YES OMG i have been thinking and talking and ranting about this with my friends so much recently and i'm just completely boggled that an movie this seemingly *mediocre* (from the trailers) got made starring THIS controversial (for good reason, he seems like an horrible human being) of an actor with WITH THIS HUGE OF A BUDGET(!!!) and like studio execs expected it to make a ton of money or something?? Like I hate being a hater but.... from what I've seen (the trailers and online discourse) this movie is just really really not good.
I think the biggest reason why it flopped is just how.... boring it looks from the trailers/marketing. :0 Like genuinely, they are marketing this movie like it is an crazy action packed block-buster yet the only action is... poorly cgi'd jared leto riding on a motorcycle through "stereotypical large city #5"? and poorly cgi'd tron characters doing a backflip??? I'm just really confused on what the goal was there, there nothing interesting, whether it be plot or spectacle or visual wise going on!!!!
Speaking on visuals, the visual direction is really really bland like holy moly THE CITY LOOKS SO GREY AND LIFELESS!!! Like everything about it just screams I WANNA BE A HUGE BLOCKBUSTER but not like committing to *anything* interesting... it's so like ugh. And I've been constantly bombarded with ads for it for the past like month (in both online and real life) so they must have sinked SOOO MUCH into marketing it's crazy, idk what studio execs were expecting LOL. :P