James Gunn sticks up for Marvel after Francis Ford Coppola brands movies 'despicable'

Francis Ford Coppola has followed his friend and contemporary Martin Scorsese in slating the Marvel movies.

Earlier this month, Scorsese called the box office busting franchise 'not cinema', referring to them as 'theme park' movies.

But Coppola has gone one better, branding them 'despicable'.

Read more: Martin Scorsese doubles down on Marvel comments

The director of Apocalypse Now and the Godfather movies was being presented with Prix Lumiere at the Festival Lumière in Lyon on Friday when he made the comments to reporters.

“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he's right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” the 80-year-old director said (via AFP).

“I don't know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again.

Read more: Samuel L Jackson on Scorsese’s Marvel comments

“Martin was kind when he said it's not cinema. He didn't say it's despicable, which I just say it is.”

James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, has already (respectfully) kicked back against the remarks.

In a post to Instagram, he noted that 'even some geniuses' may not appreciate them.

Natalie Portman, who is set to return to play Jane Foster in the forthcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, weighed in on Coppola and Scorsese's comments too.

“I think there's room for all types of cinema,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “There's not one way to make art.”

Marvel fans on Twitter haven't taken it so well, however, a fair few pointing out that not all of Coppola’s films have been masterpieces either.

Scorsese made his remarks in an interview with Empire magazine, and then doubled down while delivering the annual David Lean lecture at BAFTA.

“Theatres have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense,” he said.

“That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that.”