Fincher vs. Nolan

[nolan's roll'n]

Who is the better director?

Fincher is about eight years older than Nolan.

Nolan had Memento going for him and Fincher has Fight Club. Nolan had The Following and Fincher had Se7en. Nolan had the Prestige and Fincher had Zodiac. Nolan had Insomnia and Fincher had the Panic Room. Nolan had Batman Begins and Fincher had The Game. Nolan had The Dark Knight and Fincher had the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Now Nolan is working and filming the sci-fi film, Inception due for a July release date next summer, while Fincher is working on a film called the Social Network, supposed to be about facebook and stuff like that. You guys get the picture now, so what do you say? Who has the edge over the other? David Fincher or Christopher Nolan, both great directors, who is better? In this thread compare and discuss any of their films, future, present, or past. It doesn't matter.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Fincher. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Seriously, there's really nothing to debate about here...

And you should do a poll. It'd be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[nolan's roll'n]

Fincher. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Seriously, there's really nothing to debate about here...

And you should do a poll. It'd be interesting to see where this goes.

Yeah, I just did. Post your pick in the poll.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I think they're both great. I seriously would love to see Fincher direct a superhero movie. Superman would be a great choice since he's great with character development.

 

[nolan's roll'n]

I think they're both great. I seriously would love to see Fincher direct a superhero movie. Superman would be a great choice since he's great with character development.

Yeah with his Zodiac, being a horror film, he can make superman darker than it has been in the films for some time now. Plus he can recast the roles and recast someone else to fill Kate Bosworth's shoes as Louis Lane and someone else for Clark kent/Superman, the actor currently playing Superman annoys me, just like Tobey Maguire annoys me and JGL should have been Spiderman.

 

[StorminNorman]

This is a case where I think TDK fanboys will hurt Nolan. Nolan is certainly deserving of consideration of one of the best directors in Hollywood today - Memento and The Dark Knight are two of the most respected movies of this decade.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Seven > The Dark Knight

Fight Club > The Prestige

Momento > The Game

Fincher takes this one.

 

[Hound55]

Fincher. Easily. Nolan's probably my favourite director and I've seen everything he's done (including lesser knowns like his short Doodlebug) but I know he's not as good as Fincher. Fincher's fantastic.

 

[Bobber]

This is really tough, as they are two of my favourite directors.
I absolutely loved Fight Club and Seven, and I thought Zodiac was really good, and so was The Game.

But... I've loved every Nolan film I've seen (haven't seen Insomniac.)
So Nolan clinches it for me.

 

[nolan's roll'n]

Honestly, I am twisted in the middle of Fincher and Nolan and can't decide, that's why I need your help to make me come to my conclusion.

 

[Hound55]

Fight Club, Seven, Zodiac, The Game, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Panic Room, Alien3 (His slip)

Vs

Momento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Following, Insomnia

To me, Fincher comfortably takes that.

 

[Carusos Shades]

Close call maybe Fincher by a nose. Though Nolans never really made a subpar movie, Fincher has Alien3 and Panic Room which I don't really rate.

 

[Hound55]

See Panic Room was underrated, I reckon. A lot of other directors, that'd be their best work.

Well lit, some very good shots, some of those trademark rapid zooms he does with the key-hole, going in the window... both directors have their gimmicks and trademarks they like to go with, I think Fincher's more well rounded and has far better understanding of the importance of lighting, which the real elite directors have.

Alien3 was a major, major drop of the ball for Fincher when you consider everythiign else he's made. As for Nolan, the worst he's done was probably Insomnia.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Alien 3 wasn't Finchers fault. That's not Fanboy denial. either. That movies production is notorous... Fincher did the best he could with what he had...

 

[Hound55]

Alien 3 wasn't Finchers fault. That's not Fanboy denial. either. That movies production is notorous... Fincher did the best he could with what he had...

Truth be told, I believe you, Alien3 was a train wreck from the get-go. But the director's the guy who's going to have to take the fall for most of these things.

I thought League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was well directed (OMG! He said something good about that Alan Moore adapt-rape-tion), and don't tell Sean Connery I said that but there was... there was a lot wrong with that movie...

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the number one, greatest piece of evidence we have that Alan Moore has the ability to curse film adaptations of his work that he doesn't approve of...

 

[terry78]

Fincher could have pulled off a new Batman, no doubt. He has that type of direction and art style. If he had been chosen as opposed to Nolan, would have been no issues on this end. Not saying Nolan was a slouch or whatever.

 

[Figs]

I chose both. Hard to pick one over the other when I like just about all of their films and they're both in my top 5 for favorite recent/modern directors.

 

[nolan's roll'n]

Fincher could have pulled off a new Batman, no doubt. He has that type of direction and art style. If he had been chosen as opposed to Nolan, would have been no issues on this end. Not saying Nolan was a slouch or whatever.

Yeah, agreed. I'm intrigued and fascinated by Fincher's work and would desperately like to see his take and view on his interpretation of Batman.

 

[Drizzle]

I don't know. I have yet to be disappointed by one of Nolan's films. Fincher, on the other hand, directed some movies that failed to impress me (Alien 3, Panic Room, Curious Case of Benjamin Button). "Button" had some great makeup/special effects, but the story was just "Forrest Gump" if Forrest could age backwards.

 

[terry78]

You have more misses than hits when you've been in the game longer.

 

[Hierofan]

Fincher as a director
Nolan as a filmmaker

 

[Keyser Soze]

The winner is....

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON!

t:

 

[Polux]

Why do I have to pick one ? (actually, I didn´t :P)

I think they´re both amazing, two of my favorites, actually.


Polux

P.S: And yeah, Fincher had his misses, actually, somehow it seems his films quality has lowered in the last years, unlike Nolan who gets better and better with every movie, just my opinion.

 

[Hound55]

You have more misses than hits when you've been in the game longer.

Much longer... but that argument gets weakened when you factor in that his projects are few and far between... he had a real quiet patch and then took on a few more recently with Zodiac and Benjamin Button being quite close together by his standards.

 

[Rincewind]

I have a better grasp of Nolan's work, although I haven't seen Insomnia and Following, but Memento, The Prestige and the two Batman movies are all awesome.

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I haven't seen much of Fincher's work - I've watched only Se7en, Zodiac and Alien 3, so I can't say I know that much about him. Se7en was amazing, and Zodiac was pretty good too, but Alien 3 is a bit mediocre.

I'd say that both Nolan and Fincher are pretty damn good.