Even 33 Years Later, Steven Spielberg Still Hates One of His Biggest Blockbusters

If there's one thing most creative people have in common, it's a hatred for what they're working on. Whether it's a painting, a song, or an entire movie, there are no harsher critics than the creators behind the process. And even the best of the best tend to beat themselves up.

You'd think that for someone who's reached the pinnacle of his career, self-criticism would be a thing of the past. But he still looks back on one of his most successful films from the early '90s with nothing but disappointment.

Is Hook (1991) a Good Movie?

Whatever you think of the story of an adult Peter Pan, a workaholic with no interest in anything beyond his daily routine, it tugs at the heartstrings of both children and adult audiences. However, not everyone likes the movie.

Spielberg has been very open about his dislike of his own movie. The critics seemed to agree, as Hook is still sitting at just 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it wasn't the hurtful comments that made the director unsure of his own work. Even as he was making Hook, he knew something was wrong.

Speaking to Empire, Spielberg opened up about how it felt to make Hook and why it deserved most of the criticism.

“I felt like a fish out of water making Hook. I didn’t have confidence in the script.<...> I didn’t quite know what I was doing, and I tried to paint over my insecurity with production value, the more insecure I felt about it, the bigger and more colorful the sets became,” he said.

Even though the movie was packed with all kinds of big celebrity names like Dustin Hoffman, Julia Robins, Robin Williams, and Maggie Smith, their acting couldn't make up for the lack of substance in the plot. But does it really matter if the audience loved the movie in the end?

Spielberg's retelling of the well-known Peter Pan story was welcomed by audiences and ended up grossing $300 million at the box office upon its release. More importantly, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is very different from the critics, as the movie currently stands at 76%.

If you want to revisit the movie that has become a classic in many homes, you can rent or buy Hook on Apple TV, Prime Video or Vudu.

Source: Empire