Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has reacted to The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola’s harsh words against Marvel films. Adding to Martin Scorsese’s stand against superhero movies, Coppola went a step further and called them ‘despicable’ in a recent interview.
James, who has directed both the volumes of beloved Guardian of the Galaxy movies, shared an emotional picture of characters Groot and Rocket to respond to his comments. “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, and believed the films of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone were all exactly the same. I remember a great uncle to whom I was raving about Star Wars. He responded by saying, “I saw that when it was called 2001, and, boy, was it boring!” Superheroes are simply today’s gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers. Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful. Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay,” he wrote with the picture.
Earlier this month, Scorsese, director of classics such as Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, described the Marvel universe films as more theme parks than cinema, even if they were well made. His remarks made waves across social media for days, as fans of his work and the Marvel hits such as the Avengers films, argued the merits.
But Coppola, speaking to journalists in the French city of Lyon, where he has just been awarded the Prix Lumiere for his contribution to cinema, backed his fellow Italian-American Scorsese. “When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration.
“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,” the 80-year-old filmmaker said. “Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
James is currently busy with the The Suicide Squad sequel starring Margot Robbie, Jamie Foxx and many others. He will also return to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.
