a rewatch during the pandemic and shut it off halfway through. Still have love for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel but couldn’t believe how forced most of its ‘style’ is. Maybe I’m wrong. But it wasn’t working for me this time around, dawg.”
16.“Star Trek Into Darkness. When I first saw it I was taken in by all the fantastic visuals and great soundtrack. It was honestly my favorite movie after I saw it and I couldn’t help but gush about it to all my friends, to an irritating degree. Anyway, about a month later I was home alone, dog-sitting I think, and I decided to watch the Blu-Ray my parents had just bought of the film on their brand new TV and sound system. Got about 15 minutes in and realized I was cataclysmically bored and put on a Futurama DVD instead.”
17.And finally: “Frozen. First watch in the theater with my kids I thought, ‘That was pretty entertaining.’ Then my wife bought the CD and that is the only thing our kids would listen to in the car for the next 18 months. I loathe anything Frozen now.”
