All it took was one soundbite for the elder statesmen of cinema to begin rallying against the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we’ve now reached a point where any veteran filmmaker is going to be questioned on the current state of cinema and the so-called dangers of superheroes, with Martin Scorsese laying the groundwork.
It’s entirely okay for an 80 year-old man to hold a grudge against expensive blockbusters solidifying franchise fare as the industry’s go-to model at the expense of smaller and more character-driven projects, but it’s also worth remembering that the legendary director’s latest carries an MCU-sized budget of $200 million.
As you’d expect given its status as a brand new Scorsese picture, Killers of the Flower Moon has been winning rave reviews and is currently Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 95 percent approval rating. Incredibly, that makes it his 13th narrative film or documentary he’s directed to have scored above 90 percent on the aggregation site, but it also happens to be tied with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The ratings are a lot more comparable than you might think, too, seeing as 129 critics have weighed in with their thoughts on the Leonardo DiCaprio-fronted epic so far. Across its seven seasons of beloved content, the adventures of Agent Coulson and the gang were judged by 205 critics to secure such a high average, even if you’d imagine the overlap between the two isn’t all that great.
It’s not even cinema or franchise canon, either, which makes it all the more ironic.