Ridley Scott is the latest in a growing line of big-name directors to denounce thesuperhero movie genre, with the filmmaker behindBlade RunnerandGladiatorunloading both barrels as he describes comic book outings as, not just boring, but “boring as sh-t.” In a recent interview with Deadline, Scott did not hold back when criticising the hugely popular genre, chastising them for lacking in characterisation and, well, failing to entertain.
“Almost always, the best films are driven by the characters, and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll fucking crush it. They’re fucking boring as sh-t.”
If that were not already enough of a demonstration as to how muchRidley Scotthates comic book movies, the director took aim at various elements inherent in the genre, including the use of CGI, as well as lambasting the quality of the scripts. Besides, according to Scott, he already nailed making a great superhero movie. Three times.
“Their scripts are not any fucking good. I think I’ve done three great scripted superhero movies. One would be Alien with Sigourney Weaver. One would be fucking Gladiator, and one would be Harrison Ford…They’re superhero movies. So, why don’t the superhero movies have better stories? Sorry. I got off the rail, but I mean, c’mon. They’re mostly saved by special effects, and that’s becoming boring for everyone who works with special effects, if you’ve got the money.”
While the idea thatAlien, GladiatorandBlade Runnerare superhero movies is…debatable, there is one example of a comic book movie that Ridley Scott did enjoy, 2019’sJokerstarringGladiator’s Joaquin Phoenix, a performance for which the actor was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor.
“He is elegant enough to contain his rage and say, what older, wiser man can do this instead of me? So, it’s almost Shakespearean, and I think, you know, Joaquin can do anything. So, when he then does something likeJoker, there are moments in the Joker that I’ve never seen before. There are reactions in the Joker which are silly. You can’t just say they’re not evil. They’re coming from a damaged soul.”
Scott joins the likes ofDunedirector Denis Villeneuve, who describedMarvel moviesas “nothing more than a cut and paste of others,” and worried that “these types of movies have turned us a little bit into zombies,” and seminal director Martin Scorsese, who compared comic book movies to a theme park and concluded that “it’s not cinema, it’s something else.” Is it simply the overwhelming popularity of the superhero movie genre that has led to such detraction from these directors? Do they have a point? Or is this simply an example akin to an old man yelling at a cloud?
It’s fortunate that Ridley Scott at least likedJoker, as the director will next reunite withJoaquin PhoenixforKitbag, which will delve into Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power and debut on Apple TV+. This comes to us courtesyDeadline.
