“People are getting tired of superhero movies”: Michael Mann Gives a Controversial Verdict After MCU Suffers a Huge Blow
Filmmaker Michael Mann is regarded for his stylized crime dramas, which include Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Public Enemies, and more. His recent project Ferrari starring Adam Driver, Patrick Dempsey, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, etc., premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2023 where it received positive reviews from the audience and the critics.
If looked closely, Mann’s trademarks include powerful-lit nighttime scenes and unusual scores along. In addition with showcases the principal character being forced to make critical decisions, which go on, to affect the plot. The critics and audience have appreciated the realism his movies have showcased. The director recently shared his views on superhero movies.
Also read: Star Wars Fans Constantly Remind Adam Driver of Kylo Ren’s Most Despicable Act
Michael Mann says Enzo Ferrari’s complexity intrigued him to make Ferrari
Michael Mann’s recent project includes Enzo Ferrari’s biopic, Ferrari starring Adam Driver, Patrick Dempsey, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, etc. The film, as the title suggests, follows the personal and professional struggles of Enzo Ferrari, during the summer of 1957.
In an interview with NME at the Venice Film Festival, the director said,
“I’m looking forward to having people see it.”
Upon asking what is about Ferrari that intrigued him so much, Mann said,
“I don’t want to say duality, because there’s more than two sides to him, but it’s the complexity. There’s so many active components to who he is and his personality, which bare no relation to other parts of him that made for a very human character. Some of his thinking has the precision of an engineer. It’s there in his penmanship.”
The filmmaker says everything is so precise and rational when talking about the ledgers; Enzo Ferrari kept adding that the guy was dramatic, very operatic which is terrible. Michael Mann also said that Ferrari could be the answer to people’s comic book fatigue.
Why does Michael Mann feel that people are tired of superhero movies?
The director who co-wrote Heat 2 with Meg Gardiner is planning to adapt the novel as the sequel to his 1995 Heat starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. He said,
“There’s some studies that I have done with in the industry…people are kind of getting tired of superhero movies and are becoming more interested in pictures like Heat.”
The statement from the director comes after the highly successful and popular superhero franchise MCU suffered a series of project fails in 2023. Apart from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, What If…? & Loki, other projects from the MCU haven’t performed the way the studios expected them to.
The Marvels starring Brie Larson suffered a lot and ended up having the franchise’s worst opening weekend box office collection and struggled to make it through. The recent failures of MCU projects caused critics and audiences to use the term superhero fatigue to describe that maybe the audience is done with the superhero genre.
Some reviewers noted that for a lot of people, the MCU era ended with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame when two of the most powerful and fan-favorite characters Captain America and Tony Stark met their fate. Black Widow was also gone which left Hulk and Hawkeye hanging in the middle. The other characters including Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Ant-Man haven’t been able to lay their foundation as strong as the original six.
If we talk about the villains in the MCU recently, there hasn’t been a character as powerful as Thanos till now and Kang the Conqueror was supposed to carry the entire phase five of Marvel on his shoulders. But since Jonathan Majors has been dropped by the studios after he was found guilty of assault and harassment, the future of Kang the Conqueror remains hanging.
However, ardent fans are excited and are interested to see how Marvel Studios tries to redeem its spot with their upcoming projects, especially Deadpool 3, and reconnect with the audience. Hopefully, in the coming days, the word superhero fatigue won’t be used as much, and directors including Michael Mann, and critics will no longer say that people aren’t interested in superhero movies.
Ferrari releases on 25th December 2023.
