Director's Spotlight: Peter Jackson

The man responsible for New Zealand's tourism industry, we come to Sir Peter Robert Jackson, first of his name. Initially known for his low budget horror comedies, and then right turning into the brilliant drama of Heavenly Creatures, and then of course into what got people to know him by name, the Lord of the Rings adaptations and subsequently the thing that got him a bunch of ridicule, the Hobbit movies, Jackson is one of the most successful and popularly known filmmakers ever. His movies have been dissected and discussed as much as almost any filmmaker working today, for both positive and negative reasons (if you haven't seen YouTuber Lindsay Ellis's 3 part dissection of the Hobbit movies and what went right and wrong with them, you're sorely missing out). So, what do you think of the films of Peter Jackson?

My ratings of the handful I've seen:

1. Fellowship of the Ring - 10/10
2. Heavenly Creatures - 9/10
3. King Kong - 9/10
4. Return of the King - 8/10
5. The Two Towers - 6/10

I would say that as far as the LotR movies go, Fellowship is the only one I've seen more than twice because it's the only one that works as a whole. The next two entries don't have the weight and gravitas of Fellowship, they have too much of the bad comic relief that Jackson seems to love, the action becomes too repetitive and the characters too thinly sketched.

Heavenly Creatures, it's been too long since I've seen it, but I don't remember having many complaints. It's great filmmaking. Well acted, well put together, occasionally transportational in its fantasy world. Great stuff.

And Jackson's King Kong, while it is an hour too long, and there's a lot in it that doesn't work (I love Jack Black, but he's miscast here), overall it's a big fun blockbuster of the highest order. There's fun and adventure and everything with Kong and Naomi Watts really works well. And I'll always remember the sequence of Kong in NYC on the ice and playing like the animal he is instead of the monster he's seen as being. It's just a wonderful movie despite its many flaws.