Director John Landis Says He’s “Bored Shitless” By Marvel Studios Movies
Wonder Womanis unquestionably the movie of the moment, but when you take a step back and look at the larger film industry, Marvel Studios is still sitting pretty. They already releasedGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2to great acclaim last month, they haveSpider-Man: Homecoming(which istechnicallya Sony release) coming out soon, and the exciting-lookingThor: Ragnarokis on deck for November. Oh, and don’t forget aboutBlack Panther,Ant-Man and the Wasp, and anotherAvengersmovie next year. There’s no doubt that they’re in a creative groove right now.
But directorJohn Landisisn’t impressed. In a new interview, the man behindNational Lampoon’s Animal House,The Blues Brothers,An American Werewolf in London, andThree Amigossays he’s “bored shitless” by the MCU films. Read the John Landis Marvel comments below to find out why.
Speaking with theEntertainment.ie(viaYahoo UK), Landis was asked for his thoughts on cinematic shared universes. Here’s part of his answer:
I’m just… truthfully, I’m bored shitless with the Marvel Universe now. All the superhero movies tend to be interchangeable, you always have these mass destruction of cities and huge computer-generated extravaganzas to the point where you could take a reel from any of the Marvel superhero movies and put it any of the others and nobody would notice. They’re very well-made, it’s just they’re the same thing over and over again. But, I don’t know, people are showing up. One of the reasonsWonder Womanhas been received so well by the critics is that it doesn’t destroy cities! [Laughs] Even the superhero stuff is on a very human scale, it’s the gods! We’re not seeing skyscrapers tumbling! [Laughs]
I think there are some valid criticisms about modern superhero filmmaking in that statement and I know it’s a common thing to slag Marvel movies for destroying cities and repeating the same formula over and over again. However, if you really stop and look at what they’re doing, it’s not nearly as cut and dried as Landis makes it out to be.
Guardians Vol. 2is a personal story about fathers, sons, and legacies, and it doesn’t destroy a city.Doctor Strange, while it shares a similar plot structure with the firstIron Man, expands the MCU into multiple dimensions by introducing magic into the equation (and it ends with magicrepairinga city). Sure, these movies may share some visual hallmarks, but I think Marvel has gotten a lot better about diversifying their storytelling both in front of and behind the camera. I expect that will continue with films likeBlack PantherandCaptain Marvelmoving forward.
And as Landis points out, DC deserves props for course correcting withWonder Woman, especially after all of the monotonous destruction inMan of SteelandBatman v Superman. Yes, she fights in a big CGI battle at the end, but it’s contained and the film makes a point to show how its central hero is willing to go out of her way to save human lives – something that wasn’t clearly established in the heroes ofMan of SteelorBvS.
In any case,the whole interviewis worth a read, because Landis has a lot of thoughts about Universal’s Dark Universe franchise (sample excerpt: “…If you’re gonna make a movie ofThe Mummy, why the fuck do you need Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe?!"), the business side of marketing films, how difficult it is to make comedy and horror films, and much more.
What do you think of Landis’s comments about Marvel movies?
