Fantasy - inferior?

[Bill Ferny]

I still believe that fantasy and sci-fi films (and TV and books) are seen as a second class 'citizen'.

Blame that on Brooks, Jordan and the countless Forgotten Realms (so-called) novelists, and the crew that wrote the script for Dungeons and Dragons-Not-Worth-the-Light-Wasted-for-Shooting movie. Fantasy authors and script-writers continue to dig the genre’s grave.

If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Willow get an Oscar for costuming or special affects? I certainly think the movie deserved mention, at any rate. Of course, the original Star Wars movies, particularly the first, were worthy of mention. The academy would be more than willing to give fantasy its due, if only those doing fantasy weren’t for the most part mindless hacks. Hopefully, in both literature and cinema, lessons will be learned from LotR (and Willow and Star Wars). Namely, fantasy, in order to be successful and artistic, has to be original, romantic and epic. Boy makes it through maze and kills orc, girl tames wolf, knight banters with dragon, old man cast’s a lightning bolt spell just isn’t going to do it.