"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.
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.
This is probably the best take I've seen so far.