Legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has directed several of the greatest movies ever made, so you can’t say the man isn’t entitled to his opinion on the state of modern cinema. And yet, his comments about the superhero genre and the Marvel Cinematic Universe opened up a can of online worms that still haven’t been shut.
Alongside Martin Scorsese, the two elder statesmen have been open in criticizing comic book adaptations for their perceived lack of artistic and creative merits, despite the fact the majority of Marvel’s output has scored better reviews and bigger box office than anything Coppola has put out for decades.
However, in a turn-up for the books we could never have seen coming, the 82 year-old mastermind behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now revealed to Variety that he’s a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool.
“I liked Deadpool, I thought that was amazing. Cinema is supposed to illuminate contemporary life, and make us understand what’s going on. So we need the artists to give us a vision of what’s going on.”
Plenty of talent to have been associated with Marvel over the years have stepped in to offer their thoughts and rebuttals on Coppola’s initial criticism, but hearing him openly praise the action-packed, self-aware, foul-mouthed, and fourth wall-breaking antics of the Merc with a Mouth definitely wasn’t on our 2022 bingo card.
Hopefully Reynolds catches wind of Coppola’s comments, because slipping in a reference to the veteran’s vocal distaste for Marvel blockbusters could easily be mined for a gag or two in Deadpool 3.