David Cronenberg Isn’t A Fan Of Superhero Movies, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
David Cronenberg makes weird movies. Although his penchant for strange and uncomfortable body horror flicks has subsided over the past few years, he’s still making challenging motion pictures on a fairly consistent basis. Since Cronenberg isn’t a fan of the Hollywood system, a place where Shia LeBeouf believes creativity cannot exist, his opinion of the industry’s latest big-budget offerings isn’t overwhelmingly positive. And while a lot of people see the art in such films as The Dark Knight Rises, Cronenberg just sees a guy in a “stupid cape.”
According to Cinema Blend, the Eastern Promises director was doing the promotional circuit for his latest offering, the Robert Pattinson head game Cosmopolis, when he decided to open up about Christopher Nolan’s latest effort and superhero flicks in general.
“I don’t think they are making them an elevated art form,” explained to Next Movie. “I think it’s still Batman running around in a stupid cape. 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.”
His wrath for the genre does not stop there. In an effort to alienate a lot of folks who enjoy both superhero movies and David Cronenberg flicks, the Canadian filmmaker took a sweeping shot at comic book movies and the people who consider them art.
“But a superhero movie, by definition, you know, it’s comic book,” he said. “It’s for kids. It’s adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying, you know, ‘Dark Knight Rises is, you know, supreme cinema art,’ I don’t think they know what the f— they’re talking about.”
Strangely, Cronenberg makes the case for horror cinema as art, which, to a lot of people, is a foreign concept. I’m sure people feel the same way about his films as he does about Batman. As usual, this sort of thing is always in the eyes of the beholder.
Is David Cronenberg correct in his assessment of the superhero genre, or is he way off base?
