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Fantasy Films That Deserved More Respect From Critics
Fantasy Films That Deserved More Respect From Critics
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0:00
It seems like everybody hates Hook. Film
0:02
critics have savaged this 1991 Peter Pan
0:05
story as embarrassingly excessive,
0:07
bloated, and a huge disappointment.
0:09
[music] And it's widely considered to be
0:11
Steven Spielberg's worst film. But maybe
0:13
that's because all those critics have
0:15
grown up and forgotten what it's like to
0:17
have an imagination. Granted, Hook is
0:19
nowhere close to being one of
0:20
Spielberg's best, but for a film about
0:22
childhood, it deals with some
0:23
surprisingly mature themes, like
0:26
unrequited love and the inevitability of
0:28
death. The story stars Robin Williams
0:30
playing Peter Pan as an adult who
0:32
changed his name, started a family,
0:34
became a lawyer, and totally forgot
0:36
about his adventures in Neverland until
0:38
his children were kidnapped by Captain
0:40
Hook. It's a film about dysfunctional
0:42
families and abandoned kids. And
0:44
according to Evan Saathoff of
0:46
BirthMoviesDeath, Hook was a very
0:48
personal movie for Spielberg, a reaction
0:50
to his fears that his heavy workload was
0:52
robbing him of time with his children.
0:54
In addition to the deep stuff that's
0:56
going on behind the surface, Hook is
0:58
pure Spielbergian entertainment. The
1:00
sets, which are quite obviously sets,
1:03
are grand, ornate, and wonderfully
1:05
larger than life, which is fitting for a
1:07
story that was first a stage play. Plus,
1:09
you can't deny that Bob Hoskins, Maggie
1:11
Smith, and Dustin Hoffman are [music]
1:13
absolutely perfect in their parts. And
1:15
the score by John Williams is pure
1:17
magic. 2012's Snow White and the
1:20
Huntsman has been accused of being
1:22
putrid [music] and seemingly endless,
1:24
strange and soulless, and underwhelming
1:26
with a woeful script. But it's worth
1:28
watching for the visuals alone. Directed
1:31
by Rupert Sanders, this gritty fantasy
1:33
has images on par with something you
1:35
might see in a movie directed by
1:36
Guillermo del Toro. There's the battle
1:38
where knights fight an army of soldiers
1:40
made of glass, or the scene when Queen
1:42
Ravenna bathes herself in a milky brew
1:44
right after munching on a bird's heart.
1:46
With sequences like these, Snow White
1:48
and the Huntsman is equal parts
1:50
dreamland and nightmare fuel. Kristen
1:52
Stewart, the most underrated actress in
1:54
Hollywood, anchors the film with a much
1:56
more realistic and empathetic
1:57
performance as Snow White. The dwarfs
1:59
are played by some of the very best
2:01
British character actors, like Bob
2:03
Hoskins, Nick Frost, [music] and Ian
2:04
McShane, and they lighten things up
2:07
every time they appear. Sure, it doesn't
2:09
compare to the Walt Disney classic, but
2:11
then it's not really trying to. This is
2:13
a Snow White movie that's more about the
2:15
dark side of fairy tales, the blood, the
2:17
mud, the horror, and the wonder. With
2:19
reviews like New York magazine's, which
2:21
said, "It isn't a train wreck. A train
2:24
wreck would be memorable." 2010's Clash
2:26
of the Titans racked up a miserable 28%
2:29
rating on Rotten Tomatoes and went down
2:31
as a mistake of mythological
2:33
proportions. Even the star, Sam
2:35
Worthington, said the movie let down
2:36
some people, but honestly, if the
2:38
critics didn't like it, that might have
2:40
been because they lost their sense of
2:41
fun. Clash of the Titans is a good
2:43
old-fashioned B movie, a throwback to a
2:46
time when Hollywood made adventure
2:47
flicks that could charm you with crazy
2:49
creatures, over-the-top set pieces, and
2:51
a whole lot of imagination. The story
2:53
itself is pretty simple. Mankind is
2:55
getting sick of the gods bossing them
2:57
around, so they decide it's time to
2:59
rebel. Naturally, the gods don't
3:01
approve, so they threaten to unleash the
3:03
monstrous Kraken if the human king
3:05
doesn't sacrifice his daughter.
3:07
Desperate, [music] the king turns to a
3:08
demigod named Perseus, asking him to
3:11
find a way to kill the beast. Along the
3:13
way, Perseus encounters a murderous
3:15
Medusa, some oversized scorpions, and a
3:18
trio of witches. He zips between towers
3:21
on a Pegasus, teams up with a group of
3:23
desert-dwelling jinn, and is forced to
3:25
deal with all-powerful gods [music] like
3:27
Liam Neeson's Zeus and Hades, played by
3:30
Ralph Fiennes, who turned the
3:31
Shakespeare up to 11. Mix that in with a
3:34
bunch of monsters and magic, and you can
3:36
see how Clash of the Titans is exactly
3:38
the kind of movie that might inspire the
3:39
next George Lucas to make the next Star
3:41
Wars. When Constantine was released in
3:44
2005, it had a devil of a time with
3:46
moviegoers. It lost money at the
3:48
domestic box office, and critics did
3:50
their best to exorcise the film from
3:52
theaters, but those reviewers must have
3:54
been in league with Lucifer because
3:56
Constantine is one hell of a movie.
3:58
Granted, it doesn't have much in common
4:00
with Hellblazer, the comic it's loosely
4:02
based on, but nevertheless, it's an
4:04
amazingly fun film noir about a
4:05
chain-smoking cynic who deports demons
4:08
for entirely selfish reasons. Directed
4:10
by Francis Lawrence, Constantine plunges
4:12
our hero into a world where otherworldly
4:15
beings spend their evenings at a
4:16
supernatural club and heroes blast
4:18
demons with crucifix shotguns. In this
4:21
freaky film, cats can guide you to the
4:23
underworld, holy water is stored in
4:24
5-gallon jugs, and angels dressed to the
4:27
nines in killer pinstripe suits. John
4:29
Constantine is one of Reeves' best
4:31
performances. The man is playing a
4:33
mash-up between Sam Spade and Neo from
4:35
The Matrix, expertly blending a snarky
4:37
sense of humor, detached detective cool,
4:39
and a secret side of anti-hero empathy.
4:42
Then there's Tilda Swinton as an
4:43
incredibly suave Gabriel, and Peter
4:45
Stormare as the sleaziest Satan of all
4:48
time. With all that awesomeness, it's
4:50
baffling the movie did so poorly. But to
4:51
all the critics who've hated this film,
4:53
Constantine has a little message for
4:55
you.
4:56
>> [music]
5:03
>> Directed by Tarsem Singh, The Cell is
5:05
not a movie for everyone, but critics
5:07
who accused the movie of being shallow
5:09
and derivative might have been a bit too
5:11
harsh in retrospect. The film tells the
5:13
story of Catherine Dean, a child
5:14
psychologist who uses some impressive
5:17
tech to enter the subconscious of a
5:18
comatose boy, hoping to bring him back
5:21
into the real world. Thanks to her
5:22
unique set of skills, she's asked by an
5:25
FBI agent to explore the mind of an
5:27
unconscious man who'd imprisoned a girl
5:29
in a bizarre death trap before having a
5:31
seizure. Now, she only has hours to
5:34
live, so Dean is tasked with finding her
5:36
whereabouts. But this is easier said
5:38
than done, since his subconscious is a
5:40
nightmare world of torture devices,
5:42
horned monsters, and living dolls that
5:44
resemble his its
5:46
It's an S&M [music] fever dream where
5:47
corpses are bathed in blood, horses are
5:50
dissected with glass slides, and men
5:52
have their intestines slowly pulled from
5:54
their bodies. So, The Cell is full of
5:57
depravity, but it's still pretty
5:58
gorgeous to look at thanks to some
6:00
horrific tributes to artists like Damien
6:02
Hirst, Odd Nerdrum, and H.R. Giger. And
6:05
the costume game is at its finest with
6:07
designer Eiko Ishioka's array of
6:09
jumpsuits, demonic purple wings, and
6:12
sadistic sci-fi masks. Better still, the
6:14
sets are practical, the performances are
6:16
on point, and the result is something
6:18
big, bloody, and perversely beautiful.
6:21
Of course, they didn't all get it wrong.
6:23
Roger Ebert was one of the few critics
6:24
who actually liked it, and in fact
6:26
declared it was one of the best films of
6:28
the year.
