The superhero genre and action movies with great fight choreographies may be at the top of the box-office, but not everyone likes them. Sagas like John Wick or the Marvel Cinematic Universe are going through a great moment on the big screen, and even on television and streaming, but the more popular they get, the more critics they receive.
Several emblematic Hollywood directors such as Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino have been reluctant to the great fame that this type of productions have gained in recent years, calling these productions not memorable or more similar to an amusement park than a movie. And it seems that they keep gaining enemies.
In an interview with Variety, the director of the 80s classic Scarface Oliver Stone confessed that he is not a fan of movies like those starring Keanu Reeves as the famous assassin, or the Marvel Studios franchise:
“I saw John Wick 4 on the plane. Talk about volume. I think the film is disgusting beyond belief. Disgusting. I don’t know what people are thinking. Maybe I was watching G.I. Joe when I was a kid. But [Keanu Reeves] kills, what, three, four hundred people in the fucking movie. And as a combat veteran, I gotta tell you, not one of them is believable. I realize it’s a movie, but it’s become a video game more than a movie. It’s lost touch with reality. The audience perhaps likes the video game. But I get bored by it. How many cars can crash? How many stunts can you do? What’s the difference between ‘Fast and Furious’ and some other film? It’s just one thing after another. Whether it’s a super-human Marvel character or just a human being like John Wick, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s not believable.”
The Problem is Not Marvel or John Wick but the Industry
Although unrealistic plots or sequences seem to be something that Stone does not find fascinating, the director does not believe that these types of franchises are the current problem in Hollywood, rather the industry itself:
“When they make movies now, they want to think about how do we market it, who’s going to watch it? Of course, that’s a consideration. But it becomes the sole consideration. You really have to have a bigger and bigger hit, which ruins the business because it makes the margins bigger, and of course that makes the cost of the film bigger.”
Stone’s career started back in the early 70’s with Sugar Cookies, and since then the director has worked on many kinds of projects and stories. His filmography includes titles such as Midnight Express, Conan the Barbarian, Platoon, Wall Street, The Doors, Evita and many more.
His latest movie was the documentary Nuclear Now, released in 2022, which shows nuclear energy as a solution to prevent climate change. Stone has won four Academy Awards, one BAFTA and five Golden Globes, besides being nominated several times for these awards and many others.