Mad Max: Fury road far exceeded my expectations.
I’d heard good things about the movie, and actually went in with reasonably high expectations of it, and it completely amazed me anyway. Just an incredible spectacle of a film.
Into the Spider-Verse.
I was kind of aware of that sort of plot line in the comics. And I loved The live action Spider-Man movies.
Was blown away at how complete a package it was: visuals, score, writing, voice acting. It was just an all around great movie.
Tropic Thunder. Went in knowing it was a new Ben Stiller movie and nothing else.
I love Tropic Thunder, and I hate Ben Stiller movies!
I remember sitting in the theatre and the intro commercials integrated seamlessly with the previews and it was just hilarious from the start.
Train to Busan. Shit was INTENSE.
Bullet Train was fun as hell.
Edit: I just realized that I saw John Wick based on, “Hey I want to see a movie today. John Wick? No idea what this is, but if it’s in IMAX it might be fun!”
It was.
The new Puss In Boots. I went to see it mostly for my husband who likes Puss, but oh my goodness it was actually REALLY good. The animation was really interesting.
You beat me to this answer. I knew it was going to be good because of its phenomenal word of mouth and I was still surprised. There are so many cool details that no one will notice on a first watch, but show how much care the creators had for it. By way of example, Death can be seen in the crowd during the opening giant fight (he was there to witness each frivolous end, after all), and the numbered cards denoting each death have the silhouette of Death holding his shotels in the corners.
This!!!
2 movies immediately come to mind, and I think it’s because I went in with an expectation that the movie is gonna suck.
- Pacific Rim
- District 9
It’s probably been 10 years since I watched either of those movies so I’m not sure how they have aged…
District 9 was very good! I think that was my first bluray.
I knew I was going to love Pacific Rim (giant robots and monsters? Sign me up) but I didnt expect the horror element of it and exactly how menacing each kaiju would be. I can easily rewatch it many times.
To the original question, from recent memory a film that surprised me was Dungeons and Dragons Honor among Thieves. The IP didnt have a great track record in film, but this one was entertaining, funny, heartwarming, and highly recommended.
Dune
My expectations were sky-high for Dune and they were still exceeded.
12 Angry Men - the original b&w one. I read a quick review and it sounded interesting enough to at least try.
Started slow and a bit dull but so well written and shot that it quietly builds the tension and kinda sneaks up on you.
I didn’t think it would be able to hold my attention; black and white, several decades old, and filmed in a single room…no thanks.
But then I started watching and got sucked in. Before I knew it I was hanging on every word and was completely mesmerised. It’s an incredible movie.
The Suicide Squad
The first one was so bad, was surprised the sequel was watchable haha
:)
They Cloned Tyrone was an unexpected gem from Netflix of all places.
Kung Fu Panda
The New Jumanji. The first one, I never saw the second. I expected it to be a dumb, corny movie made just to fill the years reboot quota, but it was a VERY enjoyable movie.
Based on the trailers and ads, I thought Kung Pow was gonna be a piece of crap. I only went because my parents made me take my younger siblings who wanted to see it.
Turned out to be one of the funniest fucking movies I have ever seen.
THAT’S A LOT OF NUTS!
The Super Mario Bros Movie. I pretty much put it on expecting to be disappointed, as video game based movies are almost universally terrible, but … I actually had a good time and really enjoyed all the reference humor.
