For every great film there's a tonne of terrible ones - and you can usually see them coming a mile off.
From David Beckham's questionable cameo in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur, to John Carter's sloppy and sprawling plot, stinkers can be gauged a mile off.
Some users on Reddit have been having fun with this and have pinpointed some of the biggest telltale signs that a new release is going to be a dud.
The most popular indicator seemed to be: "When the main actor's name is bigger than the title on the poster."
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In reply to this, one user referred to a Quentin Tarantino interview for podcast WTF recently, where the director recalled his and Al Pacino's estranged fathers - Tony Tarantino and Sal Pacino, respectively - working together on a handful of films that... er, didn't quite set Hollywood alight.
The Redditor wrote: "So they get to put 'TARANTINO-PACINO' at the top of the poster for marketing. Then you see two random old dudes."
Too much over-explanation in the script was another popular choice. Another user wrote: "Starts with too much exposition: 'Mary, just because you have a medical degree from Harvard, I'm still your older brother!'"
Having the blindingly obvious pointed out was another pet peeve of the thread, with one Redditor mocking up a film tagline to illustrate their point.
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They wrote: "IN A WORLD, WHERE ONE MAN, HAS TO SAVE THE WORLD...
"Man: 'I have to save the world.'"
Another popular one - and one we've definitely all seen before - came from a user who wrote: "If there are multiple trailers for a comedy movie, but they use the same joke in all of them."
Absolutely right - nothing suggests that a trailer is actually using the film's best material if it's the only material they're using in trailer after trailer. Alarm bells should be ringing.
There's also the dreaded production delays. Although we can all understand why most films might have been held up over the last 18 months or so, there's no denying a slower than anticipated production can often mean bad news.
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"For a recent example; Chaos Walking," one user wrote.
"It changed screenwriter, director and production company so many times over 10 years but was sold on it been 'a Charlie Kauffman movie starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland'.
"Kauffman left in 2013, Ridley and Holland filmed it over years due to so many reshoots and failed screenings. Then Lionsgate said the negative reviews were shocking to them... Really??"
And then there's the timing.
Although it's certainly not always the case, January releases seem to get a kicking, perhaps because it's too late for awards season, too early for blockbuster season, and fitting into a period where ultimately no one is really paying attention to film.
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As one MCU fan said: "Morbius was moved from October (prime time for a vampire movie) to January. Doesn't exactly full me with hope."
Here's hoping it bucks the trend.
Topics: TV and Film