The trend of highly-decorated directors taking shots at superhero films continues, and Quentin Tarantino has been on a tear as of late, with his most recent comments referring to the actors who star in Marvel movies, who he simply doesn’t see as movie stars.
Tarantino's recent takes on modern cinema have come from different sources, with the filmmaker referring to Marvel movies on two occasions to explain why he would never be inclined to make a superhero film. Lately, his musings on the state of Hollywood's film industry were also a topic of discussion in his own Video Archives Podcast, hosted along with his good friend Roger Avary, where he singled out the present as the worst era for movies since the 1980s.
In his latest opinion, Tarantino took to the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, during which he talked about the death of the movie star concept due to what he calls the “Marvel-ization of Hollywood,” a term he uses to refer to films where it’s the characters that come first, instead of the actors. Tarantino explains that, although many actors became incredibly famous for playing superheroes, “they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times.” Tarantino's comment is about the massive power any popular franchise holds.
To make matters clear, Tarantino noted his words should not be interpreted as him throwing shade at any of the actors, it’s a case of that being “the legacy of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood movies.” To further drive home his point, he insisted that he doesn’t hate Marvel movies since he was a fan of these stories growing up. “It’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now,” he explained, noting that superhero films barely leave room for studios to be interested in much else.
On the opposite end, a few months back Tarantino had no problem praising a blockbuster like Top Gun: Maverick, practically the only 2022 movie that could go up against the MCU and Robert Pattinson's The Batman. The film boosted Tom Cruise's claim of being one of the few “movie stars” in the traditional sense Tarantino refers to, perhaps alongside Dwayne Johnson. Even if one disagrees with Tarantino, he may be partly right, as the number of Hollywood films that get substantial exposure appears to have gone down, leaving room mostly for expensive blockbusters and low-budget indie or horror movies, with little standing in between the two groups.
With 30 movies and counting, it's hard to argue there isn't too much Marvel out there, a sentiment that's been echoed by some MCU fans who feel the studio has diluted its brand to a certain extent over the past couple of years. In any case, don't count on Tarantino to ever direct one of those evil superhero movies.
Source: 2 Bears, 1 Cave (via Variety)