Film Martin Scorsese - Marvel movies are 'not cinema'

Fingeredmouse

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And the nerds will treat it as masterful storytelling.
I know this is an unnecessary tangent but surely the Marvel franchise monster is about as far from nerdy as it's possible to get? It's not exactly intellectual and is utterly mainstream.

Edit: Surely they're just wankers?
 

Sweet Square

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Also maybe this is impossible to discuss on the internet due to all the reactionary shite the internet contains but rise of this mainstream drag culture is easily one of the most annoying trends of the last few years. It has taken what was a very interesting and subversive culture and turn it into all about being a straight woman gay best friend(Which of course plays into stereotypes of both women and homosexual men)
 

Pogue Mahone

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Also maybe this is impossible to discuss on the internet due to all the reactionary shite the internet contains but rise of this mainstream gay/drag culture is easily one of the most annoying trends of the last few years. It has taken what was a very interesting and subversive sub culture and turn it into all about being a straight woman gay best friend(Which of course plays into stereotypes of both women and homosexual men)
Surely becoming mainstream is all part of becoming more normalised and widely accepted? Which is ultimately for the greater good.

That movie does look shit though.
 

Sweet Square

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Surely becoming mainstream is all part of becoming more normalised and widely accepted? Which is ultimately for the greater good.
Maybe but whats it's normalising, what is the audience it's targeting and what social roles is it challenging ? The film itself clearly isn't aimed at children, as it's yasss Queening all over the place and cinderella is now a girl boss. It's made by and for the same people - rich liberals, who are trying to suck out the last fumes of nostalgia from the exhaust pipe. But like even putting aside this dumb movie, the culture in general seems to put gay men into ultra feminine almost hysterical box and plays into misogynistic stereotypes of women. It's also pure individualism and consumerism(It's basically some form of progressive Thatcherism). It seems to be challenging the gender roles of the 1950's and actually if anything it's a culture that enforces the roles we have today.

And while I sort of get it(“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.'' “All that is solid melts into air'' blah blah capitalism is bad!) it's so artistically dog shit that it's a bit madden thats there's no push back on it.
 
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Sweet Square

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Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Cut and Paste’ Marvel Movies Have ‘Turned Us Into Zombies’


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. “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.”

Villeneuve also recently told French outlet Premiere, “If we’re talking about Marvel, the thing is, all these films are made from the same mold. Some filmmakers can add a little color to it, but they’re all cast in the same factory. It doesn’t take anything away from the movies, but they are formatted.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/09/denis-villeneuve-marvel-movies-zombies-1234665235/
 

BusbyMalone

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People coming out swinging on behalf of a multi-billion dollar corporation who couldn't give a feck about them, all because some have the gall to criticize the movies they make.

Depressing as feck. Weirdos
 

VorZakone

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I wonder how many directors are secretly in agreement with Scorsese on this.
 

OleBoiii

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I would imagine most of them - probably even some who have worked on the MCU.
For sure.

Most directors will have an artistic approach when it comes to making films, rather than a pure business mindset. While there are probably some weirdos who only got into film making for the money, I'm sure that the main thing that inspired most directors to pursue directing was the idea of creating something, with a high degree of autonomy. It's not like any of the current directors grew up watching the MCU either.
 

harms

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To be fair, Marvel do seem to be doing something about that — giving slightly more creative freedom & inviting independent directors but the inertia is huge. And the issue is, even when they stumble upon something (relatively) new and fresh they just copy it to death (see Gunn & Waititi). Or chicken out after a promising start and return to proven tropes like in WandaVision & Loki.
 

Rooney in Paris

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To be fair, Marvel do seem to be doing something about that — giving slightly more creative freedom & inviting independent directors but the inertia is huge. And the issue is, even when they stumble upon something (relatively) new and fresh they just copy it to death (see Gunn & Waititi). Or chicken out after a promising start and return to proven tropes like in WandaVision & Loki.
All their films are incredibly formated and I massively doubt these "fresher" directors have any control on the final cut. This increased creative freedom is an illusion and is not reflected at all in the final product.
 

harms

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All their films are incredibly formated and I massively doubt these "fresher" directors have any control on the final cut. This increased creative freedom is an illusion and is not reflected at all in the final product.
Well, hence the "slightly". To be fair, Guardian of the Galaxy were quite fresh when they came out, as was Waititi's Thor (and both movies were very reflective of their directors) — the issue is that Marvel saw that it worked and decided to make 90% of their new movies by the same ethos... which, unsurprisingly, led to it becoming stale very soon (and even damaging the original movies in retrospect). As for directors not having any control? I think they do, at least Marvel are certainly more favourable towards their directors than DC is. But they obviously don't have anything close to full control & they're quite restrained by the big story that goes through all of the movies (which only Feige has real control of).
 

caid

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Well, hence the "slightly". To be fair, Guardian of the Galaxy were quite fresh when they came out, as was Waititi's Thor (and both movies were very reflective of their directors) — the issue is that Marvel saw that it worked and decided to make 90% of their new movies by the same ethos... which, unsurprisingly, led to it becoming stale very soon (and even damaging the original movies in retrospect). As for directors not having any control? I think they do, at least Marvel are certainly more favourable towards their directors than DC is. But they obviously don't have anything close to full control & they're quite restrained by the big story that goes through all of the movies (which only Feige has real control of).
Ah the comics they're based off are kind of dictating a fair bit of stuff. They could have given more freedom in how the presented the world in each movie but the whole shared world aspect of them basically removes that from the individual directors. Directors have some control over dialogue and probably little else and even then there'll be a pile of bullet points they have to hit in the script. Its not much of a vehicle for directors.
Theres certainly some skill involved from someone, somewhere in a creative capacity. There's too much of a consistency of quality to marvel thats completely absent in the dc equivalents for there not to be.
 

Rooney in Paris

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Well, hence the "slightly". To be fair, Guardian of the Galaxy were quite fresh when they came out, as was Waititi's Thor (and both movies were very reflective of their directors) — the issue is that Marvel saw that it worked and decided to make 90% of their new movies by the same ethos... which, unsurprisingly, led to it becoming stale very soon (and even damaging the original movies in retrospect). As for directors not having any control? I think they do, at least Marvel are certainly more favourable towards their directors than DC is. But they obviously don't have anything close to full control & they're quite restrained by the big story that goes through all of the movies (which only Feige has real control of).
I disagree that, beyond the specific brand of humour, any of Waititi's individuality transpired in Thor Ragnarok (which is one of my favourite Marvel films by the way). The overall "artistic" appearance of the film, the editing, the music, is all extremely similar to other Marvel films. But then again these directors certainly know what kind of framework they're going to be "creating" within, and accept it for the other perks associated - salary, global reach, being part of this universe that for better or for worse has dominated the cinematographic landscape these past 15 years.

But I don't believe a director fundamentally attached to his own vision, to his art, would accept to direct a film for Marvel.
 

OleBoiii

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That's the issue with comic book movies(and a big reason for why I generally dislike them). You are at least somewhat bound to the source material. You can try to add some grit. You can make up new character flaws to give the characters more depth. You can toss in some adult humor. But ultimately you still have a hero that you've seen many times before fighting an evil enemy and always coming out on top. Apart from tossing money at the problem, the only "interesting" thing Marvel has done is to offer the viewers a chance to see how the different superheroes were to interact if they met each other.
 

stevoc

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That's the issue with comic book movies(and a big reason for why I generally dislike them). You are at least somewhat bound to the source material. You can try to add some grit. You can make up new character flaws to give the characters more depth. You can toss in some adult humor. But ultimately you still have a hero that you've seen many times before fighting an evil enemy and always coming out on top. Apart from tossing money at the problem, the only "interesting" thing Marvel has done is to offer the viewers a chance to see how the different superheroes were to interact if they met each other.
Isn't that true of virtually every action/adventure movie though?
 

OleBoiii

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Isn't that true of virtually every action/adventure movie though?
It's true of all comic book movies or "franchise" action movies(James Bond for instance), but there used to be original action/adventure movies as well. In those movies you at least get something fresh and you don't really know what will happen next. Sure, happy endings are almost guaranteed even in originals. But with these comic book movies you are guaranteed a happy ending, which completely removes all real stakes.