History TooBleakStoppedCaring / Film

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie'': Even if Red is a jerk, it's very hard to sympathize with the bird community when (almost) everyone treats him like a moron.

* Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice: One of the prevailing criticisms about the film was how bleak it was, with Superman spending much of the runtime doubting himself, feeling burdened by his duties, or being depressed, while Batman is portrayed as a violent, xenophobic hypocrite who refuses to to the sensible thing and has given up on his most basic principles as a hero, with the world around both of them being shown to be pretty rotten with little effort to improve -- and then the whole thing ended with [[spoiler:Superman dying immediately after finding something to fight for, just so he'd be out of commission for most of a ''Justice League'' movie]], leaving audiences on a note where a threat more dangerous than [[spoiler:Doomsday (who was the one who just killed Superman)]] is on the immediate horizon and there's little hope to stop it without [[spoiler:Superman, even with Batman and Wonder Woman teaming up and presumably heading out to look for the Justice League (though this is never explicitly stated)]]. Many unfavorably contrasted ''Batman v Superman'' with how the Marvel Cinematic Universe films managed to balance levity and seriousness with character work truer to the source material, and based on box office returns, it seemed that many hoped that a "versus" movie might instead be more of a crowd-pleaser instead of a dour, slow-paced melodrama. Shortly after the movie's release, public relations for DC Films spent a considerable amount of time ahead of ''Justice League'' talking about how future movies would be more hopeful and optimistic in nature.

* This is one of the main reasons behind the ''Film/NoTimeToDie'''s ContestedSequel status. [[Film/{{Spectre}} The last movie]] ended on a positive note with Spectre and Blofeld defeated and Bond quitting [=MI6=] to live a peaceful life with Madeleine. But here, not only do the two part ways [[spoiler: due to a misunderstanding caused by Blofeld]] but by the end of the movie, [[spoiler: not only is Bond's best friend Felix Leiter dead, Bond later [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself for Madeleine and Matilde due to him being poisoned by Safin]].]]

* Some critics said ''Film/AmericasSweethearts'' had this problem. Among the main characters in the title, Eddie is a ticking time bomb ([[JerkassWoobie although it's understandable, given the headline-making breakup]]) and Gwen [[NiceCharacterMeanActor is an unapproachable, manipulative]] RichBitch [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking who can't even put ankle boots on right]]. Among the side characters, the agent played by Billy Crystal is mining all the drama for his own benefit. The only likable character is Gwen's sister mainly because she has to put up with Gwen and is just beginning to grow a backbone after losing a bunch of weight but her goal is to get together with Eddie so it doesn't really matter.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted, boring, or just plain detestable]] so that you don't care ([[RootingForTheEmpire or outright cheer on]]) what happens to them, but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to [[FromBadToWorse get worse]] from that point onward. Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{TheAngryBirdsMovie}}'': Even if Red is a jerk, it's very hard to sympathize with the bird community when (almost) everyone treats him like a moron.

* ''Film/TheRoom''. Johnny is borderline incomprehensible and finds stories about domestic abuse funny, Lisa is incredibly stupid and/or callous, Mark is a douchey moron, and Denny has drug problems and a ''very'' creepy relationship with Johnny and Lisa. The universally poor writing and acting don't help, either. Some of the supporting cast aren't much better; Claudette is a more pragmatic version of Lisa, Chris-R is a violent drug dealer who holds Denny at gunpoint, Mike does absolutely nothing plot-relevant, Peter is decently nice but goes missing halfway through the film, and Steven casually saunters into the plot in the last twenty minutes and acts as if we have any idea who he is. Michelle is the OnlySaneMan who actually bothers to stick around for the duration of the film, and that isn't enough to prevent [[spoiler: Johnny's suicide]]. The darkness of the film is one of many, ''many'' reasons people would rather watch it [[WatchItForTheMeme to make fun of it]].

* The notorious 2004 sex comedy, ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'', suffers from this. The main characters are, at best, bland and unlikable, or worse, creepy and disgusting (one of them has a fetish for mixing [[{{Squick}} vagina juice with jam sandwiches]]) and the whole story revolves around them having sex with incredibly ugly women, sitting in the pub drinking beer, and just doing nothing remotely interesting, resulting in the film being very boring to watch. The humor is also just as off-putting since the jokes are either boring and lazily written or gross and nauseating.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted, boring, or just plain detestable]] so that you don't care ([[KickTheSonOfABitch or outright cheer on]]) what happens to them, but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to [[FromBadToWorse get worse]] from that point onward. Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

* Creator/CharlieKaufman:
** This trope is a likely reason why ''Film/SynecdocheNewYork'' bombed at the box office. The protagonist Caden Cotard is trying to make the most impressive play possible before dying of an illness slowly killing him. However, almost every character [[ButtMonkey treats him like the grown man equivalent of]] [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari]] for little to no reason, including his first wife Adele who leaves him alone to go to Germany and become a famous artist. [[spoiler:Even his own daughter Olive eventually turns against him while she was on her death bed.]] One of the few other characters who is consistently nice to Caden is Hazel, but [[spoiler:he never marries her and ended up with [[FlatCharacter Claire]] [[StrangledByTheRedString after a one-night stand]]]], and things would get worse from there. On a lighter note, the movie does have an EsotericHappyEnding where [[spoiler:Caden eventually dies with the actress who plays Hazel in his botched play]].

** ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'' suffers from this; all the main characters are, at the very least, horrifically selfish human beings who don't really care who gets hurt in pursuit of their various wants. The only remotely sympathetic character in the movie is Creator/JohnMalkovich himself, and that's mostly because he's more of a plot device than an actual character. For the uninitiated, [[spoiler: Creator/CharlieSheen(!) has, by the end of the movie, very likely learned that John Malkovich is trapped in his own head while other people dominate him, and he is likely going to follow the puppetmasters who are possessing Malkovich into the next host, an adorable and harmless seven-year-old girl.]]