5. Tim Burton
Tim Burton is the prime example of someone who, because he made some truly brilliant films at the beginning of his career has been able to fool people into thinking he is still a visionary and still wonderful film director today. If you look at the evidence, he really really is not. In the 80's and the early 90's he made some of my favorite films of all time , so know that I am not planning on totally disrespecting the man here. Stunningly inventive and weirdly surreal films like Beetlejuice and Batman Returns proved that this director really was one of the most brilliant minds in Hollywood at the time. Edward Scissorhands is not my personal favorite and is an early film of his which I consider to be highly overrated, but I know a lot of people love this film so won't slag it off on here. Moving into the end of the 90's however and Tim Burton really lost his way. In fact, I would make the argument that Burton hasn't made, or hasn't even been involved with a great film since probably 1994's Ed Wood. Mars Attacks was the first of his truly terrible movies and pretty much represents everything that was terrible about 1990's movies. I have watched it about 5 times because I have been told by many people that the film is better than I think it is but if anything it gets worse and worse on repeated viewings. Planet of the Apes was a huge let down though personally not as bad as everyone claims it is- if you watch the original movie, it isn't exactly a brilliant film either. A lot of people love Big Fish but in my opinion, though it was its moments, it is kind of an ultra cheesy mess of a film with some appalling acting my Ewan McGregor in the title role. But since Big Fish he got worse and worse with only one "alright film" since (Sweeney Todd). Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was painfully bad and didn't even come close to capturing the magic of the original ( a truly unnesesery remake) and Alice in Wonderland was just as dreadful. I blame Tim Burton's failures as a director due to the rise of CGI in the movies. When Tim Burton had to rely on more classic, traditional props, stages and painted city backdrops (ie. Batman) his films looked like beautifully crafted works of art. Now he is over reliant on special effects and his films just look the same as everyone elses. The things that made a Tim Burton film distinctive and unique has disappeared. He is simply no longer a director people get excited about any more.