The Marvel movie Gary Oldman called “stupid”
Regarded by many fans as one of the most talented actors currently active in the industry, Gary Oldman is a true global icon. Known for his performances in highly popular franchises like The Dark Knight Trilogy and Harry Potter, as well as cult classics such as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Oldman’s acclaimed body of work speaks for itself.
Throughout his illustrious career, the English actor has made the most of his collaborations with some of the greatest filmmakers. Ranging from Francis Ford Coppola to David Fincher, Oldman’s resumé is full of impressive creative partnerships that have contributed to his rise as an internationally recognised artist. He has continued his incredible run in recent years, featuring as Harry S. Truman on Christopher Nolan’s massive 2023 release Oppenheimer.
While Oldman’s filmography is full of acclaimed works that are still widely discussed by fans all over the world, there have been projects that have not garnered the same kind of response from critics and audiences. One such example is José Padilha’s 2014 remake of RoboCop, where Oldman stars as the scientist responsible for the creation of the titular cyborg police officer who is tasked with reducing crime in Detroit.
During an interview for the promotional campaign of the movie, Oldman insisted that Padilha’s vision was a refreshing and necessary reinterpretation of the source material. He said: “What the director wanted to do was take the ideas from the first movie and expand on them. To do that, he had to smash it to pieces. It’s what Nolan did with Batman. He just wiped the slate clean, went way back to the original source material, and then gave you the world. He reinvented it.”
While talking about the lens of surrealism through which modern sci-fi projects are viewed, Oldman also used the opportunity to criticise a Marvel movie that lacks the grittiness of the RoboCop franchise. The film in question is none other than Iron Man, featuring Robert Downey Jr. in an all-powerful mecha-suit. The actor added: “It’s a genre movie, but why does it have to be fucking stupid? Like Iron Man flies from Malibu to Afghanistan; that’s stupid.”
Although Oldman claimed that the 2014 remake expanded on the ideas presented in Paul Verhoeven’s original, most people who saw the film knew that the 1987 classic was still superior in terms of freshness as well as its robust philosophical foundation.
Watch the trailer for the RoboCop reboot below.
