Are Marvel movies all the same?
That’s an arguement I’ve seen many fans make online, and I also tend to argue it sometimes as well.
It seems we’re not alone–though John Landis goes so far as to say that he is “bored shitless” with the Marvel movies and superhero films in general.
John Landis is the director behind great movies such as Coming To America (which interestingly enough the cast of Marvel’s Black Panther watched while filming), Animal House, Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video and more.
John Landis tells entertainme.ie that while he is bored with Marvel movies that he did like DC’s Wonder Woman:
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 reasons Wonder Woman has 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)
John Landis doesn’t stop there as he also blasts Universal’s new Dark Universe cinematic monsterverse and their new Mummy movie starring Tom Cruise:
What’s happening is the studios now will make a film for $150, $200 million but they’re afraid to take risks. You asked me about the Dark Universe, if you’re gonna make a movie of The Mummy, why the f— do you need Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe?! As soon as you announce that Tom Cruise is in The Mummy, you know you’re not going to see a horror picture! It’s not gonna be The Mummy, it’s going to be the Tom Cruise Show. I don’t know.