#1. Titanic Kate Winslet (Who could wrap me around her finger if she wished) aside, many people have this filed as one of their favorites of all time. I found that from a plot POV it created nothing new. Being almost the exact retelling of the 1953 version of Titanic. Having a dark streak in me, I've always enjoyed the Titanic story. But I still will take "A Night To Remember" as the best presentation of the story to date. #2. Avatar Not that Avatar wasn't an entertaining evening out to the movies. BUT some people were defining it as life changing....It was an entertaining 3D comic book story...not much more, not much less. #3. Dances With Wolves Not a bad Cowboy/Ex-Civil War Soldier and Indians Story. But come on? Mary McDonnel was actually annoying to me in this movie. Not that this was horrible...but IMO I've seen many, many stories along these lines that were better. I'll take "A Man Called Horse" over " Dances With Wolves " any day. What movies or films do you think had much greater commercial or critical success than they deserved? What movie didn't get the respect it deserved? The Color Purple was a movie I thought did not get the respect it deserved.
I haven't seen Avatar. I saw the first half of Dances with Wolves, and fell asleep. And Titanic was stupid. But I think the movies that I find most overrated are the ones that think they're terribly clever when they're not. For me, I think Lost in Translation and Little Miss Sunshine would be top of that list.
I fell asleep during all three in the theatre, so I suppose I always thought of them that way. They were better to watch when they were out on DVD. Titanic has some elements outside of story that are a bit admirable. I suppose you could say the same for Avatar with the technology used to better tell the story. I can appreciate the hard work over the story from time to time. I interned with Disney in college and after learning about all the methods he pioneered, the story was just secondary. I tend to appreciate most Claymation movies based entirely on how time consuming and tedious it is.
I thought the review that described Avatar as "Dancing with Smurfs" to be the most concise review ever. Sure fits the OPs characterization.
