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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 539494" data-attributes="member: 3887">Hello Celebrim. I haven't see the 2nd film yet, but I had to comment on this...I think you're really mistaken on the mindset of mainstream film critics... While fantasy {and SF} is far more mainstream than in the past, its hardly to the point of being sacrosanct in the eyes of the nations critics. Wildly ambitious fantasies that get treated with the seriousness of Jackson's work would seem to me to be juicy targets for non-fan critics, looking to put fantasy 'in its place' as rank juvenalia. Critics are a fractious lot {no offense to any critics here}. For every ten touting a brave new work/filmaker, there are ten in the opposite camp aiming to invalidate it/them. I can't think of any filmaker that's above criticism. Nor any movement, school or genre.Consider the reaction to films by people like David Lynch. Critics don't seem to fear "not getting" his work. Unless I'm mistaken, his films usually wind up both on critics Best Of and Worst Of lists... And look at the far more mixed critical response to Scorcese's "Gangs of New York".  I can't believe that Peter Jackson's "Rings" is beyond reproach whereas a major new work by Scorcese is not... Even hotshot new directors like Wes Anderson --a personal fav-- have their share of detractors. I think the near-universal positive response to The Two Towers is quite an achievement. I'm surprised more critics looking to make a name for thmselves haven't slammed it. Far from being in some inviolate place, its a big fat target out in plain sight...And however successful you may feel Jackson's films are, I find it hard to imagine thinking of him in terms of a Chris Columbus or later-day Ridley Scott. He's far more ambitious, even when directing splatter films. And far more serious about the craft of filmaking. He may have, in your eyes, butchered a beloved work, but he did so with a love and attention to his own medium that can't be faulted...He reminds me, in a way, of another filmaker that I like: John Boorman. From his highs --like Excalibur-- to his fascinating lows --like Zardoz, which I personally love-- there's this singularity of vision, and level of technical prowess that I take much enjoyment from...</blockquote>

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