I’m not going to disagree with the idea that the MCU movies (especially those after Phase I) tend towards the formulaic. I’m also not going to disagree that the movies struggle with their themes, to the point where there are contradictory, hypocritical, blatantly immoral, or historically ignorant messages being sent if you stop to think the movie through.
“Despicable” and “lacking all sense of knowledge, enlightenment and inspiration,” I think, goes too far. Especially when even the redheaded stepchild of the MCU, Thor: The Dark World, possesses more of those qualities than Captain EO ever did.
I’ve never seen Captain EO (It will have to wait until after I;ve finished watching The Conversation.) Why, specifically, do you you think it’s so horrible?
Frankly, I think it would do the world and/or cinema good to attempt to challenge the way that the MCU has come to dominate our screens. But I don’t think Scorsese and Coppola are the ones to do it.
I’m not sure I’d quite agree with “mediocre", but it makes more sense than “despicable”.
The MCU films are pretty competent at the task of translating comic-book backstory that has simmered in the public consciousness for decades into a visual, engaging, and mostly cohesive story. They are also often quite fun, and are clearly tapping into something that people want to see. And they’ve succeeded in this in ways that other attempts have failed at many times in the past.
They aren’t “Great Cinema”, but then, very little actually is. Saying they’re not “cinema” altogether, though…
Perhaps he is. But what he’s complaining about are films that are same-ish, that don’t impart enlightenment or knowledge or inspiration.
If that’s not what he’s taking issue with, he should make that clearer.
I’d say “mediocre” and “pretty competent” are just about synonymous. But I wasn’t so much saying that I would call the movies mediocre (I’d say that underrates the best films of the MCU and overrates the worst), but that someone like FFC calling them such would probably only elicit a shrug.
All that, and despite being contradictory as @nimelennar points out, they do have thematic content. I’d even go so far as to say the contradictions are part of what makes them good.
Steve Rogers says flat-out he doesn’t like bullies, and then finds himself cast as a war criminal. Wakanda prides itself on being superior both as an African nation which was never enslaved, and as the true technological leader of the world, only to realise (or at least the Black Panther does) that their way of selecting rulers is problematic at best and their isolationist foreign policy is doing more harm than good. Tony Stark grows up as a rich 1%er, yet even after he stops selling arms (and it takes getting shrapnel in the chest from one of his own products to see maybe selling arms is bad), he’s still an arrogant asshole even to his supposed friends and allies.
And sure, all this stuff is portrayed comic-book style, but even as FFC himself pointed out in Dracula, cinema started off as lowbrow too.
I’m not worried about the future of film. Cinema yes, but not film. The gear, even the special effects gear, is cheaper and easier to obtain than ever. People are doing wonderful things and putting them on the net.
Hollywood? Its start was so recent it’s still only a couple of generations away from being in living memory. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if it ends.
And with all the discussion, dissection, and arguments that were spawned by the ending of Infinity War, it’s tough to agree that they aren’t “trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being”.
Man, you pick more fights than even I can pick up. But in this case… here we go
First, FFC is a hundred and twenty eight fucking years old so fuck him.
We’re talking about different generations of popular genres. Godfather I and II doesn’t exist without stupid crime bullshit that FFC doesn’t cater to without the understanding that stupid gangster bullshit is what funded Hollywood. Kind of like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and the Air Force. If you don’t think strongman mob bullshit isn’t as bad or as weird as the Air Force Christian Death Bomber shit, well, you too may be 128 goddamned years old.
Worth? Jesus. I’m glad I missed that goddamned shitshow. I read though it, then found myself just scrolling. Glad I was taking a break.
There for real legit is a thing that is generational. FFC is three generations of age-and-privilege-combined removed from the people making movies today.
Francis Ford Coppola has been honored. Others have already deemed him worthy. So… hammer… is not invincible.
