Marvel Studios
Back when you were growing up, if your parents or teachers were worth a damn, they likely imparted you with two key pieces of wisdom.
The first, known as “the golden rule” where I come from, is to treat others how you want to be treated.
The second, while less influential in our lives, is still equally as important: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Obviously, 80-year-old director Francis Ford Coppola never got those lessons when he was growing up in 1940s Detroit.
Coppola, who has directed truly legendary films such as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now, has joined fellow iconic director Martin Scorsese in hurling unwarranted criticism of comic book movies, particularly those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking a ceremony in Lyon, France, where he accepted the Prix Lumiere for his contributions to the film industry, Coppola doubled down on Scorsese’s comments about Marvel Studios films, calling them “despicable.”
“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 move over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is,” Coppola said.
I mean… who took a shit in this guy’s cereal, am I right? I totally understand and respect Coppola’s contributions to cinema, but for a guy who hasn’t made a movie worth talking about in 30 years or so, he sure does have a lot of negative to say about what’s currently the most successful franchise in the industry he helped pioneer.
Let this be a lesson to us all that when we get old and gray and grumpy, we should lift up the generation that succeeds us, not put them down simply because we don’t understand them.
***
Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Contact him on Twitter @eric_ital or via email eric@brobible.com