10. Batman and Robin
What We Were Expecting: Batman, Robin, Mr.Freeze, Bat Girl, Poison Ivy
What We Got Was: The movie that ended the Batman series, for a few years at least until Nolan did his magic. For a time though, the cheesy dialogue, horrible acting, and grotesque set and prop design (I'm looking at you bat-nipples) had all but killed the franchise. A trend with this list, movies so bad, they killed their franchise. Scary prospect.
9. X-Men: The Last Stand
What We Were Expecting: The Dark Phoenix Saga
What We Got Was: Xavier dieing like a complete moron, Cyclops being written out of the story, and an overall mess filled with plot holes and generic performances all around. The Last Stand managed to undo the clout the X-Men franchise garnered over two movies. Considering how well regarded the second movie was, that takes some determination.
Then again, when one of your tentpole franchises falls into the fat and sweaty hands of one Brett Ratner, what do you expect.
8. Spider-Man 3
What We Were Expecting: Venom!
What We Got Was: Venom for a total of 10 minutes (and only one minute in costume), A poorly designed Goblin outfit, and a retconned Sandman story that makes no sense. If the emo-Parker scene wasn;'t enough to make you hate this movie, you have three villains who were all poorly adapted. Don't blame Raimi on this one, Venom was not his decision!
Still, I'm not quite sure that remake is any good either ;)
7. Jonah Hex
What We Were Expecting: Awesome western action, Josh Brolin being a badass
What We Got Was: A rushed and convoluted story. To this ay, I don't remember the plot to Jonah Hex. It was just a convoluted mess, and one that Brolin could not act out. The movie actually has a great cast all around, but Nevaldine and Taylor bring their ADD-style of film making to Jonah Hex, and it simply doesn't work with the character or the world.
6. Green Lantern
What We Were Expecting: Epic Space Opera Action, 'Star Wars' of DC comics, cool constructs
What We Got Was: A convoluted mess. Green Lantern thematically couldn't quite find a beat, and despite solid effort from the cast, the movie just fails to do any justice to the character as a whole. The trailers did a great amount of disservice, showing almost all the stuff on Oa, without telling us that most of the movie would be on Earth. Alas, not even the Green Lantern could construct a decent movie.
5. Fantastic Four
What We Were Expecting: The Fantastic Four!
What We Got Was: A bland attempt to cash in on the success of X-Men. The movie should've just been called "The Four' because there's nothing fantastic about them. Whether it was Reed and Sue's relationship or Doctor Doom, the movie just didn't show any effort as an adaption.
And don't even get us started on Cloudactus.
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
What We Were Expecting: The origin of Wolverine, Gambit
What We Got Was: A cheesy, soap opera-like effort from everyone involved. Everything about Wolverine felt fake, from the action, to the performances, to the damn claws! One thing is simple with Wolverine, get his claws right. They couldn't even do that. Then there's the whole crossover with Mortal Kombat...I mean, Deadpool.
I'm not too sure who to blame on this one, it just seems like a joint effort to crap out one of the worst CBM's of all time. If you want to know why, it's because people don't give a shit.
3. Catwoman
What We Were Expecting: A decent Catwoman movie
What We Got Was: A laughable attempt to create an action thriller. This version is a very loose adaption of the DC character, with only recognition in name and costume (barely). If even the slightest effort was given, I'm sure we would have had a better end product.
2. Captain America (1990)
What We Were Expecting: A Captain America movie with him taking on Red Skull.
What We Got Was: Like all the worst of the worst, it was just a mess in almost every sense of the word. Script, cast, director; but it was also a thematic mess. For a 'kids' movie it's often overly violent and then some. It's all over the place, and when it settles, everyone is thinking the same thing: "Was that a Captain America movie?"
1. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
What We Were Expecting: Crap?
What We Got Was: Crap! Part of the reason most people love comic book movies is the simple spectacle of film. Could you imagine The Avengers without the battle in New York? Or Man of Steel without the final battle against Zod? It would be pretty empty all around.
The Quest For Peace fails as a spectacle, with cheap special effects and cheesy dialogue, it doesn't do Superman justice. It doesn't do film justice. It was so bad, it put the franchise on ice for nearly two decades!
Some movies like the 90's Fantastic Four are excluded because technically, they never came out. Others like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance were 'so bad they're good'. Others were just mediocre, not god awful like the ones on this list. Daredevil gets a pass because the Directors Cut elevates it a tad bit.