March Madness of Movies: Best Big Budget Directing of the 21st Century — Round 2
These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.
There were very few surprises this round, and the competition is starting to shape up and become really difficult to work through.
In the superhero directing subcategory, the best of Marvel and the best of DC have now come to face each other, with #1 seed Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight taking on #2 seed Ryan Coogler for Black Panther. Will the next votes lean toward the more recent cultural phenomenon or will they look back on the near all-time classic crime epic from a decade ago?
In the franchise directing subcategory, it’s the battle of the acronyms: #1 seed Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King vs. #2 seed Matt Reeves for War for the Planet of the Apes. Both are epics of the highest order.
In the prestige/original/non-franchise studio directing subcategory, #2 seed George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road comes up against Christopher Nolan yet again. Miller just beat #6 seed Nolan for Dunkirk and will now face #4 seed Nolan for Inception. Can he triumph yet again against this generation’s most popular director?
Finally, in the animated directing subcategory, two Pixar giants will go toe-to-toe: #1 seeds Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for Up vs. #3 seed Brad Bird for The Incredibles. These directors already made it by some huge Pixar contenders, so this matchup will be even tougher to consider.
The winners of these battles will then move on to a rather interesting part of this bracket, the part where subcategories end and contenders blend. Winners of subcategories will be crowned only to face the other winners in the final four. But who will those winners end up being?
Stay tuned for the round 3 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, March 30!
Featured image via Marvel/New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.