Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu has reiterated his disdain for superhero movies. He recently told Variety‘s Marc Malkin that superheroes are “sad figures,” although inorganic or uninvested is probably closer to the mark. Overly confident, No pain or gain.
AGI seems to be alluding more to superhero fans and their attachment to repeatedly re-sampling those surges of adolescent euphoria…we’re all receptive to that stuff on a certain level, to the casual glory of it all…the basic selling point of every superhero flick.
“I see heroes every day,” AGI explained. “I see beautiful people really going through very difficult situations and doing incredible things. And [these are] the people that I kind of connect with. But superheroes…do we really need that?”
More to the point and aside from Chris Nolan, James Cameron and Sam Mendes, which world-class, major-league directors have truly embraced the basic superhero scheme from a fan perspective? They all pretty much hate them, don’t they?
Here’s an idea — imagine that five or ten genius-level directors (forget their ages) have been somehow forced to go superhero slumming as a one-off…forced to co-write and direct some kind of smartly imagined superhero flick. Who might perform well under these circumstances?
There’s a clear differences between superheroes and exceptional action stars, and most of us can roll with the latter. Seemingly invulnerable (or certainly difficult to kill) protagonists with extraordinary skills. No movie fan can truly enjoy the adventures of supermen because of the bullshit factor. But somewhat vulnerable figures with exceptional skills and determination…tactical intelligence wizards…action studs. That’s as far as I can go. Matt Damon‘s Jason Bourne…Denzel’s Creasy…that line of country.