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Most Overrated Films of 2023

2023 was actually a great year for movies with most of the biggest films of the year turning out legitimately great or at least good. Still, there were films that were released with so much pomp and circumstance that ultimately wasn’t earned. Here are five most overrated movies of the year with some honorable mentions.

5. Perfect Days

The foreign Oscar slate this year was admittedly quite strong with four of the five movies being either legitimately good or downright great. That is with the exception of Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days. Although charming and sweet in its own right, this slice-of-life drama lacked memorable scenarios or particularly cinematic qualities, rendering it forgettable. It was only nominated on his name alone.

4. Nimona

Nimona is one of two overrated animated films of 2023. While I did appreciate its unique animation style, strong world building and an endearing friendship at its core, I also found it to be overly contemporary in dialogue and standard in its plot. It was overly loud and obnoxious in its punk rock music, juvenile humor and overwhelming action, not to mention being extremely predictable in its plot. Nimona mainly coasted along its LGBT representation.

3. Air

2023 saw three movies about products: ‘Tetris’, ‘BlackBerry’ and this overrated bore. The other two movies were at least fun and exciting to watch whereas Air was slight, simplistic and plotless. It has some fine acting, but otherwise it’s horrendous capitalist propaganda that failed to make a case for its existence at any point during its overly extended runtime. So many people praising it still befuddles me to this day.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Now we come to two most overrated movies of the year and both are not just overly praised, but they aren’t even of passable quality. The first of these mediocrities is the second Spider-Verse movie that destroyed any goodwill that the original garnered for me. Yes, the animation is gorgeous and highly artistic and stylistically diverse, but how can I enjoy the visuals when I cannot see them properly. Yes, this movie is so frenetically paced and so overabundant in its constant action scenes that it gave no breathing room for genuine storytelling and characterization. It’s also plagued by a horrendous soundtrack and a frustrating multiverse trope that has become tiresome by now. It’s by far the most overrated animated movie of the decade so far.

1. Oppenheimer

And the number one most overrated film of 2023 is easily Christopher Nolan’s “magnum opus” Oppenheimer. I chose this movie for the first spot due to it being a critical and Oscar darling as well as a huge crowd-pleaser. Apparently, I am in the vast minority of people who genuinely did not like the movie, but I am proud to be here. While undeniably well shot, scored and acted, Oppenheimer is also chaotically edited, structured and paced. It featured simplistic dialogue and a failure to make a point about anything. Nolan could have made a thought-provoking film about such an interesting, controversial subject, but he treated him and the entire story with kid gloves, which was so frustrating to witness. It’s a vapid Oscar-bait that somehow counts as filmmaking these days.

Honorable Mentions:

A Haunting in Venice – Kenneth Branagh Poirot movies were flawed before, but at least they were faithful to the source material whereas this third movie forsake mystery for horror.

John Wick: Chapter 4 – The fourth John Wick movie has strong technical aspects, but it’s overlong, tiresome and weakly plotted.

20 Days in Mariupol –  This Ukrainian documentary is surprisingly devoid of politics and it’s definitely important, but it’s also only okay in terms of technical aspects and overall impact.