He doesn’t think the films are so marvelous.
“Dune” director Denis Villeneuve is the latest high-profile filmmaker to express disdain for Marvel movies, claiming that they’re “nothing more than a cut and paste.” The 53-year-old auteur dropped the bombshell while discussing the relevance of big-budget filmmaking with Spanish publication El Mundo (as transcribed by The Direct).
“The problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ of others,” the 53-year-old “Sicario” director told the outlet. “Perhaps these types of movies have turned us into zombies a bit.”
Nonetheless, Villeneuve clarified that he doesn’t think films can’t be “artistically relevant” simply because they’re well-funded. “Just think of the golden age of Hollywood to see that commercial films can make a different artistic proposal and, therefore, political,” explained the Oscar nominee, who has franchise hopes for his upcoming “Dune” adaptation starring Timothée Chalamet. “I have never felt like a loss or an impediment to have a generous budget to do what I wanted to do.”
He added, “I am currently thinking of people like Christopher Nolan or Alfonso Cuarón.”
The French-Canadian filmmaker is far from the first director to take an ax to the MCU. “Goodfellas” director Martin Scorsese seemingly started the trend during a 2019 Empire interview, in which he labeled Marvel flicks “theme parks” rather than “cinema” — sparking a fierce backlash from comic book fans.
Since then, other filmmakers have jumped on the Marvel-bashing bandwagon, including Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola.