Yesterday, comments made by “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve in separate interviews about Marvel Studios movies and his criticism about them sparked many emotions, outrage, and blowback online. In interviews with international media, the French-Canadian filmmaker said that the popular and profitable superhero movies are very similar, essentially cutting and pasting from other, presumably more superior, films (it should be noted, many people online often complain that journalists prompt these questions, but Villeneuve brought up Marvel himself in at least one of these interviews).
Outrage and fallout quickly hit Twitter, a combination of triggered Marvel fans, audiences agreeing with Villeneuve, and others suggested that talking out of school about fellow filmmakers was a little declasse. Directors such as Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Demonic“) and “Doctor Strange” helmer Scott Derrickson seemingly fell into that latter camp, defending the superhero franchise and disapproving of talking smack about fellow filmmakers.
Blomkamp bluntly said, “what a fucking asshole,” though he admittedly claimed later, it was a “sarcastic” response and followed up by saying he loves Villeneuve. Who knows if that’s an easy walk back or not.
He didn’t helm installments of the MCU, but Blomkamp’s longtime cinematographer Trent Opaloch (“District 9,” “Elysium,” “Chappie“) worked directly with The Russo Brothers on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame,” so it’s possible there were some real feelings behind that comment.
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Derrickson was a bit more diplomatic by bringing back a previous tweet made before in December 2020.
“As a director, I don’t slag on the work of other directors even when I don’t like something they’ve made. This job is hard enough for all of us, and nobody ever sets out to make a bad movie.”
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The Marvel director/executive producer also had a more direct comment on the criticism about MCU movies being too similar, “Anyone who lambastes Marvel movies as all being the same has either a) not seen them all and therefore shouldn’t assume they’re all the same, or b) seen them all because hey, they actually quite like watching Marvel movies.”
While Villeneuve had made his opinions known about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, during a one-on-one chat with “Eternals” director Chloe Zhao recently, he said Marvel hiring her was “genius,” as she is “radical opposite of it aesthetically.” The two filmmakers gushed about being fans of each other’s work as Zhao used imagery from Villeneuve’s movies to pitch “Eternals” to Marvel Studios.
Not every filmmaker will have the same opinion on big commercial films. We’ve seen this before with Martin Scorsese, and it won’t be the last time people buck against the popular trend or share opinions people won’t agree with.