In a 2002 episode of The Simpsons, an old man yelled at a cloud. Twenty years later, old men yell at Marvel. Francis Ford Coppola – who has this week described Marvel films as “prototypes made over and over and over again to look different” – certainly isn’t the first elder statesman of cinema to criticise the superhero corporation (looking at you, Martin Scorsese) and he won’t be the last. The internet outrage economy thrives on it; filmmakers in their retirement years are the only people brave enough to speak about it.
Coppola’s criticism of the Marvel machine – and expensive studio blockbusters in general – boiled down to the franchise’s lack of personality, and his claim that specific directorial visions are being lost as a result. “If you’re going to make art, let it be personal,” he told GQ. “Let it be very personal to you.” Anyone who managed to see the distinct storytelling fingerprints of indie stalwarts Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Chloé Zhao on Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi and Eternals can write Mr Coppola a letter of complaint if they feel so inclined.
