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Marvel fans call Francis Ford Coppola a 'bitter old curmudgeon' after he slams MCU as 'despicable'

Martin Scorsese isn’t the only acclaimed director coming out against Marvel movies.

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now fame echoed Scorsese’s criticism of blockbuster comic book films while speaking to journalists in Lyon, France after being honored with the Prix Lumière on Friday, per the Agence France-Presse news agency and France 24.

“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he's right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” the 80-year-old Coppola told reporters.

"I don't know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,” he added.

"Martin was kind when he said it's not cinema. He didn't say it's despicable, which I just say it is."

The comments from Coppola — who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, also told Lumière Festival attendees of his filmmaking methods and getting fired from Patton because of Burt Lancaster — come after Scorsese dismissed Marvel films as “not cinema,” prompting outcry from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and others. Last week, during the BFI London Film Festival, the man behind Goodfellas and The Irishman stood by his criticism, telling the media that “theme park films” had “invaded” movie theaters.

Director Martin Scorsese and cast members Al Pacino and Robert De Niro pose as they arrive for the screening of "The Irishman" during the 2019 BFI London Film Festival at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, Britain October 13, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Scorsese (pictured with Irishman stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro last week) has hit out at "theme park films." (Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls TPX)

“Theaters have become amusement parks,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense ... That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that."

As with Scorsese, Coppola’s anti-Marvel remarks have stirred up film buffs, with some complaining that he “hasn’t been relevant in 40 years.”

“Francis Ford Coppola said Marvel movies are ‘despicable’ but he also directed Godfather Part 3 and peddles $11 bottles of ‘Coppola’ wine out of gas stations so maybe take that s*** with a grain of salt,” read one tweet.

But many backed his view — or at least his right to speak out. And some relished the Godfather director snubbing the MCU despite his work inspiring films like Captain America: Civil War.

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