Perhaps the strangest thing about the sheer volume of veteran heavyweight filmmakers who regularly wail on the current state of cinema is that it’s almost always the Marvel Cinematic Universe that takes the brunt of the blame, with DC tending to emerge unscathed.
However, Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone has broadened the argument somewhat by adding John Wick: Chapter 4 to the mix, outlining to Variety in no uncertain terms that he absolutely detests the latest installment in the Keanu Reeves-fronted franchise, although Marvel does inevitably get a look-in as well.
“I saw John Wick 4 on the plane. Talk about volume. I think the film is disgusting beyond belief. Disgusting. I don’t know what people are thinking. Maybe I was watching G.I. Joe when I was a kid. But [Keanu Reeves] kills, what, three, four hundred people in the fucking movie. And as a combat veteran, I gotta tell you, not one of them is believable. I realize it’s a movie, but it’s become a video game more than a movie. It’s lost touch with reality.
The audience perhaps likes the video game. But I get bored by it. How many cars can crash? How many stunts can you do? What’s the difference between Fast and Furious and some other film? It’s just one thing after another. Whether it’s a super-human Marvel character or just a human being like John Wick, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s not believable.”
What’s really disgusting is that somebody thought catching Chapter 4 on a flight was the best way to experience the movie for the first time, but we digress. While you can understand where Stone is coming from as a Vietnam veteran who parlayed his experiences into the classic Platoon, it’s not as if his back catalogue is free from violence, either.
Of course, there is an element of “old man yelling at cloud” given that the likes of Stone, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ridley Scott are all into their 70s and 80s at this stage, but maybe the best approach is to simply avoid modern action epics altogether so as not to get irritated.