Fantasy Films That Deserved More Respect From Critics

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0:00It seems like everybody hates Hook. Film

0:02critics have savaged this 1991 Peter Pan

0:05story as embarrassingly excessive,

0:07bloated, and a huge disappointment.

0:09[music] And it's widely considered to be

0:11Steven Spielberg's worst film. But maybe

0:13that's because all those critics have

0:15grown up and forgotten what it's like to

0:17have an imagination. Granted, Hook is

0:19nowhere close to being one of

0:20Spielberg's best, but for a film about

0:22childhood, it deals with some

0:23surprisingly mature themes, like

0:26unrequited love and the inevitability of

0:28death. The story stars Robin Williams

0:30playing Peter Pan as an adult who

0:32changed his name, started a family,

0:34became a lawyer, and totally forgot

0:36about his adventures in Neverland until

0:38his children were kidnapped by Captain

0:40Hook. It's a film about dysfunctional

0:42families and abandoned kids. And

0:44according to Evan Saathoff of

0:46BirthMoviesDeath, Hook was a very

0:48personal movie for Spielberg, a reaction

0:50to his fears that his heavy workload was

0:52robbing him of time with his children.

0:54In addition to the deep stuff that's

0:56going on behind the surface, Hook is

0:58pure Spielbergian entertainment. The

1:00sets, which are quite obviously sets,

1:03are grand, ornate, and wonderfully

1:05larger than life, which is fitting for a

1:07story that was first a stage play. Plus,

1:09you can't deny that Bob Hoskins, Maggie

1:11Smith, and Dustin Hoffman are [music]

1:13absolutely perfect in their parts. And

1:15the score by John Williams is pure

1:17magic. 2012's Snow White and the

1:20Huntsman has been accused of being

1:22putrid [music] and seemingly endless,

1:24strange and soulless, and underwhelming

1:26with a woeful script. But it's worth

1:28watching for the visuals alone. Directed

1:31by Rupert Sanders, this gritty fantasy

1:33has images on par with something you

1:35might see in a movie directed by

1:36Guillermo del Toro. There's the battle

1:38where knights fight an army of soldiers

1:40made of glass, or the scene when Queen

1:42Ravenna bathes herself in a milky brew

1:44right after munching on a bird's heart.

1:46With sequences like these, Snow White

1:48and the Huntsman is equal parts

1:50dreamland and nightmare fuel. Kristen

1:52Stewart, the most underrated actress in

1:54Hollywood, anchors the film with a much

1:56more realistic and empathetic

1:57performance as Snow White. The dwarfs

1:59are played by some of the very best

2:01British character actors, like Bob

2:03Hoskins, Nick Frost, [music] and Ian

2:04McShane, and they lighten things up

2:07every time they appear. Sure, it doesn't

2:09compare to the Walt Disney classic, but

2:11then it's not really trying to. This is

2:13a Snow White movie that's more about the

2:15dark side of fairy tales, the blood, the

2:17mud, the horror, and the wonder. With

2:19reviews like New York magazine's, which

2:21said, "It isn't a train wreck. A train

2:24wreck would be memorable." 2010's Clash

2:26of the Titans racked up a miserable 28%

2:29rating on Rotten Tomatoes and went down

2:31as a mistake of mythological

2:33proportions. Even the star, Sam

2:35Worthington, said the movie let down

2:36some people, but honestly, if the

2:38critics didn't like it, that might have

2:40been because they lost their sense of

2:41fun. Clash of the Titans is a good

2:43old-fashioned B movie, a throwback to a

2:46time when Hollywood made adventure

2:47flicks that could charm you with crazy

2:49creatures, over-the-top set pieces, and

2:51a whole lot of imagination. The story

2:53itself is pretty simple. Mankind is

2:55getting sick of the gods bossing them

2:57around, so they decide it's time to

2:59rebel. Naturally, the gods don't

3:01approve, so they threaten to unleash the

3:03monstrous Kraken if the human king

3:05doesn't sacrifice his daughter.

3:07Desperate, [music] the king turns to a

3:08demigod named Perseus, asking him to

3:11find a way to kill the beast. Along the

3:13way, Perseus encounters a murderous

3:15Medusa, some oversized scorpions, and a

3:18trio of witches. He zips between towers

3:21on a Pegasus, teams up with a group of

3:23desert-dwelling jinn, and is forced to

3:25deal with all-powerful gods [music] like

3:27Liam Neeson's Zeus and Hades, played by

3:30Ralph Fiennes, who turned the

3:31Shakespeare up to 11. Mix that in with a

3:34bunch of monsters and magic, and you can

3:36see how Clash of the Titans is exactly

3:38the kind of movie that might inspire the

3:39next George Lucas to make the next Star

3:41Wars. When Constantine was released in

3:442005, it had a devil of a time with

3:46moviegoers. It lost money at the

3:48domestic box office, and critics did

3:50their best to exorcise the film from

3:52theaters, but those reviewers must have

3:54been in league with Lucifer because

3:56Constantine is one hell of a movie.

3:58Granted, it doesn't have much in common

4:00with Hellblazer, the comic it's loosely

4:02based on, but nevertheless, it's an

4:04amazingly fun film noir about a

4:05chain-smoking cynic who deports demons

4:08for entirely selfish reasons. Directed

4:10by Francis Lawrence, Constantine plunges

4:12our hero into a world where otherworldly

4:15beings spend their evenings at a

4:16supernatural club and heroes blast

4:18demons with crucifix shotguns. In this

4:21freaky film, cats can guide you to the

4:23underworld, holy water is stored in

4:245-gallon jugs, and angels dressed to the

4:27nines in killer pinstripe suits. John

4:29Constantine is one of Reeves' best

4:31performances. The man is playing a

4:33mash-up between Sam Spade and Neo from

4:35The Matrix, expertly blending a snarky

4:37sense of humor, detached detective cool,

4:39and a secret side of anti-hero empathy.

4:42Then there's Tilda Swinton as an

4:43incredibly suave Gabriel, and Peter

4:45Stormare as the sleaziest Satan of all

4:48time. With all that awesomeness, it's

4:50baffling the movie did so poorly. But to

4:51all the critics who've hated this film,

4:53Constantine has a little message for

4:55you.

4:56>> [music]

5:03>> Directed by Tarsem Singh, The Cell is

5:05not a movie for everyone, but critics

5:07who accused the movie of being shallow

5:09and derivative might have been a bit too

5:11harsh in retrospect. The film tells the

5:13story of Catherine Dean, a child

5:14psychologist who uses some impressive

5:17tech to enter the subconscious of a

5:18comatose boy, hoping to bring him back

5:21into the real world. Thanks to her

5:22unique set of skills, she's asked by an

5:25FBI agent to explore the mind of an

5:27unconscious man who'd imprisoned a girl

5:29in a bizarre death trap before having a

5:31seizure. Now, she only has hours to

5:34live, so Dean is tasked with finding her

5:36whereabouts. But this is easier said

5:38than done, since his subconscious is a

5:40nightmare world of torture devices,

5:42horned monsters, and living dolls that

5:44resemble his its

5:46It's an S&M [music] fever dream where

5:47corpses are bathed in blood, horses are

5:50dissected with glass slides, and men

5:52have their intestines slowly pulled from

5:54their bodies. So, The Cell is full of

5:57depravity, but it's still pretty

5:58gorgeous to look at thanks to some

6:00horrific tributes to artists like Damien

6:02Hirst, Odd Nerdrum, and H.R. Giger. And

6:05the costume game is at its finest with

6:07designer Eiko Ishioka's array of

6:09jumpsuits, demonic purple wings, and

6:12sadistic sci-fi masks. Better still, the

6:14sets are practical, the performances are

6:16on point, and the result is something

6:18big, bloody, and perversely beautiful.

6:21Of course, they didn't all get it wrong.

6:23Roger Ebert was one of the few critics

6:24who actually liked it, and in fact

6:26declared it was one of the best films of

6:28the year.

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Fantasy Films That Deserved More Respect From Critics

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