It’s been a year, especially for subpar movies. In fact, I think I saw more bad movies than I did good ones, which is rough. With that in mind, I think it’s time we go through the list of the worst movies of 2022.
I don’t know if it’s me and my general disinterest in the plots and characters of these flicks but there have been some categorically awful films to come out this year.
For this week’s Gizmodo Movie Night, the very last one of the year, we thought we’d take you through the worst movies of 2022, according to me.
Obviously, this is just my own opinion and I am just having some light-hearted fun. Although these movies were bad, in my opinion, some of you might have loved them, which is great.
5 of the worst movies of 2022
Morbius
Coming in strongly at number 1 is Morbius.
Anytime someone would ask me what the worst movie of 2022 was, Morbius immediately comes to mind.
I know I’m not alone in this either, across the board this movie was not received well.
Watching the movie, I truly had no idea what was going on. Not in an ‘Oh this plot is so rich and there are so many twists it’s hard to keep up,’ way but more in an ‘Oh this plot is so severely lacking I don’t even think it knows what it’s doing,” way.
Sometimes with movies with poor scripts and lacklustre visual effects, the acting can sometimes save it. Again, not the case for Morbius.
Reports that Jared Leto went method for the role are very funny to me, considering it was a barely there performance.
It does make good viewing for when you want to remember how good other movies have been.
Morbius is currently streaming on Binge.
Uncharted
For as bad as I thought Uncharted was, the action sequences were still pretty cool and the cinematography was great.
My placing of the film in the worst movies of 2022 comes down to the fact that, like Morbius, it lacked a strong plotline which is bizarre given it’s based on such rich source material.
I didn’t have much familiarity with the original games before I watched and to be honest, I didn’t need to for me to understand that this missed the mark.
Fellow Gizmodo Australia writer Zac was also watching the movie with me and he’s a fan of the games and even he was let down by the film.
From losing directors to COVID-related production issues, Uncharted was plagued by a number of unfortunate events that did translate onto the screen.
It’s still better than Morbius, though.
Uncharted is currently streaming on Binge.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has the opposite problem of the other two worst movies of 2022. That’s because it had wayyyy too much going on.
It felt like they had 12 different plot ideas for Doctor Strange and just decided to do them all at once.
Due to that, the whole movie felt incohesive and disconnected. I also think they beat a few too many concepts to death.
With multiverses and travelling amongst them an already difficult concept to squeeze into a film, Doctor Strange did little to help the audience catch a breath and figure out what was going on and what needed to be done.
The saving grace in this movie is Elizabeth Olsen’s immaculate acting.
It just felt like a movie for the sake of introducing America and having fun cameos.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently streaming on Disney+..
Death On The Nile
This movie should be called There’s No Death On The Nile For An Hour So Why Are We Watching This?
There were allusions to larger plot drivers that never get mentioned again, there are introductions to beautiful landscapes that nothing happens in and there are characters who are there to largely do nothing.
Put simply: it was just a mess.
I’m a massive fan of anything Agatha Christie and a pretty big murder mystery buff so I had high expectations for Death On The Nile, especially given how much I loved Murder On The Orient Express.
Maybe that’s why I felt so let down by the film and why it’s on my list of the worst movies of 2022.
Not only did it have a leading man embroiled in several disturbing allegations, but the leading lady Gal Gadot was also unfortunately rather lacklustre.
Emma Mackey, to me, was the best part of this film. She gives a stellar performance.
Death On The Nile is currently streaming on Disney+.
Smile
Smile wasn’t actually that awful but it was just incredibly hard to watch, and not in a good way.
I am a massive horror movie fan so I was excited about the premise of Smile but the movie lacked a lot of cohesion.
It isn’t until the very end of the movie that everything falls apart. It went from a somewhat grounded horror to a weird, memory-scape situation that is actually hard to describe.
Also, the intensity just feels like it’s there for the sake of it and not to actually drive a plot point. To me, that’s just to scare audiences to the detriment of them actually enjoying the film.
Call me sensitive but I’d rather not see people self-inflict their own death in more gruesome ways imaginable over and over again.
For that reason, Smile has made it on my worst movies of 2022.
Smile is currently available to purchase on Prime Video.
Gizmodo Movie Night is our fortnightly roundup of movie and TV recommendations for the weekend. If you’re ever stuck and looking for inspiration, check out our list and see what’s in store.
Stay tuned for the next edition of the column and check out our last one which was about working in retail.