Directors V Marvel: Dawn of Discourse – Legendary Filmmakers Criticise the MCU

By George Biggs.
Legendary directors take on the wildly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe to a very mixed response.
Over the past few weeks a strange, heated discourse has coursed through the media. Perhaps it was the release of The Joker, to massive popular and (mixed) critical acclaim, that stirred legendary directors to pass comment on comic book films in general.
Martin Scorsese, director of The Wolf of Wall Street said Marvel movies are more like theme parks than cinema. They don’t show “human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being”.
Scorsese was lampooned with criticism, but he didn’t back down. Other critically acclaimed directors supported him.
Francis Ford Coppola, director of the Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now, said “Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.” Pedro Almodóvar and Ken Loach also weighed, in adding Marvel movies were sexless and ‘neutered’, and a ‘cynical exercise’, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the monolith of MCU fans struck back. Scores of tweets accusing the directors of being jealous of the MCU’s astounding success, particularly with installments like Avengers: Endgame and Black Panther. Others accused the directors of being bitter and out of touch, consumed by their own artistic snobbery
A little more surprising was the measured, thoughtful responses of some directors of MCU films. James Gunn (director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1-3) defended superhero films on an Instagram post, claiming that they’re no different to the gangster films or westerns of the 20^th century. He adds that “not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay”. Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and a star in a dozen Marvel Films, was even less combative. He said that the likes of Scorsese and Coppola are his hero’s and they’ve earned the right to express whatever opinion they want.
Thus, without hostility from the directors themselves, the controversy fizzled out almost as quickly as it begun. It’s a kind of stalemate. The directors who criticised marvel weren’t supposed to enjoy Marvel films; they’re simply not made for them. And that’s okay. Marvel films themselves are flawed like all art, they’re not some beacon of perfect filmmaking. And that’s also okay.