Dune director Denis Villeneuve is concerned that audiences are being bombarded with far too many Marvel movies, movies which he has described as “cut and paste”. While discussing his soon-to-be-released sci-fi epic, the filmmaker examined the state of modern cinema, and his comments are sure to rub a few people up the wrong way…
“Perhaps the problem is there are too many Marvel films that are nothing more than a cut and paste of others. Maybe these types of movies have turned us a little bit into zombies.”
While its somewhat unclear whether Villeneuve thinks Marvel movies are copying other, separate movies, or whether they all look too much like each other, his comments are reminiscent of those from fellow esteemed filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who, back in 2019, described Marvel movies as being “like a theme park,” and therefore concluding that “it’s not cinema, it’s something else.” Following Scorsese’s comments, the wrath of Marvel fans was unleashed on social media, and the same is now happening to Villeneuve, with many finding his description of the Marvel output as cut and paste insulting.
Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson is one such person, who has since taken to social media to challenge the assessment made by Villeneuve, retweeting the statement he initially made following Martin Scorsese’s criticism of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
time to retweet this https://t.co/oQ0q2Jovn5
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) September 16, 2021
He followed this up by saying, “Anyone who lambastes Marvel movies as all being the same has either a) not seen them all and therefore shouldn’t assume they’re all the same, or b) seen them all because hey, they actually quite like watching Marvel movies.”
Anyone who lambastes Marvel movies as all being the same has either a) not seen them all and therefore shouldn’t assume they’re all the same, or b) seen them all because hey, they actually quite like watching Marvel movies.
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) September 17, 2021
Of course, this is all a matter of opinion, and, with Villeneuve’s Dune 2 still awaiting the greenlight, it’s possible that the director holds some ill-feeling towards Marvel due to their clear dominance of the box office, and the cinematic zeitgeist in general, at least in-part causing such uncertainty around his own projects.
It is also worth pointing out that Villeneuve is far from being completely against the Marvel franchise, with the director saying in a previous interview that the studio’s hiring of Academy Award winning director Chlo&é Zhao to helm Eternals. At the time, Villeneuve praised Zhao’s hiring as “genius,” saying, “I’m your biggest fan. I think it’s genius that Marvel approached you because you’re the radical opposite of it aesthetically.” Additionally, Zhao has since revealed that she in fact used shots from Villeneuve’s own movies to pitch Eternals, though perhaps this doesn’t help with the “cut and paste” idea…
Ultimately, when a particular genre dominates cinema screens, there are always going to be those who are unhappy with the results. It happened with westerns before superhero movies, and no doubt eventually something else will emerge, take over, and be criticised for being so popular that it pushes everything else into the background. Does it harm creativity? Probably, but there are still plenty of other movies being made, something which Villeneuve himself touches on. “Nowadays there are a lot of big and expensive movies that have a lot of value,” he added. “I don’t feel capable of being completely pessimistic.” Besides, Villeneuve is far from the first person to criticise Marvel movies for all looking the same. In fact, this criticism has even been made time and again by MCU fans themselves.
A certain section of Marvel fans will now be awaiting Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune with maniacal eyes and critical intent when the movie hits screens on in the United States on October 22. This comes to us from El Mundo.