David Cronenberg shares his dislike of superhero movies: “It’s for kids. It’s adolescent in its core”
The Canadian filmmaker and lover of horrific body horror David Cronenberg and the British sci-fi extraordinaire Christopher Nolan are not two directors you would naturally put side-by-side. Yet, the pair have informed modern cinema more than you may think, with Cronenberg’s handmade horror inspiring the likes of Robert Eggers and Ari Aster, whilst Nolan continues to operate at the forefront of the industry.
Emerging in the industry in the late 1970s, Cronenberg was quick to announce himself as a bold emerging talent, creating such creep shows as Rabid and The Brood. Yet, at this point, the Canadian creative was merely flexing his muscles, making such icky horror classics as Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly in the following decade, announcing himself as a master of the genre in the process.
His legacy in the industry would clash with Nolan’s in 2012, however, when he came out in criticism of the 2012 superhero flick The Dark Knight Rises.
“It’s still Batman running around in a stupid cape,” the director told Next Movie, “I just don’t think it’s elevated. Christopher Nolan’s best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don’t think his Batman movies are half as interesting though they’re 20 million times the expense”. Watching the movie the same year he released his Robert Pattinson movie Cosmopolis, it’s safe to say Cronenberg wasn’t a fan of the superhero flick.
Continuing, the director added: “A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it’s comic book. It’s for kids. It’s adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying Dark Knight Rises is ‘supreme cinema art,’ I don’t think they know what the fuck they’re talking about”.
Despite his passionate rant against the final movie in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Cronenberg later clarified his comments in an interview with IndieWire, exclaiming that he actually hadn’t even seen the blockbuster film.
His comments were actually aimed at the superhero genre in general, “I was asked, then the journalist woman said, ‘By the way, superhero comic book movies have shown to rise to the highest level of cinematic art – would you be interested in doing one?’ And I said, ‘Wait, who said they have risen to the highest level of cinematic art?’ That’s when I started my little rant”.
Indeed, by the sounds of it, Cronenberg’s thoughts on superhero movies join that of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, with the filmmaker adding: “What I was saying was that a comic book movie is really a comic book movie. Comic books were — especially those comic books which I was raised on (I loved Captain Marvel) — created for adolescents and they have a core that is adolescent”.
Take a look at the trailer for Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises below.
