Director Terry Gilliam Thinks Marvel Movies Are Repetitive and Lack Real Gravity, Hated Black Panther

As with most things the Twitterverse rants about on a daily basis, the discourse surrounding Marvel movies isn't taking a break for the holidays. Terry Gilliam entered the news cycle again this weekend for a set of comments Marvel fans might find a bit troublesome. In the vein of Scorsese and Coppola, the Monty Python alum suggests Marvel does a poor job accurately depicting reality.

"If you are that powerful, you should be dealing with reality a bit more," Gilliam tells IndieWire. "What I don't like is that we all have to be superheroes do anything worthwhile. That's what makes me crazy. That's what these movies are saying to young people. And to me it's not confronting the reality of, you know, the quote-unquote human condition. You know what it is like to be a normal human being in difficult situations and resolving them surviving. I can't fault them for the sheer spectacle, except it's repetitive. You still have to blow up another city."

The director then went all-in on Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, calling it "utter bullshit" for giving young fans a false sense of belief, as he puts it. "I hated Black Panther. It makes me crazy. It gives young black kids the idea that this is something to believe in. Bullshit. It's utter bullshit."

Gilliam says he doubts the people who made the movie — Ryan Coogler, Nate Moore, and company — bothered to visit Africa in preparation for the film. "I think the people who made it have never been to Africa. They went and got some stylist for some African pattern fabrics and things. But I just I hated that movie, partly because the media were going on about the importance of bullshit."

Black Panther eventually went on to gross over $1.3 billion worldwide and is one of Marvel's most critically-acclaimed movies with a near-perfect 97 percent Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

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