Jon Favreau Responds to Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola's Marvel Criticisms

.Marvel fans are up in arms over the comments made by revered directors like Martin Scorsese and [...]

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Marvel fans are up in arms over the comments made by revered directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola in regards to Marvel Studios films. Jon Favreau helped kickstart the era of Marvel dominance at the box office by directing 2008's Iron Man and 2010's Iron Man 2. When asked to weigh in on Scorsese and Coppola's comments about Marvel movies during a CNBC interview, Favreau gave a diplomatic response. "These two guys are my heroes, and they have earned the right to express their opinions," Favreau said. "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if they didn't carve the way. They served as a source of inspiration, you can go all the way back to Swingers. They can express whatever opinion they like."

Scorsese's sparked this discussion with comments about the Marvel's success during an interview. "I don't see them. I tried, you know? But that's not cinema," he said. "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."

Scorsese doubled down on those comments during an event tied to the release of his latest film, The Irishman. "The value of a film that's like a theme park film, for example, the Marvel type pictures where the theaters become amusement parks, that's a different experience," he said. "As I was saying earlier, it's not cinema, it's something else. Whether you go for that or not, it is something else and we shouldn't be invaded by it. And so that's a big issue, and we need the theater owners to step up for that to allow theaters to show films that are narrative films."

The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola backed Scorsese, telling journalists in Lyon, France that "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 movie 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."

What do you think of Favreau's response to the comments made by Scorsese and Coppola? Let us know in the comments section.

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