Filmmaker John Woo has directed heaps of action movies, both in his home country of Hong Kong and in Hollywood.
Many of you will know him best for helming Mission: Impossible 2 (largely considered the worst instalment of the franchise), but he's also worked on movies like Face/Off (starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage), A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in the Head, and The Killer.
With a list of credits like that, you'd be forgiven for thinking Woo is now interested in lending his talents to a superhero movie. After all, he's currently in the process of making his Hollywood comeback - for the first time since 2003 - with Silent Night starring The Suicide Squad's Joel Kinnaman.
However, in an interview with The New York Times, the filmmaker made it clear he's no fan of the genre.
"I’ve never liked watching movies with big special effects, or anything based on comic books," he admitted. "I prefer Martin Scorsese’s movies, that kind of cinema. I can’t wait to watch Killers of the Flower Moon. I like old-fashioned movies, you know? Real cinema. There aren’t many movies like that lately."
Despite adding his name to the list of directors who don't believe superheroes and "cinema" go hand-in-hand, Woo remains an advocate for action titles and went on to share one of his recent favourites.
"I really love 'Hell or High Water.' Good performances, good action. It feels like a tragedy. Great cinematography, too," he says. "I tried to get its director of photography, Giles Nuttgens, to shoot 'Silent Night,' but he wasn’t available."
If we've come to realise anything in recent years, it's that filmmakers like Scorsese and Woo have seemingly realised that the best way to promote movies which aren't really drawing much attention is to take aim comic book adaptations!
The former first started the trend when he said, "I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being."
Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo later responded to Scorsese with, "Ultimately, we define cinema as a film that can bring people together to have a shared, emotional experience...The other way to think about it, too, is nobody owns cinema. We don't own cinema. You don't own cinema. Scorsese doesn't own cinema."
What do you think? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.