Is Uwe Boll really that bad?

[dlsevern]

Uwe Boll is great. Not only does he make some seriously entertaining films, he's a great guy who has the right attitude toward what he's doing. Really rare in film directors to see someone who is so down-to-earth and also has balls of steel. He's Ed Wood for the Internet generation and in 70 years your grandchildren will be watching House Of The Dead at their cool house parties and laughing their asses off at their boring grandparents who never understood the appeal.

Oddly enough, I agree with you Bonsaik, I personally haven't liked any of his movies that I've seen but most likely he will be a cult icon and his movies, cult classics. Look at how bad Ed Wood or William Castle's movies were and yet they are cult classics. I think I would like to watch his movies again with that kind of mindset and see if I'm able to enjoy them more.

 

[Ickorus]

Uwe Boll the director deserves to be consigned to the depths of hell, Uwe Boll the person is actually a pretty decent guy.

I guess when it comes down to it he's doing something he loves and as such there is absolutely no reason for me to complain, I mean, all I have to do is not watch his movies.

If he touches a franchise I actually like though there will be blood.

 

[the27thvoice]

[...] I haven't seen In the Name of The King but if it's anything like the tale that the reviews tell or anything like his movies that I HAVE seen, then I wonder what your standards are. That's not meant as an insult - I honestly want to know. Did you find Inception to be "too much" or "too hard to follow?" Were The Matrix movies too much for you? Are you at home watching Michael Bay films?
[...]

Standards...let's see. I never saw Inception, the plot just never seemed interesting enough to pay for the ticket. I adored the first Matrix movie, but felt the other two fell short, no doubt a result of my own expectations. They are decent movies, sure, but they could have been so much more. Michael Bay is good only for great shots of famous landmarks blowing up, he seems to pick his films less for the stories and more as concepts that will allow him to destroy the world as we know it.

I come into films ready to forgive bad special effects, but picky about plot holes. If I've read the books the films are based on, I try to not make comparisons, but do keep notes on stuff that really went missing. As an example, I understand why Tom Bombadil never showed up in LotR, and why they gave one of his scenes to Treebeard in the extended cuts, but I did miss Quickbeam.
The Harry Potter franchise was rather good, but the loophole about successions of defeats meaning the ultimate wand belongs to Harry was bull in my mind. By the movie's own rules, Voldemort wins that claim when he kills Harry in the woods (surely that counts as a defeat, even if Harry gets back).

All that said, I'm not opposed to popcorn movies with simple plots and big on action, and it's considering that genre's popularity I just can't see why Boll receives this level of hatred. Not criticism, but downright hatred, like he's satan personified, come to destroy films and video games alike. Maybe I've just watched the wrong movies, it's not like I've ever sought out his stuff, I just watched one, noticed he was the director after seeing it and wondered why this thing was shunned.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I dont know. i only ever saw Bloodrayne and I thought it was alright, but im no movie critic. Plus I saw it on TV as a saturday night film, so that probably added to it. And the man was nominated for a Leo Award, which is for excellence in Canadian artistic achievement. so take from that what you will I suppose.

However the man himself seems to be something of a dick, and has made a film about auschwitz and darfur, neither I imagine are tasteful.

 

[Tselis]

Well, I don't like that he's made a career of bad movies.

I mean, if you consistently fail at your job, you should up your game or be fired. Why should they get a third rate director to do stuff, when there's so many second rate ones available?

He's kept in business by a lucrative tax shelter in Germany, where he's from. The government basically subsidizes parts of the film industry in the country to try to promote jobs growth and the economy.

EDIT: So basically, you can thank Germany for Uwe Boll.

 

[Kae]

I haven't seen any of his movies but the guy is hilarious so he can't be all that bad. (The boxing thing was awesome I wonder if somebody actually fought him)

 

[funguy2121]

Michael Bay is good only for great shots of famous landmarks blowing up, he seems to pick his films less for the stories and more as concepts that will allow him to destroy the world as we know it. I come into films ready to forgive bad special effects, but picky about plot holes. All that said, I'm not opposed to popcorn movies with simple plots and big on action, and it's considering that genre's popularity I just can't see why Boll receives this level of hatred. Not criticism, but downright hatred, like he's satan personified, come to destroy films and video games alike. Maybe I've just watched the wrong movies, it's not like I've ever sought out his stuff, I just watched one, noticed he was the director after seeing it and wondered why this thing was shunned.

Did you only read the part that you quoted? If you're only talking about people who say he's Satan, you should steer clear of the Escapist. People claim on a regular basis that EA and James Cameron are Satan, that George Lucas is Satan, that Seth MacFarlane is Satan (or isn't as talented as Trey Parker and Matt Stone use to - I mean are).

 

[Smokej]

(snipped the pseudo-intellectual dead weight...)

The point is that simply because someone has achieved something in a specific field doesn't mean that they should be viewed as a guru on everything in life.

It seems that you missed the point of my statement (which could be my fault since my english is lacking sometimes...) I didn't claim that he's some kind of guru, i wanted to point out that if he would be the retard many of his critics are claiming he is, he wouldn't have met the academic standards to recieve such a degree from a state university(and you can surely say that nearly all of his online critics couldn't meet those standards even if they tried as hard as they could) That does say of course little about his creativity or film-making skills other than that he has a solid educational foundation to work with.

But aside from that Uwe's publictiy work is high-grade entertainment material and you can't deny that he has keen business sense in his professional directing and producing work. And the grade of media infamy he recieves, shows that there always is somekind of interest in his works and himself.

So yeah i like him as a character and even his trashy movies can be really entertaining to watch while you're hanging around with your buddys and listening to his ridiculous audio commentary.

 

[kaboby]

Somewhere on the internet I saw Graham from LLR giving Uwe Boll a interview and he seemed nice enough especially since before that interview Graham had said some harsh things about him but I have never seen any of his films and don't really plan on watching any in the near future.

 

[funguy2121]

(1) (snipped the pseudo-intellectual dead weight...)

The point is that simply because someone has achieved something in a specific field doesn't mean that they should be viewed as a guru on everything in life.

(2) It seems that you missed the point of my statement...That does say of course little about his creativity or film-making skills other than that he has a solid educational foundation to work with.

(3) But aside from that Uwe's publictiy work is high-grade entertainment material and you can't deny that he has keen business sense in his professional directing and producing work. And the grade of media infamy he recieves, shows that there always is somekind of interest in his works and himself.

(4) So yeah i like him as a character and even his trashy movies can be really entertaining to watch while you're hanging around with your buddys and listening to his ridiculous audio commentary.

(1) How incredibly rude for a person who basically said but he went to Harvard! to defend a creator of naive camp.

(2) That was exactly the "psuedo-intellectual dead weight" that you snipped. That was my point. Too bad you then ignored our mutual point when you said...

(3) ...this. Before any Uwe Boll fans start flaming in response to this, let's be clear: I'm only making a comparison based on what you said, and mean to compare the two personalities in this way and this way only. Westboro Baptist Church and its leader, Fred Phelps, are now household names. Does this mean that Phelps has a strong business savvy? More to the point, does that make him a good spiritual leader? Defenders of (Metallica drummer) Lars Ulrich love to point out that he and James take care of the business end of the band pretty much on their own. If you've ever read or watched or listened to an interview with Ulrich, you know that he's a very intelligent and down-to-earth guy. Does that have any bearing on the fact that, since the early 90's, he hasn't done anything at all that was creative, original or inspired behind the kit?

Also, I'm not sure what this is intended to mean.

(4) He's a human being. MovieBob addressed this with Michael Bay, and that's exactly how I feel, both about Bay and about Boll. My cousin has worked with Michael Bay (he did the CGI for Devastator in the second Transformers film), and has a lot of respect for the man's work ethic. I'm not going to besmirch someone as a person because I don't like their art. Again, watch the movie Heckler. I believe you referred to the boxing match so you've probably already seen it. Most critics are cynical assholes who are failed filmmakers themselves. Out of this group, there is a smaller but still very vocal group who love to call any shitty filmmaker the harbinger of the apocalypse because, like many escapists, they are more melodramatic than insecure teenagers. So, if it isn't clear, let me reiterate one more time: I have absolutely no problem with Uwe Boll as a person because, like you, I don't know him. I just can't stand his films because they are insipid to the point of insulting the audience.