Director Ridley Scott Slams Superhero Movies: “They’re F—ing Boring As S–t”

Source: Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings (2021), Marvel Entertainment

Ridley Scott, the director behind such iconic works as Alien and Gladiator, has become the latest Hollywood filmmaker to take aim at superhero films, recently declaring that he finds the entirety of the genre “f—ing boring as s–t”.

Source: Gage Skidmore (2015), Wikimedia Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Related: Thor: Love and Thunder Writer Claims Superhero Storytellers Are More Exciting Than The Actual Superheroes

Scott revealed his thoughts on the state of superhero cinema during a recent interview with Deadline, given in promotion of the release of his upcoming biographical crime drama, House of Gucci.

Eventually turning to the subject of how he plans to tackle his recently-announced Napoleon Bonaparte biopic, Deadline reporter Mike Fleming Jr. noted that Scott seemed to have “broken off a piece of the story instead of taking the whole bite” of the French leader’s life story, to which the director remarked, “No, you can’t [fit his entire life into one film]. You’ll bore the ass off of everyone.”

“Have you ever watched Waterloo?” Scott asked in return. “Holy f–k. That’s just doing one battle. I’m sorry, Sergei Bondarchuk. You’ve got to be very careful in battle films that you understand what’s going on. Otherwise they very quickly wear out and get boring.”

Source: Aquaman (2018), Warner Bros. Pictures

Related: The Suicide Squad Director James Gunn Describes Most Current Superhero Movies As “Boring”

He continued, “I don’t care how majestic it is. I don’t care how many uniforms you got. It gets boring. Napoleon had about 61 battles. Bondarchuk tried to do it with one. You can’t tell Napoleon in one either, because we’re meeting him at the end of his life as a leader, and he would go on another six years after Waterloo when he was in prison on Saint Helena.”

“I feel you can’t do Napoleon in one battle,” said Scott, before randomly bringing superhero films into the conversation. “So, I narrowed it down to this. Almost always, the best films are driven by the characters, and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll fucking crush it. They’re f–king boring as s–t.”

Source: Eternals (2021), Marvel Entertainment

Related: Dune Director Denis Villeneuve Posits Marvel And Superhero Films “Have Turned Us Into Zombies”

Asked by Fleming Jr. for his “main gripe about superhero movies,” Scott asserted, “Their scripts are not any f—ing good.”

“I think I’ve done three great scripted superhero movies,” he then opined. “One would be Alien with Sigourney Weaver. One would be fucking Gladiator, and one would be Harrison Ford…[in Blade Runner].”

Source: Gladiator (2000), Universal Pictures

Related: Matt Damon Says Superhero Films Are A Symptom Of Hollywood’s Worrying New Focus On ‘Mass Appeal’

He added, “They’re superhero movies. So, why don’t the superhero movies have better stories?” 

“Sorry. I got off the rail, but I mean, c’mon,” he concluded his thoughts on the genre. “They’re mostly saved by special effects, and that’s becoming boring for everyone who works with special effects, if you’ve got the money.”

Source: Black Widow (2021), Marvel Entertainment

What do you make of Scott’s take on superhero films? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!

Share: 
Mentioned This Article:

More About: