As we trudge into 2025, let us now look back and try to learn from our mistakes. 2024 was a great year for cinema, and it’s also true that there were some pretty bad films — it’s important to talk about why they didn’t work, so we can avoid repeat failures in the future. Here, in no particular order, are the four least successful films I saw last year:

‘Alien: Romulus’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

The Disney corporation once again had a great year at the box office, despite all efforts to sandpaper potentially challenging edges off their films and engaging in worker exploitation aplenty. While some of the finished products made it out OK, “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Alien: Romulus” definitely did not. Both films choose to focus on “remember this other thing you liked?” highlight reels instead of offering new ideas and images. “Deadpool & Wolverine” had so much opportunity to engage with its characters’ unique mortalities, and is nothing more than a commercial. “Alien: Romulus” ostensibly has anti-corporate messaging, but is incredibly hypocritical in its exploitation of a dead actor’s likeness. Tasteless, empty calories.

‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’

Kevin Costner’s latest passion project should be admired at least for its initial moxie in trying to theatrically release four three-hour films in rapid succession. However, the actual content of the first installment leaves much to be desired. For what feels like forever, we watch a litany of White folk, all little-to-no more than archetype, endure the trials of trying to control a corner of a world where they never belonged, while Apache people get but a half-dozen scenes to themselves leaving most of the actual story of the West untouched. Costner does attempt to highlight the lie inherent to the Western fantasy but is himself relishingly participating in its perpetuation. Mixed messages, boringly presented.

‘765874: Unification’

For the last few years, The Roddenberry Archive has been partnering with the VFX company OTOY to restore, remake and create visual Star Trek ephemera. Unfortunately, their work has included the heavy use of generative AI, an ecologically disastrous practice that takes work away from real artists, largely makes for disappointing final results, and, in the case of “765874: Unification,” resurrects Leonard Nimoy’s visage without his consent. In an attempt to give Shatner and Nimoy a final on-screen moment together, the short backward engineers a hackneyed excuse to reunite a badly de-aged Kirk with a morally bankrupt Spock. One is left feeling little more than uncomfortable.