Originally published at: Tarantino calls Marvel directors 'hired hands' | Boing Boing
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Yeah, I pretty much agree with this overall thesis. Felt like phase one was all about experimentation and letting various writers and directors do what they liked. Every movie felt unique, despite all of them tying together.
Phase four? It’s all… okay. I still enjoy them, though they’re not really “must see” for me these days.
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Ang Lee Hulk is still best Hulk
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Ang Lee’s idea of making a comic book movie was to randomly insert “split screen” scenes to divide up the view like panels of a comic book, but it was pretty distracting in practice since he didn’t follow normal conventions of how comic panel layout works.
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I lament their losing Edgar Wright’s vision for Ant-Man and accepting Sam Raimi’s vision for Dr. Strange. I kinda like Raimi on his own (A Simple Plan, Drag Me to Hell) but man that Dr. Strange was a misfire.
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Tarantino isn’t interested in being a hired hand. A hired foot, now that would get his interest.
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I can’t disagree much, although Taika Waititi has definitely brought his own style to the ones he directed. Perhaps Kevin Feige realizes the movies have been getting boring and is giving the hired-hand directors a longer leash.
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I’ve found the Marvel TV series to be a lot more enjoyable in general because they let the shows breathe and become their own thing.
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As someone who hates superhero movies, I’ll be glad when the whole thing is over. I miss the ‘80s and ‘90s, when every blockbuster was something new and different.
I know I’m yelling at clouds here, but the writing in these superhero movies is so bad, even for popcorn flicks. Every problem is nonsensical magic and every solution is a Deus Ex Something. I hardly go to movies anymore because if you don’t like all this stuff, there’s nothing for you to see.
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Directors have to eat too? I worked as a ghostwriter for hire for years, and the contacts I made then served me well later when I wanted to do stuff for me.
They may be hired hands, but what’s wrong with that? Not everybody wants to be an auteur.
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many fans forget how instrumental Jon Favreau was to the creation of the most profitable movie studio in history.
I didn’t…
For Captain America: The First Avenger, Fiege enlisted Joe Johnston- the director of The Rocketeer– to create a film that harkened back to WW2 propaganda posters.
AND the guy who fleshed out the look of Boba Fett!
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For someone who is supposedly going to retire after his 10th film, is sitting on 9, and doesn’t seem to have any other projects in the loop since his benefactor Harvey Weinstein was outed and ended, he certainly seems like someone who needs a job. A hired hand, if you will.
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That’s also a pretty good description of every incarnation of Dr. Who. I love both Dr. Who and the MCU. I do not like most of the DCEU films, and I think big screen comedies have sucked for at least a generation. Everyone has different tastes.
Tarantino is not wrong. It’s also nothing new for director’s to be hired to bring someone else’s vision to the big screen. In fact, filmmakers like Tarantino, Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, et al, are, I think, the exception rather than the rule. I don’t think either approach is inherently bad. It’s just different.
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Well, but there was a whole movement to break the power of the studios in the first place. Used to be everyone was an employee of a studio. The New Hollywood movement sought to allow for more autonomy for the creative types in Hollywood. So, I guess that Tarantino is correct in that the studios (espcially Disney) is exerting a ton of pressure to ensure that the directors working for them on long-term projects tow the party line as it were. But the white dudes of supposedly “independent” film making aren’t generally speaking making paths for newer, younger directors seeking to break the mold as much as they are entrenching their own positions of auteurs and dominating much of mainstream hollywood outside of genre films. I don’t think anyone you listed has any problems getting their stuff made, because many of them run their own production companies, and if they don’t they know that most studios will pick up their films, because they are guaranteed bankable. if you’re a new director (especially a woman, or a POC), it is much more difficult to have any sort of real independence within hollywood, unless one is willing to go fully independent and have to scramble for things like distribution and promotion.
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I think he’s just pissed because the MCU doesn’t want his “ironic” ultra-violence and casual use of the n-word…
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Coming in 2026 Marvel presents “Power Pack” directed by Quentin Tarantino!
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