“There was an idea…The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles we never could.”
Sure, when Samuel L Jackson said it as Nick Fury, about the group that would become the Avengers, it was inspirational and would give goosebumps to fans all over the world. However, the same quote is applicable in describing the recent group of auteur filmmakers that have joined forces to bring down the mighty Marvel machine over the past couple of weeks. Led by Martin Scorsese, this group of auteur filmmakers, an A-Force so to speak, has made headlines attempting to take down one of the biggest film studios on the planet.
After the rallying cry from Scorsese, we’ve seen the group grow its ranks, with folks like Francis Ford Coppola chiming in. Now, thanks to a new report from Variety, we have Ken Loach and Fernando Meirelles adding their two cents about the Marvel films. And unsurprisingly, these acclaimed filmmakers aren’t so complimentary of the superhero genre.
“They’re made as commodities…like hamburgers,” Loach said about Marvel films. “It’s about making a commodity which will make profit for a big corporation. They’re a cynical exercise. They’re a market exercise, and it has nothing to do with the art of cinema.”
Loach knows a thing or two about cinema. The filmmaker is one of the only people to actually win the Palme d’Or multiple times at Cannes and has become one of the most acclaimed directors in the world. Much like Scorsese and Coppola, he’s also a man of a certain age, which seems to be the main point coming from defenders of Marvel, claiming that these men are a bit…old fashioned.
READ MORE: James Gunn Defends Marvel Against Scorsese And Coppola
Joining Loach in the criticism of Marvel is Meirelles, who said, “I can’t disagree with Scorsese because I don’t watch [Marvel movies]….I watched a ‘Spider-Man’ eight years ago, and that was it. I’m not interested.”
However, for the Brazilian filmmaker, his reasoning is a bit more nuanced and logical. He added, “It doesn’t mean it is bad. I don’t know if it’s Marvel, but I watched ‘Deadpool,’ the first one, and it was very good. Amazing action sequences. Then I tried to watch ‘Deadpool 2’ on a plane. I watched, like, half an hour and gave up.”
Let’s call Meirelles a reserve member of The Auteurs. His heart isn’t completely in it, just yet. But if there are filmmakers out there that would love to join the ranks, these men are accepting new members. And we get the feeling that there will be more chiming in over the next couple of weeks.