Anyone else experience an epiphany about early to mid-1990s sci-fi/fantasy directors?

[toddly6666]

When it comes to thinking about early- to mid-1990s sci-fi/fantasy films, has anyone else experienced the epiphany of:

1. not knowing the names of these directors

2. you never heard of these directors after looking them up on IMDB or at least they sounded vague but you would certainly have to find out what else they did on IMDB


Besides Total Recall, Ghost, Terminator 2, Hook, Edward Scissorhands, Groundhog Day, Jurassic Park (to name a few with pretty well-known directors at the time), the following early 1990s sci-fi/fantasy films seemed pretty big and epic at the time of release but I really was surprised to find out that I had no idea who directed these films when I tried to think about who directed them when I got older:

Freejack, Mr. Destiny, The Lawnmower Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill & Ted's, Highlander 2, Star Trek 6, Demolition Man, Super Mario Brothers, Fortress, Double Dragon, Star Trek Generations, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic, Judge Dredd, Species, Tank Girl, The Mask

I think it's just awful that Danny Cannon never got another chance to get to direct a huge action film as he did with his underrated Judge Dredd. If he had created the same type of film nowadays, he would certainly get other chances to show what he could do. Fincher (Alien 3) and Proyas (The Crow) certainly had more chances and showed that they are great directors.

Of course, many of those listed financially flopped and weren't that good, but they still seemed like epic huge releases at the time, and it's just sort of sad that some of these directors didn't get another shot at it, especially since their films were probably screwed by distracting producers and poor writers. It seems like many of the great sci-fi/action/fantasy directors started off with a turd (James Cameron for example).