No, Denis Villeneuve Isn't Pulling a Martin Scorsese With His Marvel Comments
Well, friends, here we go again.
Another prestige director is on a press tour for their new Big Movie. And an interviewer, for no particular reason other than their own genuine curiosity (and/or shit-stirring) asked the director what they think about the bazillion-dollar-making Marvel franchise. This time, the filmmaker is Denis Villeneuve, who helmed the soon-to-be-released, long-awaited adaptation of Dune. And, like many before him—notably Martin Scorsese, who called MCU flicks "not cinema"—he didn't fawn all over the superhero umbrella of films.
“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 reportedly said to the Spanish newspaper Elmundo. “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.”
Naturally, this has prompted a corner of the Marvel hive to, once again, collectively lose its damn mind.
Sounds to me like #Dune director Denis Villeneuve hasn’t seen many Marvel movies. . . https://t.co/Kuttrg7WsP
— Tanner (@Tanner_Slavin) September 16, 2021
Instead of commenting on Denis Villeneuve's frankly reasonable and milquetoast take on the MCU, I'd like to take this opportunity to emphasize that marvel fans are fucking HORRID at dunks pic.twitter.com/qSgtuFRIbe
— Alexei (@urboialexei) September 16, 2021
It’s a shared cinematic universe. These movies have to feel similar to a degree so that these characters can coexist in the world Marvel built. Denis Villeneuve is a great filmmaker but it wasn’t a very good take. Comes across as jealous and insecure. Worry about your own films
— NexTakeJim (@NexTakeJim) September 16, 2021
Now before you get fully up in arms, it might help to take a look at what the director recently said to the French outlet Premiere about the same batch of flicks. “The problem today… well, if we’re talking about Marvel, the thing is, all these films are made from the same mould," he said, adding, "Some filmmakers can add a little colour to it, but they’re all cast in the same factory. It doesn’t take anything away from the movies, but they are formatted.”
Villeneuve isn't trying to blow up Kevin Feige's spot here. He seems to merely be saying that when you set out to make a universe of shared films, then they're probably going to look like each other a little bit. This isn't Villeneuve making like Scorsese and completely writing off any and all artistic value of Marvel flicks. He's buddies with The Eternals director Chloé Zhao, after all. It's more of a criticism of the studio system and shared universes, if anything. Plus, El Mundo is, you know, a Spanish-language publication, so isn't it possible that we're missing a little context?
Takeaway of the day: Think before you Twitter, people.
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