Open Forum Friday: Gore Verbinski… Overrated or Underrated?
With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End this weekend, I thought it was an apt time to pose a question I’ve been contemplating for a while now. When you think of most blockbuster franchises, the director usually becomes synonymous with that series (unless it’s something like Harry Potter where they have different directors for each movie). However, I think Pirates of the Caribbean is the exception, because director Gore Verbinski is still not exactly what I’d call a household name. So my question is, does he deserve to be one?
If you ask me, he’s got a versatile filmography thus far, although it’s still a tad on the short side. Many people forget that he directed The Ring, and he also directed the Nicolas Cage indie dramedy The Weather Man (which I loved). FirstShowing.net has a great director spotlight that summarizes his career thus far. He’s not necessarily a director with a strong sense of personal style, but I would liken him to Ridley Scott, as he is someone who can succesfully cross genres and bounce between huge productions and small art house flicks. So what do you think? Can the success of the Pirates movies be partially attributed to Verbinski’s skill behind the camera, or is he just another Hollywood jobber? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (4)
The only movies he has done that is worth watching is The Weather Man, and alot of that has to do with Nicolas Cage… Hell, alot of people say that the only reason that pirates even works is because of Johnny Depp. Both not exactly performances that the director has to fine-tune… Even though nobody knows his name, I still vote for overrated.
Posted by Henrik on May 25th, 2007I don’t think he’s a name that will be the name synonymous with the Pirates movies but I do think that he has some great potential. I liked “The Ring” and “The Weather Man” and though I wasn’t a huge fan of P0tC2, it was still ok.
I’d like to see where he goes from here. Hopefully it’s into the smaller quirky films.
Posted by Marina on May 25th, 2007I’m one of those hated people who didn’t like the first Pirates, hasn’t seen the second, and isn’t interested seeing in the third. I also haven’t seen Weatherman, but I thought that The Ring was a well made film. I can’t honestly say that I think Gore Verbinski is overrated, because despite the popularity of the Pirates films, I don’t really hear his name tossed around a lot. Nothing like Sam Raimi in regards to the Spiderman films or Bryan Singer with Supes and X-Men. However, I’m not sure he’s really underrated either, because I haven’t been absolutely wowed by him yet.
Posted by Rian on May 25th, 2007The only Verbinski that I really enjoyed was The Ring. Although being the director of the PotC movies, I don’t think he is a sought out director. There is nothing about his films that show me that this is a Verbinski flick.
Maybe he should go back to the horror genre.
Posted by Primal on May 26th, 2007Leave a Reply