Art is subjective, and what one person thinks is genius, another might write off as rubbish.
In other words, there’s no accounting for taste. That being said, some films get praised to the skies and win armfuls of awards, but when you actually sit down to watch them, you’re left wondering what all the fuss was about. These are some of the most overrated films of the 21st century that didn’t live up to the hype.
1. Avatar turned Pocahontas into a space spectacle with no substance.
James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster made history as the first film to gross over a billion dollars, but strip away the groundbreaking 3D visuals, and you’re left with a story you’ve seen a dozen times before. It’s essentially Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas transplanted to the planet Pandora, where a white saviour learns the ways of the indigenous Na’vi and saves them from exploitation. Sam Worthington’s charisma-free performance didn’t help matters, and when your biggest achievement is technical innovation rather than storytelling, you’re basically an expensive screensaver.
2. The Revenant dragged a thin plot over two and a half gruelling hours.
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his Oscar for this 2015 survival epic, but the Academy seemed more impressed by the fact he ate raw bison liver and slept in animal carcasses than by the actual film itself. The snowy landscapes are breathtaking, and the bear attack scene is visceral, but director Alejandro G. Iñárritu stretched a simple revenge story to breaking point with minimal dialogue and endless shots of DiCaprio crawling through snow.
3. Shakespeare in Love didn’t deserve to beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture.
This 1998 film’s Best Picture win remains one of the Academy’s most baffling decisions, beating out Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line. The fictional romance about a young William Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet suffered from leads who lacked chemistry, making it impossible for audiences to invest in their love story. The film has since become shorthand for undeserving Oscar winners, and its reputation has only got worse with time.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody sanitised Queen’s story for nostalgia-fuelled awards.
Rami Malek’s electric performance and the recreated Live Aid concert thrilled audiences enough to rake in $900 million and four Oscars, but the film glossed over Freddie Mercury’s actual life with historical inaccuracies and a sanitised script. It leaned too hard on nostalgia for Queen’s music rather than telling an honest story, making its massive awards haul feel more like fan service than recognition of genuine cinematic brilliance.
5. The Shape of Water prioritised quirky style over actual substance.
Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Best Picture winner follows a mute janitor who falls in love with an amphibian creature, and while the lush visuals and fairy-tale aesthetic are undeniable, the simplistic plot and predictable romance don’t justify the heavy praise as a profound love story. The quirky premise feels overstretched across the runtime, and when you strip away the pretty production design, you’re left with a shallow narrative that won awards on vibes alone.
6. Joker rehashed Taxi Driver without adding anything new.
Joaquin Phoenix’s raw intensity earned him a deserved Oscar, but the film itself borrows so heavily from Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy that it offers little originality. Todd Phillips’s gritty take on the iconic villain made $1 billion by promising a deep dive into mental illness and societal decay, but delivered shallow social commentary that felt overpraised, especially when it was competing against genuinely innovative films like Parasite that same year.
7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was Tarantino at his most self-indulgent.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt charm their way through 1960s Los Angeles, with Pitt’s performance earning deserved praise, but the meandering plot and self-indulgent runtime dilute whatever impact Tarantino was going for. The nostalgic vibe is fun for a while, but the film feels overhyped as a deep masterpiece when compared to tighter, more focused Tarantino works like Pulp Fiction or Inglourious Basterds.
8. Everything Everywhere All at Once confused spectacle for storytelling.
This 2022 film swept the Oscars with seven wins, including Best Picture, but plenty of viewers left the cinema baffled by what they’d just watched. Michelle Yeoh’s performance anchors the film, but the parallel universe chaos never coalesces into a clear storyline, with scenes following one another without evidence of a unifying plot or satisfying arc. When the hype died down, many wondered what all the fuss was about beyond the quirky hipster aesthetic.
9. Titanic made billions on spectacle, but the romance was paper-thin.
James Cameron’s 1997 epic became the first film to hit the billion-dollar mark and dominated the Oscars, but the love story between Jack and Rose is simplistic at best. The visuals were phenomenal and kept audiences captivated, but strip away the sinking ship spectacle, and you’re left with a predictable romance between characters who barely know each other, elevated entirely by the scale of the disaster surrounding them.
10. The Notebook turned clichés into a supposed romantic masterpiece.
This 2004 romance has become the bible for romance enthusiasts, but it’s formulaic storytelling relying entirely on clichés and an unrealistic depiction of love. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams have undeniable chemistry, but the story itself offers nothing new to the genre, and the iconic rain scene can’t disguise the fact that it’s basically just another Cinderella story dressed up as something profound.
11. Star Wars: The Last Jedi divided fans with an uneven mess.
Critics raved about Rian Johnson’s original approach to the Star Wars universe, but a large portion of the audience saw it for what it really was: an uneven film with shaky structure, forced humour, and uninteresting characterisation. The movie took risks that didn’t pay off, creating a divisive entry in the franchise that pleased critics far more than the fans who actually had to live with its story decisions.
12. Frozen became overhyped without the substance to back it up.
Disney’s 2013 animated blockbuster took the world by storm with “Let It Go” dominating every radio station and shopping centre for months, but the film itself has been accused of being an overhyped musical with less substance than Disney’s better offerings. The songs are catchy, but the story is predictable, the character development is thin, and the film’s cultural dominance far exceeded its actual quality as a piece of storytelling.
13. The Greatest Showman oversimplified everything for a singalong.
This 2017 musical based on P.T. Barnum’s life features excellent production values and Hugh Jackman’s charisma, but the conflict resolution is so oversimplified it becomes laughable. The film glosses over the problematic aspects of Barnum’s actual history, turning a complicated figure into a sanitised crowd-pleaser that relies on catchy songs to distract from its lack of narrative depth.
14. La La Land failed to deliver musically or emotionally.
Damien Chazelle’s 2016 love letter to Hollywood musicals nearly won Best Picture and collected 14 Oscar nominations, but many found it underwhelming despite the hype. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling aren’t strong enough singers or dancers to carry a proper musical, the songs are forgettable pastiches rather than memorable numbers, and the whole thing feels pleased with itself without earning that smugness through actual quality.
15. American Hustle had a star-studded cast, but no story to tell.
Despite 10 Academy Award nominations and a cast including Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper, this 2013 film’s convoluted plot left audiences struggling to follow along. The phenomenal costumes and committed performances couldn’t mask the lack of character development, leaving viewers without anyone to actually root for, and the whole thing felt like style masquerading as substance.
16. A Star is Born was the fourth version nobody needed.
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s 2018 remake showcased Gaga’s incredible voice, but their overall acting performances were lacklustre and the predictable plot made the film drag on longer than necessary. It’s the fourth telling of this story, and while Gaga proved she could act, the film didn’t justify its existence beyond giving her a platform to sing. It ended up feeling more like an extended music video than a fully realised drama.
17. Forrest Gump didn’t deserve to beat Shawshank Redemption or Pulp Fiction.
Tom Hanks’s performance is lovely, and the film has undeniable charm, but winning Best Picture over The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction remains controversial decades later. The story of a simple man stumbling through iconic historical moments is feel-good entertainment, but it lacks the depth and complexity of its competition, making its Oscar dominance feel like the Academy rewarding sentimentality over genuine cinematic excellence.
18. The Irishman was a slow, overlong gangster epic that tested patience.
Martin Scorsese’s 2019 reunion with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci was anticipated as a legendary gangster film, but the 3.5-hour runtime felt interminable and the de-ageing effects were distractingly imperfect. Many viewers found it slow and struggled to engage with the pacing, questioning whether it deserved its status as a modern classic when it felt more like Scorsese rehashing his greatest hits without the energy that made them great.
19. The English Patient won multiple Oscars but put audiences to sleep.
This 1996 sweeping romance won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but critics and audiences alike found it slow, pretentious, and difficult to engage with. The narrative jumps around in time in a way that makes following the story unnecessarily complicated, and despite its critical success, many found it genuinely hard to sit through, making its Oscar haul feel disconnected from the actual viewing experience.
20. A Quiet Place had an innovative concept, but logic that didn’t hold up.
John Krasinski’s 2018 horror film was praised for its fresh take on the genre with monsters that hunt by sound, creating genuine tension throughout. However, once you start thinking about the premise, the plot holes become impossible to ignore—why live near a waterfall if it masks sound, why have a baby in an apocalypse, and how did humanity not figure out the creatures’ weakness sooner? The concept is clever but falls apart under scrutiny.
