Top 10 Most Overrated Film Directors

He cemented the idea of non-linear films into hollywood says one of the comments (? ). The idea from non-linear storytelling comes from Stanley Kubrick's movie " The Killing ". The movie " Pulp fiction " is just a copy of that movie with ingredients of another 50's movie, Robert Aldrich's " Kiss me deadly ". There's no originality in his movies and I think it's right like another comment says that he should stop " paying homage to exploitation films ". Taking ideas from existing movies from the past and write a script with those ideas, is not what I call " being talented ". Overrated!
The most overrated director working currently in modern society. While his 90's work still holds up extremely well today, his 21st century work is nowhere near as good. They are over stylish films with little substance, unpleasant violence and are too bleeding long. He should spend less time paying homage to the exploitation films he grew up and be concerned about making great films that stand alone. And get back into that editing room for God's sake!
There is nothing cinematic about his films, all films are like cheap stage plays, prolonged dialogues full of slangs. You can not call those films comedy, you can not even call them acting. You never feel pity on any on the character ever when they die very miserably.
You people bashing his style of directing do realize that its purposeful right? His films are meant to be over the top and gratuitous in terms of language and violence. The man is brilliant but I give you the knocks on Django and The Hateful Eight.

He is seriously highly overrated. Only terminator 2 and aliens are his good movies but the rest of them suck. Ranging from the scientifically inaccurate, unrealistic avatar to the the boring and lengthy titanic. This director has done it all
I quite frequently argue that 'The Terminator' and 'Aliens' are his best films, because they were the ones in which he had the least creative control, because he has no creativity.
His technical achievements are marvelous, but he can't manage to develop characters.
Titanic and Avatar: The most overrated movies ever. Both directed by James Cameron.

His movies are just Hot Topic pandering at this point. Not everything has to be gothic, but Burton is a one-trick pony and doesn't seem to get that. Making every project of his dark and moody for the sake of it. He's predictable and boring. I enjoyed his earlier work when he was trying to get his foot in the door but enough is enough. I'd like to see him try doing something different for once. He's like stale weeks-old milk. I'd like to see some range. Good Directors have a wide range of styles and change things up every now and then but Burton continues to bash the same tired old drum over and over. It's boring and it makes him overrated as a result.
His films are rubbish. He's been acclaimed for years, has a huge fan base and just makes the same films over and over with the same cast.
He was good until he started doing the same crap over and over, nearly every single one of his new films just looks like he's trying to duplicate Nightmare Before Christmas but it just never works
Yes his movies are not as great just remember he made the dumbo remake

I'm fine with Nolan tryign to be scientifically accurate. I'm also fine when he tries to be pretentious. James Cameron is great at being the first, and David Lynch is great at being the second - but you can't be both scientific and pretentious at the same time, so his films end up feeling like nothing.
Also, his movies are not as smart as people think. "Batman Begins" is just "RH: Prince of Thieves" (even down to Morgan Freeman playng the same character). "Inception" is just a bad version of "Paprika", "Interstellar" is a bas version of "2001", and his "Insomnia" remake is just awful. Watch the original instead.
Well, I don't think he deserves to be #1, but yeah he is still pretty overrated. While he has directed and wrote many great films over the course of his career, many people say that he is the best of the best and that his movies are totally flawless and perfect in every way. I'm, sorry people, but he is not a flawless director nor his films are. They all sometimes have prentetious dialogue, the pacing can really drag and most of his movies's endings feel weak. There are many other flaws that his films have, but I think people overlook them because the good stuff work so well, that they overshadow the things that are kinda boring, bland and prentetious. Overall he is a great director, but calm down people... he is not a god per say.
Fanboys. em.
Good director.
GOOD.
Nothing more. Oh sorry, apparently he's the next holy grail.
Fires me up that such incredible visionaries are overshadowed by people who went to see a movie at the cinema, and it was better than most other blockbusters they saw (ie transformers, fast and furious- the usual Hollywood drivel) and that makes him the god of film.
Maybe, for once in your lives, you should try to THINK- before you say something.
Not BAD, but so horribly overrated it kills me.
Try PT Anderson, Leone, Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarantino, Scorsese, Melville, Renoir, Hitchcock... ANYONE
And for those who say he's the next Kubrick- It is very clear you have never seen a Stanley Kubrick film. At least I hope not.
Nice to see him at no.3. At least some people agree
Even though he is overrated, still he doesn't deserve to be on number 1. Those guy usually hate movies like Inception or Interstellar, most likely they missed great twisting of those movie. When I first watched Inception as 12 years old, I thought "what's so special about it. It's overrated". But then again I watched it few years later, then I realized I had missed one of the most leading trails of this movie.

Lucas might have borrowed some good concept, but his directing has always been very heavy-handed and questionable. The first Star Wars movie, though wildly popular on its release does not hold up but the Empire Strikes Back, in the hands of a qualified director, still looks good. Lucas' repackaging of the original three Star Wars films is an abomination. And really, let's not forget Howard The Duck and Willow.
Not at all overrated, but his talent window was sadly brief. THX1138 and Star Wars were masterpieces... and then *poof*
How is he overrated. He made the best movie franchise. Get him off right now please
American Graffiti was a great movie.

He's a great director but there are others that are better than him.
I know he's revered and I might be making myself look stupid by admitting this but, I don't understand any of his films
His movies are good, but they always come with side effects like unnecessary scenes, overlong runtime, boredom, etc

Alfred Hitchcock every time. Every Hitchcock I've ever seen always ended stupidly. It always looked like it would get interesting but it NEVER DID! In "Rear Window", there was an exciting tension scene that led to not very much. There's a small fight and they "confirm" the murders! Disappoints. In "Vertigo", there was the scene that everybody's heard of before and is tired with, and the rest is basically following this girl and not learning much for an hour, and then another hour watching the characters get to know each other again, before the most stupid ending in which there's a huge drama about them COMPLAINING about the scene that everyone's seen! In "Dial "M" for Murder", the film itself is OK, but it ends in spectacular stupidity, when they know that the detectives know who did it, but they just watch him for tedious minutes and then the film ends, without anyone seeing them do anything afterwards! In "The Birds", there is no ending to it. It all ends in the middle of the main ...more
I think you see it all wrong. He never won an oscar in his career for a good reason. Was concidered in his time as too commercial by critics, not very good in lightning / photography effects, poor in special effects etc... His overrating status came in the seventies ( an era of crisis after the " golden " sixties ) when people were appreciating simple cheap techniques to make movies ( films in one room with one camera, cheap decors... ). His simple use of technique was teached at filmacademies later on. He became a model for B-movie directors what contributed to his popularity by the general public who in return overrated his talent.
He is a good director, but a tad overrated. I haven't seen 'Vertigo' or 'Rear Window,' but 'Psycho relies too heavily on cheap thrills in the last half, 'Spellbound' feels as if it could have been directed by anybody and 'The Lady Vanishes' is a comic mystery that is neither comic nor mysterious. The before mentioned are quite good films, but just not great. I loved 'Rebecca' though.
Him being on this list is absolutely disgusting. He almost invented the horror genre of films. He was a brilliant innovator of filming. Inventing several techniques that are still used today. And, the idea that his film are "predictable" or "full of cliches" are idiotic. The reason you think this is because his ideas have been parodied over and over again. He was a true genius.

When in the history of mankind has anyone ever OVERRATED Michael Bay? I won't say he's underrated, but he's vastly under-appreciated. If his job is to make money for the studio... then it would only follow that the man is tremendously good at what he's being hired to do. Bay suffers from McDonald's syndrome; make something good enough for mass culture and advertise the hell out of it, then watch as the hordes empty their pockets before you. Everyone will buy your product and hate you later.
Sorry guys, Bay is a winner. The only man in his position to have ever earned his team more money is weirdly above him on this list.
I just have to respond to that stupid comment because of how stupid it is. That stupid question" When in the history of mankind has anyone ever OVERRATED Michael Bay" would be as stupid of a question if you replaced his name with the name of any stupid pop star on that question. So since he made a bunch of money for himself and the people he worked with, that makes him a great man? Gee, that would mean that El Chapo is a great man since he made a bunch of money for himself and many murderous drug traffickers. Bay does not have McDonald's syndrome, which is obviously something that you made up. Bay does not appeal to everyone, and neither does McDonald's, since most people aren't fat, and many people never were. Bay mostly appeals to teens and people with ADHD problems. That doesn't make Bay a winner. That just means that he appeals to his target audience. If he's a winner, then so are the people that made the baby geniuses films, the twilight films, or the films of the scary movie ...more
All he does is make exploding movies but there is just one movie of him that I truly love a lot, Pearl Harbor.
Other than that, just boring!
The Rock is the only movie of his I can tolerate.

A several-decade long career of inciting racial tensions and yelling at Reggie Miller with a small break to film Inside Man like a sane person.
Racist scumbag! There's no putting it gently.

Well he was good... but not anymore... just like every other old directors... they don't go wit the flow... they're still stuck in the 80's... they are just old fashioned...

Same jokes over and over again. Maybe two or three movies with a descent ending but otherwise his endings sucks on so many of his movies. His characters are most of the time always the same ( a lawyer, a girl who works on a art gallery, an artist, a writer... ). He's suposed to be great and the best director in showing us New York ( but it's always Mannathan, the village... I think that Martin Scorsese is a Thousand times better to show us the " real " New York ). There's also too many jewish comments and humor in his movies ( he's suposed to be an atheist? ). His ideas of most of his films have no originality ( most of his stories are rewritings of Ingmar Bergman movies ). I'm not saying that he's one of the worst directors and some movies ( not many ) are worth watching but he gets too many credits. Overrated!
Woody Allen: Do you like jazz?
Me: Ye-
Woody Allen: I mean do you really like jazz?
Me: Yeah I d-
Woody Allen: But seriously, do you like jazz?
Me: Shut Up!
Woody Allen: Ooh, I'm a neurotic Jewish New Yorkan, Oh, I need therapy, ooh.
Sure some of the jokes in Annie Hall were kinda funny but Allen keeps putting the same jokes that it starts to become cliched.
This child-grooming creep sucks so badly at acting and directing that he makes Tommy Wiseau look like Steven Spielberg!

"Style over substance" or "All sizzle, no steak" are the expressions that come to mind when I think of Wes Anderson films.
All quirkiness and little substance.

No. This is just...no. This man is a prolific director: Jaws, Saving Private Ryan, Indiana Jones, ET, Schindler's List. Even Hook, while not a perfect movie, is still entertaining and well directed. There is no reason for this man to be on the list.
I hate it when people say "He makes movies for children." because that's not all true! So you really think Temple of doom, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan are for kids? Of course not!
Steven Spielberg has made some good blockbusters, but none are good enough to be considered all time greats. Being prolific does not make you a great film director.
His work has been getting worse and worse until it has come to Ready player one, which straight up sucked. The book was way better.

If you vote this man higher on the list, I will assume that you've never seen anything the man directed before The Frighteners.
He gutted LOTR and he Hobbit, turning them into mindless and stupid action movies.

His only good film is his 1st film, the Dawn of the Dead remake, then he married his way into the industry, marrying a Warner Bros. chief executive and making the most pretentious pieces of garbage I've ever seen, e.g. Watchmen, Batman V Superman. There's nothing clever about hamfisted Jesus symbolism... Nothing! (Especially when it has no relation to the film what so ever)
He only made 3 good movies: Man of Steel, Dawn of the Dead, and 300! He made Sucker Punch, Batman v Superman, Legend of the Guardians, and Watchmen... All of which were bad... Or average.
Legend of the Guardians and Watchmen were both good but Man of Steel was trash.
300 is a pathetic Gladiator wannabe! There I said it!

So tired of hearing about him, and how "great" his movies are.
Get him off please!


Let me ask ya something kids, do you think George Bush orchestrated 9/11? Yeah? Well do I have the director for you!
With the exception of 'Platoon' and 'Salvador,' and some of his edgier work, each of his films are American schmultz.
Platoon was amazing! What are you talking about?


Mulholland Drive made me want to jump off a cliff.
His movies are pretty weird but are great.

Kevin Smith and the end of the 90s was kind of like when a hippie stops doing so many drugs and realizes they have no idea why they were listening to the Grateful Dead that whole time.

Said I do hearing about this guy everywhere I go. Yes such an overrated hack.


His films too self absorbed and long winded for me. I think I've tried to watch every single one of his movies and the only one I made it through was Magnolia (which I actually liked). The rest of them I never made it more than halfway through
The worst of all. Its impossible to stand his movies, Most of the scenes are useless and take movie in no direction. But major disaster is the dialogues, all his films require superb edit. In turn good edit can chop off those films by 45%
The dollar store Kubrick. An absolute hack fraud.
This guy has never made a bad film. Take him off!

A one trick player! Can't even direct to save his life! Mother is going to bomb the box office! Why the hell is anyone even anticipated for it? Black Swan was his only good movie and the rest are trash! Take lessons from Spielberg or Ridley Scott please! But since he's already an insult to those great directors, I highly doubt it. Cause he is too busy hooking up with an overrated to the extreme annoying actress! Yeah, I'm talking to you, J Law.