Best Movies That Exceeded Expectations

We thought these movies were going to be terrible or should have been, however they exceeded all expectations.
The Top Ten
1 Mad Max: Fury Road

Not being a Mad Max fan prior to this, I had no expectations. However, I found it to be one of the best action movies of the decade. While most action movies these days are either superhero movies about the destruction of the world or ones about one dimensional killing machines, they lack something that this movie has: bite. The action feels intense and gritty and it is a treat for the eyes. Meanwhile, the acting is fantastic, the atmosphere is strong and I love the crazy touches they went with (my personal favorite being the guitar player on the front of the car blowing flames out of his guitar). Great film, and leaves most action movies these days in the dust.

Before Fury Road, there only really was one good Mad Max film- The Road Warrior (an action masterpiece).
The first one was not bad, just sort of forgettable and the 3rd one, we won't talk about that one. When it came to Fury Road, I was curious to see which direction it would take. Then I went to see the movie and my mind exploded with awesomeness and sandstorms, it was BAD-ASS. I express that in capital letters because it's what it is.

It blew me away, I'll tell you. I went to see it three times. I almost considered not even seeing it once. I was expecting it to get poor reviews. Boy, was I wrong.

I've watched this amazing film too many times to count. Saw it twice in the theater. Then rewatched it only a couple hundred times back at home! Greatest movie ever, best sequel.

2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The first Terminator movie was fantastic, there was no way a sequel could top the original. It would be the same thing and just a retelling (then we saw Judgement Day).Whoa. Judgement Day should have been terrible, you think its easy making a Terminator sequels, look at the next 3 after this one. Judgement Day is one of the best movies ever made and exceeded all expectations.

The visual effects are still brilliant to this day. We're talking about a movie that's 25 years old!

3 Star Wars

The only real blockbuster before this was Jaws. George Lucas did not have much faith that this movie would succeed. Only if he knew the future of the Star Wars franchise almost 4 decades later. The original 1977 Star Wars film was a huge hit and even became better with The Empire Strikes Back.

NO ONE thought this would succeed in 1977. No companies would take it on and Lucas himself didn't think it would succeed as a blockbuster. But today we know that 'Star Wars' is one of the most fun, most recognisable and most revolutionary movies in the history of film!

This was very surprising for everyone at the time. Heck, even George Lucas took a vacation to not see how it was recieved.

This movie was amazing!

4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The First Avenger was not that good, it was good, but not that good. The trailers for this movie looked cool. However, it was awesome and the best MCU Movie at the time. A political thriller (which says something because I don't care about politics, I'm sorry but I don't) with dark themes and a spy espionage movie with one suspenseful story and incredible action scenes. Now onto Civil War.

5 Batman Begins

Batman had a really good start with the Burton films. Then it all descended into trash with the silly Schumacher movies (Bat-nips and a bat-credit card).When a new Batman film was in production, no-one really cared. Then we heard it was from the director of Memento- okay, cool. Not enough. We saw the movie and it was awesome and the sequels were incredible too. The Dark Knight is recognized as one of the best trilogy ever.

Almost anything would have looked good after 'Batman & Robin' (except for 'Catwoman').

The best all the batman franchise.

6 Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The best film since the original. While the sequels to the original did a decent job in being as thematically rich as the original, they weren't as good in the storytelling or character department. Thankfully, this reboot manages to balance all these elements quite nicely. While the themes on humanity are great, the storytelling and characters sell this one very well, while the performances (particularly with Andy Serkis & John Lithgow) are brilliant. All in all a brilliant follow up to the original and one every Apes fan should see. Shame about Dawn though.

After the slew of terrible sequels to the original Classic, as well as the horrible Tim Burton reboot, I thought this movie would be stupid. But I ma glad to say I was wrong, and that both this and Dawn were fantatsic, and have brought the series surging back to life. They're serious in tone, feature phenomenal special effects, and have great storytelling and characters. It's all thanks to this movie that exceeded all expectations.

There only was one good film of this franchise, the original 1968. Then Tim Burton remade it. It was not good. So when this new reboot was coming out, eh, not really pumped. If Tim Burton could not make it good who could. Rupert Wyatt that's who and it became incredible in Dawn.

7 Shrek 2

Just vote and show some sympathy for Shrek! This movie was awesome!

8 Iron Man

At the time, Iron Man was a B rate character, the director of Elf (not a bad film, but odd choice) was gonna direct it and it seems that Marvel is trying to dig themselves out of the hole. In 8 years, look at how we see Iron Man now, Iron Man is a fantastic directed movie about a guy who finally knows what his purpose and who he is.
Iron Man started the whole epic Marvel Cinematic Universe and to this day, it remains the best Iron Man film. Iron Man 2 sucks and 3 was pretty good, but is no Iron Man 1.

Nobody knew what an impact this movie would have on the industry. It started out as a medium-expectations superhero movie - and it became the benchmark for the biggest, most influential, superhero franchise of all-time (and the highest-grossing franchise of all-time).

9 The Jungle Book (2016)

Oh man, this movie was a huge shocker. I thought it was going to come out as basic CGI-filled trash, but it's a very solid piece of work. Props to Disney for this one. It seems like they're starting to get their swag back after the dark days of crappy sequels (Fox and the Hound 2, Bambi 2, Atlantis 2, Cinderella 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, my god STOP) and other films that were just cash grabbers and a waste of time, like Planes.

This year's biggest, and most pleasant, surprise so far.

Best movie ever

10 Paranormal Activity

Another Blair Witch Project rip-off. Yawn. I'm watching the movie. I'm getting goosebumps and look at the T.V. in suspense. It looks so realistic. Will this turn to a terrible franchise, yes.

The Contenders
11 Up
12 Despicable Me
13 Captain America: Civil War

No, I think this movie achieved what everyone was hoping it would.

I haven't even seen the movie but I already know it's gonna be dope.

14 The Dark Knight

Usually movie sequels are inferior to the original but The Dark Knight is one of the few sequels that is superior to the original.

No doubt the best comic book movie ever made or one of the best movies ever made

15 The Fifth Element

One of my all time favorite movies. This show has everything. Time lines, sci fi, action, tech, space travel, magic, love story, @$$ kicking, past to present story line, great characters, great actors, comedy, drama, awesome hero/heroine, ¨Heavy Metal¨ references, aliens, I could go on & on. Anyway, I really, really, REALLY love this movie. One of my top 5 Favorites.

16 Zombieland

I love Zombies and I love Zombie movies, however do you know those straight to DVD zombie movies you see for £7. that's what I thought Zombieland was gonna be. You know how the movie turned out. This is one of thebest Zombie movie out there (my personal favorite is Shaun Of The Dead).

17 21 Jump Street

Considering the excess of Apatow esque frat comedies these days, it wasn't a surprise that many felt that this was going to another run of the mill frat comedy that happened to tarnish the name of a well loved T.V. show. And while I will admit the film is flawed (it has quite a few gags that don't work and it takes a while for the film to get going) it is far better than expected. It is quite funny, the chemistry between the two leads is solid & the attempts at meta humour and deconstructing Hollywood's sequel/reboot/remake enterprise is enjoyable enough without being overly blunt about it. And the unexpected surprises are good too, mainly the cameos towards the end. A very good film overall, and far better than it had any right to be.

A Comedy we thought was all going to be not that good and Channing Tatum wasn't a big hit back then. 21 Jump Street is a great comedy and one I would be glad to watch again, excited for the MIB And Jump Street crossover (official).

18 The Exorcist
19 Big Hero 6
20 How to Train Your Dragon
21 The Avengers
22 Titanic

I'm the King of the World. Classic line. Nothing beats a billion dollar movie like Titanic, unless it's Avatar, which is also great, but for different reasons.

23 Evita
24 Wonder Woman (2017)
25 Apocalypse Now

Full on rawness,

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