"Perhaps the problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a 'cut and paste' of others," Villeneuve told the publication. "Perhaps these types of movies have turned us into zombies a bit… But big and expensive movies of great value there are many today. I don't feel capable of being pessimistic at all."
"If we're talking about Marvel, the thing is, all these films are made from the same mold," he said. "Some filmmakers can add a little color to it, but they're all cast in the same factory. It doesn't take anything away from the movies, but they are formatted."
Villeneuve continued to discuss his filmmaking process, and he praised Christopher Nolan and Alfonso Cuarón - continuing the trend of directors somehow ignoring Steve Goddamn McQueen, one of the great directors alive today, who directed films such as 'Ever Seen 'Hunger', You Fucking Philistine?', ''Shame' -- It's About Loneliness, Not Sex Addiction, You Infantile Neophyte', and '12 Years A Slave', which made history for being the first great film ever awarded an Oscar.
he's not wrong about marvel movies, they're the same movie made 27 times with 0 stakes and the same plot beats. you can only write so many superhero movies. this is why I actually liked guardians of the galaxy, because it was different and more of an action adventure movie than a straight up superhero movie
Yep. I try to not be judgemental about MCU movies and when I do see one I try to enjoy it, but 45 minutes in I'm looking at my watch and just bored out of my mind. Just the same overall structure as other MCU movies, and they're all just so boring.
With the exception of Ragnarok. Genuinely enjoyed that one but even that, a lot of the humor comes from the fact that you're not expecting it to be what it is it.
The better ones tend to use elements of other genres, just with superheroes. Like Winter Soldier being a spy thriller with superheroes and Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy being comedy action movies with superheroes.
My spouse has been watching them in the background, and I'm legitimately surprised at just how sterile they really are. They have great special effects, Dr. Strange was trippy, and yet every characterization has to be immediately joked away, no conversation reveals anything truly significant about anyone (because to go deeper risks offending someone, I guess?), and the dialogue is just filled with cliches.
And it's rather bizarre, because it seems to me not something entirely accountable to "well, capitalist art always wants profit!" Mickey Spillane sold millions of noir thriller novels, but his prose and monologues had genuine poetry to them. Even my most curmudgeonly art critic friends say he was an excellent writer; they also really like the Raimi trilogy for its strengths in characterization. I know Marvel movies can't be deep dramas, nor do I really think it'd be better if they were -- I just want them to be well-written.
I like the MCU movies but I find them unwatchable outside of a movie theater.
I think it’s silly to say these movies turned people into zombies though. More like income inequality and obesity have given people very limited options for entertainment.
The only movie I've seen of him was the Blade Runner one and while the scenes were often beautiful the movie was also about as memorable as a brick. I couldn't for the life of me tell you what the scenario of that shitty movie was about - I just remember a few scenes being quite impressive but that's about it.
I fully expect to be disappointed by his Dune movie - at least for Dune there's the miniseries adaptation which was OK-ish (and the following adaptation of Children of Dune which was excellent).
yeah they've definitely set it up to become another infinitely milkable ad nauseun media property
I feel the exact same about him except for Prisoners and Enemy. I got bored of the MCU too, but when directors say stuff like this and then put out 2 and a half hour slogs all the time it's kinda frustrating. They know how to make things look expensive, but beyond that is it like the 50 year old mildly reactionary liberal guys making all these prestige movies have much interesting to say? Nope.
oh noo r/movies will have a brain melt , "But but but ... only because I liked Marvel Movies I even considered myself a Movie Conniseur in the First place "
At the end of the day the point of Hollywood is to get people to buy tickets. Marvel/Disney does that. Instead of realizing that he's making movies under a capitalist system which requires box office draw and enough capital to dominate the industry, he thinks it's a specific style of movie making. Then people online, instead of realizing the same thing, want to blame stupid/dumb/tasteless/etc moviegoers. All the artistic low-budget, low-numbers movies are just in service of lending artistic credibility to corporate entities. What they want is to go back to the old days where a temperamental auteur could do what they wanted at a studio because having primadona talent was how Hollywood marketed itself at one point. That's pretty much over now because the real talent is in the boardroom, not the actors or directors. They're just assets now and they'll bend the knee or never work again. But they can't acknowledge the system itself because that means challenging what they stand to gain from being a popular director.
Nolan did Batmans (WB), Cuaron did a Harry Potter (WB) , and Villeneuve did a Blade Runner (WB - distributor) and is now doing a sci-fi novel adaptation (WB). They all chased the dollar and don't really have any room to lament the state of Hollywood. I also find it weird that people who work for WB keep putting out takes like this. Trying to make it seem as if they're the real artists. Feels like PR shit, which is even more sad because these guys are just being a corporate mouthpiece for what is ultimately WB's failure to beat Marvel in capeshit.
he praised Christopher Nolan and Alfonso Cuarón - continuing the trend of directors somehow ignoring Steve Goddamn McQueen, one of the great directors alive today,
He's talking about people who make unique big-budget blockbusters he's not making an exhaustive list of good filmmakers. And yeah Hunger is great but he hasn't made a good film in 8 years and while 12 Years a Slave was good it was still Oscar bait. Bring back weird McQueen.
Perhaps the problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ of others,” Villeneuve told the publication.
I say as I do the fifth film adaptation of a 60-year-old Scifi story.
But hey, at least it isn't another Star Wars.
