Hollywood’s old guard gives the thumbs down to superhero flicks

Directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have given a scathing review of Disney’s ‘despicable’ Marvel franchise.

Robert Downey Jr in Avengers: Endgame.

Superhero films bring action, colour and adventure, but for some of Hollywood’s old guard they still don’t make the final cut.

Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, two of the most respected directors in the industry, have joined forces in a scathing attack on Disney’s “despicable” Marvel franchise, which is feared to be so popular that it may crowd out more sophisticated movies.

The colourful cape-fests of the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominate the box office, as will be familiar to anyone who has scanned the listings of their local multiplex. Scorsese, the Goodfellas and Taxi Driver director, has suggested that although they are popular the films lack emotional depth.

“I tried, you know. But that’s not cinema,” he told Empire magazine when asked if he had seen any Marvel blockbusters. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

‘I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,’ US film director Francis Ford Coppola has told an awards ceremony in France. Picture: AFP

Scorsese, 76, whose new Netflix gangster film The Irishman is being tipped as an Oscar contender, said the invasion of Marvel films was “creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that”, and making it harder for highbrow films targeted at adult audiences to get funding and exposure. No fewer than 23 Marvel films have been released in the past decade, and at least nine more are in the pipeline.

This year Avengers: Endgame went past Avatar to become the highest grossing movie worldwide, three months after its release. Other Marvel successes include Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Scorsese irritated Marvel fans, but he won backing from Coppola, director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.

The 80-year-old was even more withering about the intellectual vapidity of the superhero franchise. “We expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” he told an awards ceremony in France. “I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”

The two directors’ comments have prompted accusations of snobbery and claims that they are replicating the elite disdain once directed at their early mobster flicks, now considered classics.

Coppola’s remarks provoked an instance response from Team Marvel. James Gunn, who directed Guardians of the Galaxy (Volumes 1 and 2), acidly observed that “even some geniuses” were apparently incapable of appreciating the merits of superhero adventures.

“Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them ‘despicable’. Some of our great grandfathers thought the same of westerns,” Gunn, 53, wrote on Instagram. “Superheroes are simply today’s gangsters-cowboys-outer space adventurers. Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful.”

In 2009 Disney bought Marvel Entertainment with its stable of comic characters including Spider-Man, Captain America and Thor, for more than $US4bn. Films featuring the characters have since taken $US18bn ($26.29bn) at the global box office.

The Disney empire also includes the Star Wars franchise, Pixar Animation Studios (Toy Story, The Incredibles) and its own animation and live action films such as Aladdin, The Lion King and Mary Poppins Returns.

It is the most powerful force in Hollywood, outpunching traditional studio rivals such as Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount and Columbia. In March Disney sealed its dominance by completing a $US71bn purchase of 21st Century Fox’s film and television business.

Analysts expect Disney titles to account for all top eight of the highest grossing films this year. The company, founded by animator and producer Walt Disney in 1923, is now setting out to compete with Netflix through the imminent launch of Disney+, a subscription streaming service.

The Times