Not to be outdone by Martin Scorsese, Apocalypse Now and The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola recently aired his opinions on Marvel movies, which he considers “despicable.” His words, not ours.
Coppola is of the mindset that every MCU installment is carefully crafted to make as much money as possible, and therefore can’t be considered ‘art’ in the purest sense. It’s a sweeping generalization (to put it kindly), one which fails to take into account the rich variety within the MCU – not to mention Hollywood superhero movies across the board.
But the fact that Coppola went so far as to suggest that Marvel movies are, and we quote, “despicable” has naturally drawn the ire of MCU staffers, not to mention comic book movie fans across the globe. Chief among them is Bruce Banner himself, Mark Ruffalo, who took to Twitter to address the recent criticisms leveled at Avengers: Endgame and its cinematic brethren.
The now-deleted tweet read: “Back in the day, people thought rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop weren’t music and despicable, too.”
There’s been no shortage of big-name stars rushing to defend the Marvel Cinematic Universe and movies of its ilk – from Taika Waititi to Guardians helmer James Gunn, it seems anyone associated with the MCU strongly disagrees with Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola’s respective criticism.
That said, Iron Man duo Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau were much more pragmatic in their responses, with the latter stating: “These two guys are my heroes, and they have earned the right to express their opinions.”
But what say you? Is there any argument to be made for Francis Ford Coppola’s perspective? Or do you believe the legendary filmmaker is wildly off base when he calls Marvel films despicable? Do let us know.