Ridley Scott Comments on Marvel Films, From Martin Scorsese to Denis Villeneuve 7 Other Directors Who Have Criticized the Superhero Films

Marvel is perhaps one of the biggest franchises right now in Hollywood. Every other month a new movie produced by them is hitting theatres and the public flock to them in order to experience it. Not only Marvel, but in the last 10 years superhero movies have dominated theatres. Bringing in huge box office revenues and being the talk of the internet for months, superhero movies are definitely influential in their own right. Avengers: Endgame for example, reigns supreme as the biggest film release yet. The excitement surrounding that release was historical for films. Ridley Scott Feels Superhero Movies Are ‘Boring As Sh*t’ With Scripts That ‘Aren’t Any F**king Good’.

For a few years now though, ever since Marvel has had a huge boom in the industry, many directors have come out and criticized the franchise. Criticisms are generally about filmmakers questioning their legitimacy in them being considered a part of cinema. The latest to criticize Marvel films has been Alien and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott. “The best films are driven by the characters, and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll f@#$%ing crush it. They’re f@#$%ing boring as sh*t,” Scott said in an interview with Deadline.

His criticism originates from how he thinks that superhero films basically don’t have much character to them and overly rely on CGI. With that being said, Ridley Scott definitely isn’t the first to say this and won’t be the last. So let’s take a look at seven other filmmakers who have come out and criticized superhero films.

Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich is famous for directing Independence Day and ‘1998s Godzilla. He is known for making big budget blockbusters and that’s basically what he specializes in. During the press for his 2016 film, Independence Day: Resurgence, in an interview with Guardian Emmerich was quoted saying, “I find it silly when someone dons a superhero suit and flies”. “When you look at my movies it’s always the regular Joe Schmo that’s the unlikely hero,” Emmerich added.

David Cronenberg

Cronenberg was another voice in criticizing superhero films. He thinks superhero movies are for kids and shouldn’t really be considered as cinematic art. "A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it's comic book. It's for kids. It's adolescent in its core, that has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying The Dark Knight Rises is, you know, supreme cinema art, I don't think they know what the f@#k they're talking about,” he said in an interview with NextMovie. He added saying "I think it's still Batman running around in a stupid cape... Christopher Nolan's best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don't think his Batman movies are half as interesting, though they're 20 million times the expense."

Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Another filmmaker that shares similar sentiments with David Cronenberg is Birdman director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Iñárritu is quoted saying how he thinks superhero films aren’t for grownups and people should grow out of it. "I would be terrible [at making a superhero film]. I think there's nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I think there's a disease in not growing up," he said in an interview with Deadline.

Denis Villeneuve

Before Ridley Scott got into discussion of Marvel films, it was Villeneuve who was the talk of the mouth regarding it. During his press tour for Dune, Villeneuve was quoted saying how he thinks all Marvel films are copy and paste of each other. "Perhaps the problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a 'cut and paste' of others," Villeneuve said in an interview with El Mundo. He added saying, "Perhaps these types of movies have turned us into zombies a bit... But big and expensive movies of great value there are many today. I don't feel capable of being pessimistic at all." Dune Movie Review: Timothee Chalamet’s Sci-Fi Film Is a Visual Treat! (LatestLY Exclusive).

Bong Joon-Ho

The Oscar winning director of Parasite, Bong Joon-Ho also criticized the costumes in Marvel films. "I have a personal problem, I respect the creativity that goes into superhero films, but in real life and in movies, I can't stand people wearing tight-fitting clothes. I'll never wear something like that, and just seeing someone in tight clothes is mentally difficult. I don't know where to look, and I feel suffocated” he said in an interview with Variety. Amidst all the heavy criticisms, his is weirdly funny in a way. Bong Joon-Ho would then even express in directing a superhero film if the character had a “boxy costume”.

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is definitely a legend in his own right and has advanced cinema like no one has. With films like Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he certainly set a standard for films. So when Martin Scorsese criticized Marvel films, Coppola agreed with him immediately. "When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he's right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration," he said in an interview with France 24.

Martin Scorsese

Well now we come to the final entry in this list, and one that actually had a huge impact with his comments on the film community online. Scorsese took the internet by storm when he said he doesn’t consider Marvel films “cinema”. "I don't see them. I tried, you know? But that's not cinema," he said in an interview with Empire Magazine. He added saying, "Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being." Since then his comments have had a very mixed response and are constantly referenced in film memes online.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 16, 2021 08:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).