10 Movies With the Worst World Building, Ranked

World Building is present in every movie whether the audience notices or not. From worlds as complex and fantastical as The Lord of The Rings‘ Middle earth to the relatively grounded, gritty atmosphere of Halloween, every film creates a pocket in which its characters and events play out. When done well, this can lead to some truly compelling worlds that everyone wants to visit, or some ones capable of evoking true emotion from the viewer.

When done poorly, however, world building confuses the viewer, annoys them, and ruins their suspension of disbelief. For as visually exciting and compelling as the world of Pandora in Avatar is the unobtainable element is still called ‘unubtanium’. The average movie-goer can overlook sloppy world building like this here and there, but when the craft is lazy, ignored, or simply misguided, it can lead to some horrifying results. For every instance of impressive world building there is a film where what is built simply doesn’t pass inspection.

10 ‘Eragon’ (2006)

Directed by Stefen Fangmeier

The original series of Eragon novels are often cited by young readers as having some of the best worldbuilding in literature. It is disappointing then that the 2006 adaptation of Christopher Paolini‘s fantasy saga diverged so heavily from its source material. When a simple farm boy (Ed Speeler’s Eragon) happens upon a mystical dragon egg-he is thrust into a centuries-old conflict between a tyrannical empire and those who hope to oppose them.

In book form, the world in which Eragon inhabits (“Alagaësia”) is a complicated yet ultimately connected web of multiple fantasy staples. The film attempts to streamline this world not by pairing down these elements, but simply by omitting their history and explanations. What’s left is a world consisting of dragons, ancient prophecies, mystical spells, and intense politics, all of which hinges upon a backstory which is hidden from the viewer but still treated as vitally important. Changes in book to movie adaptations are always a gamble, and yet must be done due to the differences in mediums. Eragon somehow manages to change too much and too little from its source material. Hopefully, for fans of the novel, a television revival could help give the source material much needed justice.

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9 ‘Fanta’stic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ (2022)

Directed by David Yates

The fantastical world of Harry Potter is undeniably endearing and compelling at a glance, but can become riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies upon closer inspection. Ultimately, however, the boundless charm provided by the initial Harry Potter films is enough for the vast majority of viewers to overlook these issues. The same can not be said for the Fantastic Beasts series, especially its overcomplicated, underwhelming, and unintended final chapter, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The third adventure for Newt Scammander (Eddie Redmayne) and friends (Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, and many more) not only introduces its own complicated mythology but implicates and taints previous entries in the Wizarding World.

As the film explains, every Wizarding World election is decided by a particular fantastic beast who chooses the next minister of magic. This throws a massive wrench into every previously seen instance of the Ministry in films such as Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, and turns Dumbledore’s previously deeply personal battle against Grindlewald (this time played by Mads Mikkelsen) into a poor political thriller. It becomes obvious that the saga was completely unplanned as the film introduces countless character references and revelations (such as Voldemort’s snake Nagini having been a human woman prior), that fans not only had never asked for, but will actively try to ignore afterward. The Secrets of Dumbledore manage to not only have poor world building as a stand-alone film, but commits the decidedly worse crime of hurting its franchise’s world building as a whole.

8 ‘Tomorrowland’ (2015)

Directed by Brad Bird

A retro-futuristic throwback sci-fi world should have been a slam dunk for the technical master, that is its director, Brad Bird, but unfortunately, Tomorrowland prefers to spend most of its time focusing on cornfields, rural towns, and unearned pretentiousness. One of the many films based off a Disney theme park attraction, Tomorrowland was envisioned as an evolution of Walt Disney’s EPCOT style societal design and philanthropy. Unfortunately, due to poor execution, story and confusing set-pieces, it comes off as more of an imaginineering demo reel than a real world.

The film stars George Clooney as Frank, a young man who once stumbled upon, yet ultimately left a secret futuristic city full of inventors and geniuses driven to benefit humanity. Or at least that is what we’re told Tomorrowland is. In practice, the film’s fantastic inventions like a Jetsons-style jetpack, a Flash Gordon–esque raygun, and a rocketship hidden inside the Eiffel Tower have no benefit to anyone, let alone a reason to exist given the city’s status as secret. The film spends ample time telling us how important and amazing Tomorrowland is, but does next to nothing to show this relevance. In fact, when the film’s characters finally get to Tomorrowland, it is underdeveloped and barren outside, what amounts to 3 total rooms. Tomorrowland tried to sell itself nearly entirely on it’s Disney name and in doing so became one of the companies biggest box office bombs.

7 ‘Morbius’ (2022)

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

In the ill-conceived design of Sony’s Spider-Man villain universe, Morbius was the studio’s first attempt to build the scope of their world beyond Venom and in this task it failed drastically. For most of its run, Morbius is a normal, albeit miserable, superheor origin flick in which Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius injects himself with bat DNA to cure a rare blood disease. From there he and his old friend become vampiric superbeings and duel it out while making coy but confusing references to Venom and Spider-Man.

What truly gives Morbius and the entire Sony-verse, by extension, terrible world building is its mind-boggling post credit scene. This stinger sees Spiderman: Homecoming‘s Vulture (Michael Keaton) teleported into the world of Morbius via Dr. Strange’s spell from Spiderman: No Way Home. The vulture meets with Morbius and teases a sinister team up, to kill Spider-man. Its a crazy set up only hindered by the fact that; Spider-Man doesn’t exist in this universe, Morbius doesn’t know Spider-man. Morbius just ended his own movie by becoming a good guy, Dr. Strange’s spell brought people to the MCU not removed them, etc etc etc. The scene makes absolutely zero sense and manages to completely break the suspension of disbelief of not only Sony’s muddled world, but the once illustrious MCU as well, via its merging of the two worlds.

6 ‘Divergent’ (2014)

Directed by Neil Burger

Divergent learned that all young adult fiction succeeds by making its main character different, seperate, divergent from the norm, and so based its name and entire concept on purely that and kind of stopped there. This paint by numbers YA dystopia features a world in which teenagers are divided into 5 factions based upon their character traits (selflessness, kindness, honesty, bravery, and intelligence). The flat descriptions of the emotional factions (which are literally simply called factions), the oppressive, militaristic society, already creates one of the most forgettable films of the past 10 years, but it is compounded by Shaelein Woodley’s Triss, the film’s main character who is ‘divergent’ among society by the ability to show multiple character traits.

The aspects of Divergent’s world that are original thoughts seem half-baked and underutilized. The bravery faction in which Triss spends the bulk of the movie is characterized as basic adrenaline-junkies, and the evil government all but call themselves so. Divergent as a world feels unfinished, it likes the Hunger Games’ idea of a vague fallen U.S. (it is explicitly set in a ruined chicago), it likes Percy Jackson’s idea of a chosen narrative (Triss’ divergent-ness), and it likes the general idea of action (everyone is running and jumping for no reason), but it doesnt know what to do with these elements. Even the film’s actors felt no love for this world. Woodley is joined by Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Theo James and many more, all of whom refused to even finish the series, leaving its final chapter un-filmed and canceled.

5 ‘Highlander II: The Quickening’ (1991)

Directed by Russel Mulcahy

Often cited as one of the worst films of the 20th century or even all time, Highlander II: The Quickening features not only an abysmall 0% on rotten tomatoes but somehow world building which matches those depths. The original Highlander is a cult classic following an immortal scotsman (Christopher Lambert) who, after being trained by a master swordsman (Sean Connery) must compete against fellow immortals for a supernatural power known as “The Prize”. It’s a goofy premise but consistent and grounded enough for the viewer to enjoy a huge slice of 80s cheese. The sequel reveals that everyone was aliens the whole time!

In one of the most baffling decisions in sequel history, Highlander II: The Quickening largely takes place as a prequel on the alien planet “Zeist” and attempts to merge its own zany mythology with the already quirky mythos established by the first film. The result is an incoherent string of plot threads and exposition that drags down the charm of the original film as well. Highlander II is a famous critical and box office disaster, disowned by almost everyone who has ever worked on it, including its director who bailed on the film entirely. Even if the first movie is ignored, the incomprehensible logic of Zeist, its characters and their decisions make the world of Highlander II: The Quickening as cheap and unbelievable as its sets and costumes.

4 ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ (2017)

Directed by Luc Besson

Valerian and the City of 1000 Planets is one of the best looking sci fi worlds put to screen in a long time. On the surface, this multilayered, diverse city appears like the home to the new generation’s Star Wars. Unfortunately, Valerian took from vfx-saturated, story light prequels rather than the original trilogy. Directed by sci-fi veteran Luc Besson and starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Ethan Hawke, Rihanna, and others, Valerian is loaded with star power, but fails to let any of its stars shine.

The film flips through enough unique creature designs, biomes, and ideas to fill 10 films and yet never takes the time to flesh out what they are or, crucially, how they interact. Despite the film’s title, the space station (named “Alpha”) feels in practice like a thousand separate cities, and while each city makes for a fun postcard, it was the promise of their combination that would have sold audiences. The film needed to sell too, as the most expensive independently financed film of all time, it was still a colossal box office bomb. Despite its countless visual prowess, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is proof that quality will always trump quantity.

3 ‘Waterworld’ (1995)

Directed by Kevin Reynolds

Waterworld has been a famous punchline in hollywood for nearly 3 decades now, and the natural disaster of a production proves itself more than worthy of that status. Despite an imaginative premise revolving around a post apocalyptic planet devoid of land Waterworld falls short of its plans to be a more sci fi Mad Max and drowns itself in a sea of bad ideas. Kevin Costner stars as ‘The Mariner’, a mutated, gill-bearing human whose very presence raises countless questions about the rules of Waterworld’s physiology and logic.

According to Waterworld the melting the polar ice caps flooded the earth sometime around 2500, leading to all the world but the mythical “dryland” being one massive ocean. Villains zip around on jet skis powered by an operational oil rig (sea level rise did not affect the sea apparently), lip service is provided as to food and resource sources, and mutants are present, though their origin is never given. Waterworld teases the viewer with an interesting world, and almost provides answers to questions they would love to know…which makes this bad but interesting film sting alot more than others which simply lack potential.

2 ‘Cars 2’ (2011)

Directed by John Lasseter & Brad Lewis

The first Cars is an underwhelming but decent enough tale of the world of cars in which a race car must learn to slow down. Cars 3 is a surprisingly compelling sports drama in which said race car must learn to pass the torch. Cars 2 is a spy movie that has nothing to do with cars and creates one of the most confusing pixar worlds of all time. Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, and others return, but this time the focus is all on Larry The Cable Guy’s Mater, as he becomes a super spy and attempts to stop a James-bonded villain from taking over the world. It’s a shocking risk that failed epically to no one’s surprise.

The first Cars drew some ire from viewers confused as to how a world of driver-less cars could work, but ultimately the film utilized the fact that its cast were vehicles in its story and focused on building a narrative around things cars already did. Cars 2 features its cast, flying, zipping around on water, using ziplines, wielding guns, and a host of other activities which raise all kinds of infinite questions about the Cars universe. At one point, a pope car is seen, still riding inside a popemobile. Does the pope ride inside of another car? Wouldnt he just be the popemobile? Pixar’s worst movie, by a huge margin, dares the audience to comprehend its world, and seemingly forgets it is a movie about cars.

1 ‘Bright’ (2017)

Directed by David Ayer

Cold off the heels of Suicide Squad director David Ayer teamed up with Netflix for their first big budget blockbuster: Bright a fantasy cop movie which imagines a world in which orcs, fairies, elves, and other fantasy creatures all exist within our modern world. Unfortunately for audiences the imagination stopped at that very core idea. Starring Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, and Noomi Rapace, and featuring excellent makeup, and special effects Bright’s failures fall squarely upon its completely underdeveloped and poorly thought out world, where the existence of fantastical creatures has had seemingly zero effect on culture as we know it.

In the universe of Bright everything seems to be the exact same as the world of viewers at home. Politics, technology, media, culture, are left completely unchanged in a world in which magic has existed for thousands of years. Even a concept as simple as Zootopia showcases how different sizes and kinds of creatures would interact in a shared culture. Bright features normal streets, normal cars, and normal tensions, simply with a fantasy sheen. Many films have confusing, lazy, or stupid world building, but Bright is unique in that it refuses build its world. It wants to tell a story that features centuries-old mythology and is yet identical to our modern day world and-instead of trying to square these ideas, simply hopes the audience won’t notice.