With people having a lot more free time on their hands now due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it seems everyone’s viewing habits are beginning to change. Titles that might’ve caught your eye in the past but you skipped due to lack of time may now be finding their way onto the top of your Watch List. And that makes perfect sense.
But another interesting viewing habit that’s begun to emerge is terrible films – we’re talking movies that bombed both critically and commercially upon release – finding new life on streaming platforms. And in particular, Netflix.
It seems not a week goes by without Netflix’s Top 10 Movies list being updated to include a few total surprises. For instance, just yesterday we reported on how Gerard Butler’s Angel Has Fallen is completely dominating on the streaming site right now, which makes zero sense given that it was a pretty forgettable pic that released in 2019 without much buzz and quickly left theaters. But even more surprising is the fact that one of the worst films ever made has now found its way onto the list, too.
Yes, as you may have seen, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is currently sitting in fourth place, with the aforementioned Angel Has Fallen, Coffee & Kareem and The Hangover being the only movies ahead of it as of today. And though it isn’t in the top spot, seeing it in the Top 10 at all is pretty bewildering.
After all, The Last Airbender is often described as one of the absolute worst productions to come out of Hollywood in the last few decades. Based on the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, it currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 5% – we kid you not – and an audience score of 30%. In other words, everyone hated it. Or at least, they did until it hit Netflix.
Now, it’s found a new audience. Why that is, we can’t say for sure. But again, it continues the bizarre trend of seemingly forgettable, widely-hated movies sparking in popularity for no explainable reason.
