It’s pretty simple to tell Peter Jackson’s tale when it came to directing movies. He’s been wanting to do such a thing for so many years that he started out at a young age on his own camera and went through the long process of trial and error when it came to finding out what works and what doesn’t. He even ended up leaving school as a teenager in order to find out more about the business and how to go about doing his own thing so that he could finally get to where he wanted to be. Obviously this worked out after a while since he’s the kind of director that people will instantly cite when it comes down to who should make this or that movie when the idea is brought up. In terms of being one of the greatest directors around however it’s hard to argue since he’s turned out a few of the greatest films ever made.
Here are just a few of the films he’s been responsible for that were actually pretty good.
5. The Frighteners
When it comes down to ghost stories the Frighteners is kind of silly and has a lot more of a comical aspect to it than anything, but Michael J. Fox really made this movie since he’s the kind of actor that was at one time one of the biggest names in the business and is just quirky enough that it worked for this film. However the movie kind of failed to live up to the hype though it is one that people do still watch on occasion since it’s a fun remembrance of when things were a little simpler and a ghost story didn’t have to have a lot of meaning to it in order to be entertaining. It’s one of those movies that you either agree was good for it’s time or might just ignore altogether, but it’s still enjoyable.
4. The Lovely Bones
Karma has a way of catching up with people since in the film Harvey is never really caught for what he did, though fate has a decidedly wicked sense of humor when it causes him to plummet off a cliff to his death. In the wake of her death at Harvey’s hands, Susie is unwilling to make her way to heaven just yet as she has something she has to do, plus she wants to insure that her family will heal from her unexpected and abrupt loss. This is the kind of movie you might find frustrating since there’s not a lot of closure to it up until the end, but there is definitely some comeuppance delivered before the credits roll.
3. King Kong
King Kong has been one of Jackson’s favorite movies for a long time and it must have been a dream come true when he was able to direct this one. This version didn’t seem to get the attention it deserved despite the stellar cast that was brought in for it, but the fight between Kong and the dinosaurs was actually pretty impressive since it kind of set the tone for Kong being so protective of those he cared about. It’s also kind of fun to tie in the correlation between this and Kong: Skull Island, since if you look at the timeline it would kind of make sense given that this version was much earlier than Skull Island.
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
These movies only got better as they went along but it’s still important to note the first one since it was the culmination of a dream that a lot of people have enjoyed throughout the years after reading the books. While a lot was changed and redirected from the original story it made for a movie that was something quite special since the overall theme of the epic tale wasn’t changed. The threat of Sauron was still very real and was something that all those of Middle Earth had to deal with in order to prevent their lands and their people from becoming enslaved by the lord of the one ring.
1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
A lot of people wondered how you could take a book like the Hobbit and make it into a trilogy, but with adding a few things in here and there and remembering that only so much from a full-length book can make into a movie, it becomes much more possible to believe. This version however definitely beats the cartoon by a country mile, though it does hold to a lot of the same elements that made the story great to begin with. If nothing else Jackson took what he’d already done with LOTR and made the Hobbit into something that was equal if not greater in stature.
Jackson is a guy that’s gone through a lot of trial and error to get where he’s at and it’s paid off.
