Natalie Portman Defends Marvel Movies After Francis Ford Coppola Calls Them ‘Despicable’
James Gunn and Sebastian Stan have also responded after the ‘Godfather’ director supports fellow filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s criticism of Marvel’s superhero movies.
AceShowbiz –
Natalie Portman has come in defense of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola called out the blockbuster movies produced by Kevin Feige. The actress, who will reprise her role as Jane Foster in “Thor: Love and Thunder“, weighed in on the debate over the superhero films on Saturday, October 19 at the 6th annual Los Angeles Dance Project Gala at downtown Los Angeles’ Hauser & Wirth.
“I think there’s room for all types of cinema,” she told The Hollywood Reporter when asked about Scorsese’s remarks about Marvel films. The Academy Award-winning actress added, “There’s not one way to make art.”
Portman went on explaining why people love Marvel films, “I think that Marvel films are so popular because they’re really entertaining and people desire entertainment when they have their special time after work, after dealing with their hardships in real life.”
Portman’s response comes after Scorsese called the movies in the MCU “not cinema.” The filmmaker previously said, “I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
“The Irishman” director doubled down on his comments at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, October 13. “It’s not cinema, it’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films,” he insisted.
Supporting Scorsese’s remarks, fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has recently also weighed in on Marvel films. “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…,” he said.
“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,” added “The Godfather” director. “Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
James Gunn and Sebastian Stan, who both have their own share in the MCU, have responded to Coppola’s criticism. The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director posted on Instagram, “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.”
He continued without mentioning the director’s name, “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.”
Meanwhile, Stan responded to Coppola’s comments when speaking at Fandemic Tour Houston. “He’s one of my heroes and I was listening to him and meanwhile, I just spent the day with all of you,” said the Bucky Barnes/Winter Solider depicter. “People have been going up to me like ‘Thank you so much for this character,’ ‘This movie helped me out so much,’ ‘This movie inspired me. Now I feel better. Now I feel less alone,’ so how can you say these movies are not helping people?”
Coppola also faces backlash from fans of the superhero movies for his criticism.