Nolan Calls Marvel-Bashing Quote "Inaccurate" - Update

SonOfVoorhees

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Sniper Team 4 said:
I like Marvel's movies better than the ones Nolan did. I'm sorry, but his were just too dark and depressing for my tastes. Having those little stingers at the end are always something I look forward to because a lot of the times, they're the best part of the movie. Or at least the best joke.

I supposed the first Batman movie had it's own version of this when the Joker's card was revealed at the end of the movie...
Damn, i was going to mention that Joker card thing. :) I dont think Man of Steel had one as they had nothing to show off, but BvS will have one as they need to show other heroes. An a post credit is easy especially if what they are showing is not connected to the movie your watching. An it helps set up characters to be shown later and helps build their movie universe and create buzz especially as each hero movie isnt in its own self contained world.
 

Fox12

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katsabas said:
You see, I feel the opposite, haha. I enjoy the occasional guardians of the galaxy, and those films have their place. I'm just a little tired of getting eight of those a year. I don't see why we can't have the occasional art film thrown in for flavor. We certainly used to, and I think les mis showed it can be done successfully. Occasionally I'll give smaller foreign art pieces a try, but funnily enough, they're a mixed bag. Many of them come across as pretentious, not because they're artsy, but because they're poorly made.

Out of curiosity, have you seen paprika? It's the film that gave Nolan the original idea for inception. You may enjoy it, though its got a different style of mind bending, and it can be a little bit more surrealist. It's a very colorful, funny film, and you may recognize some of the homages that Nolan made to it if you liked inception.
 

Baresark

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While I do think that Nolan is a stuck up little brat, he didn't take shots of the Marvel films specifically, a lot of other movies have done that. Though, that said, it would not be his first shot at the Marvel movies, I would like to remind everyone who is defending what he said. His distaste for the MCU is very evident.

Edit: I loaded this page last night and then failed to comment, so I did this morning, completely missing the update.

There you go, he said he didn't even say it and he wouldn't call someone else's film not a film. Though, he would call someone else's film a bad film (my words).
 

K12

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I feel sorry for Nolan here. It's totally OK to not like the post-credit reveal thing and he clearly didn't mean to be insulting in his comment.

It's annoying how careful people need to be nowadays. One throwaway comment that wasn't really meant to mean anything becomes a headline.
 

DrOswald

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Uriel_Hayabusa said:
DrOswald said:
Nolan kept on doing the job well past he was interested in it. Batman Begins and Dark Knight were projects that, at the very least, he was interested in. Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel were Nolan being paid enough money so his name could be on the poster. And I can respect that. He wanted a net worth of $150 million so he sold his name to the highest bidder. And that is fine. I would certainly do the same thing in his place.

But if he wanted respect as a serious artist he should have either been more choosy about his projects or he shouldn't have phoned it in. You don't get to make Dark Knight Rises and then make snide quips about how you make "real" movies. Or rather you can do it, but it makes you an ass.
So he phoned it in with a movie or two, big deal. Work isn't always fun, that's the world of grown-ups for you. And even if he took a potshot at Marvel (which seems to have been a misquote), so what? Lords knows every other wiseass (wannabe) movie reviewer with a (video)blog has made fun of him for all sorts of things (''Hey guys, notice that Christian Bale's Batman voice sounds kind of forced and weird?'')
Like I said, I don't mind that he phoned it in and I don't mind that he took the money. Whatever. That is what they paid for and that is what he gave them. I have no beef with Nolan on that point. The problem is when he starts criticizing people for doing the same thing he is doing. That is where the hypocrisy starts. That is an ass thing to do, and doing it makes him a bit of an ass. Well, frankly, saying it at all would make you an ass, but then at least you would have some reason to fall back on of why the comment is valid.

But that's all academic. Even if Nolan did say something to that effect it appears it would have been behind closed doors with his expectation that the remark would never be made public. That is a very different situation in my opinion. Being rude behind closed doors about someone who will never hear what you are saying is like punching a pillow. It is basically venting steam, perfectly acceptable behavior. Kinda wish Movie Bob had taken the time to actually read his source and report accurately. Bit of a dick move Bob. I get really tired of having to fact check everything I read.
 

V4Viewtiful

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So it seems it was out of context or tone afterall, I'm glad. No respect lost.
but how could they not follow up on that?
 

V4Viewtiful

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RavingSturm said:
I wish Marvel would tone down all the in movie advertising for other movies they have in the pipeline. They should just focus on one movie at a time and focus on its stand alone quality rather than forcing the meta-narrative about the infinity gauntlet. Putting stuff at the end of the movie is ok but if its just some guys goofing off its not really worth the time to wait out all the credits imho.
It's a comic book movie, it's probably the first time one of those even attempted to emulate a comic book narrative.

And PCS in marvel films are only Easter eggs they aren't supposed/don't have to be essential or important, just fun.

Why is that so hard to grasp?
 

Knoxy

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deathbydeath said:
and this isn't half as scathing as what people like Confused Matthew [http://confusedmatthew.com/matthews-marvel-madness.html] have (rightly) said about the enterprise. )
I have no idea where the proper outlet to direct criticism of this guy's stuff is, there doesn't seem to be a comment section, so I'm just gonna throw this up here.

That was an unashamedly awful piece. I've been trying to source some heartfelt criticism of Marvel's ongoing enterprise for some time, but I think I might stop if this is the standard I can expect.

I'm sorry that this is being directed at you, random guy on the internet, I bear you no ill will. The only thing I would say is that, in my honest opinion, I don't think you should link to that video, it diminishes you (as it would anyone else) by association.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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Fox12 said:
Out of curiosity, have you seen paprika? It's the film that gave Nolan the original idea for inception. You may enjoy it, though its got a different style of mind bending, and it can be a little bit more surrealist. It's a very colorful, funny film, and you may recognize some of the homages that Nolan made to it if you liked inception.
Nope; Nolan had actually been writing the script for close to a decade, long before the anime adaptation of Paprika was even conceptualized. He was more influenced by stuff like The Matrix and Dark City. Nolan hadn't even SEEN the movie before Inception began filming
 

Vigormortis

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LarsInCharge said:
You misread my post. I didn't say the entirety of this site feels that way.

Note what I said:
"If there's one thing the 'clique' of this forum loves to hate..."

I never implied that everyone felt that way. I was referring to a contingent of posters who, legitimate or not, tend to behave in a very contrarian manner. If a thing is popular amongst people they don't associate with, that thing is considered worthy of their contempt.
 

DrOswald

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Knoxy said:
deathbydeath said:
and this isn't half as scathing as what people like Confused Matthew [http://confusedmatthew.com/matthews-marvel-madness.html] have (rightly) said about the enterprise. )
I have no idea where the proper outlet to direct criticism of this guy's stuff is, there doesn't seem to be a comment section, so I'm just gonna throw this up here.

That was an unashamedly awful piece. I've been trying to source some heartfelt criticism of Marvel's ongoing enterprise for some time, but I think I might stop if this is the standard I can expect.

I'm sorry that this is being directed at you, random guy on the internet, I bear you no ill will. The only thing I would say is that, in my honest opinion, I don't think you should link to that video, it diminishes you (as it would anyone else) by association.
Confused Matthew is in a league of his own when it comes to bad criticism. He manages to combine and maximize pettiness, dismissiveness, and irrationality into one mass of horrible criticism which he then brings home with his own brand of self assured arrogance that not only is it impossible he is wrong, but that it is impossible that anyone else could have a different but valid opinion. You can search high and low across the internet and it is going to be very hard to find another critic as horrible as Confused Matthew.
 

WarpedLord

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elvor0 said:
Ugh, tell me about, I like dark and gritty, but Noalns movies are so dark and depressing even the sodding Joker can't crack a joke.
I'm a little behind in the conversation... but in the looong history of the Joker, isn't the end of "Killing Joke" the only time he's ever actually told a joke?
 

Sanunes

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Lono Shrugged said:
That was quite a leap in logic there Bob. I cannot disagree strongly enough.

I can only be satisfied in the fact that you are not a journalist because that is the most click bait weasel words headline I have seen in ages. I only clicked on it to see if it was as tabloid as I suspected.

I think I will stick to entertainment news sites from now on.
The Escapist probably changed the title, they have done that for other articles on The Escapist. If you look at the main article its url generally will show the real title. Shamus Young had something similar happen to one of his pieces of Shadow of Mordor.

"138406-christopher-nolan-says-marvel-style-post-credit-stingers-not-real-movies-in-guardian-profile" Is what I believe MovieBob had for his original title.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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MovieBob said:
Elsewhere, Badass Digest (one of the many sites along with this one to run stories based on the quote) points out [http://badassdigest.com/2014/11/05/christopher-nolan-the-quote-is-inaccurate/] that the Guardian quote is actually an out of context second-hand account of Nolan's words on the matter from Zack Snyder.
Anyone with some basic reading comprehension skills could have figured this out by reading the Guardian article. Pretty shoddy journalism that your original article didn't even moot this point before running with the interpretation that allows you to crucify Nolan as arrogant.
 

Olas

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Shamanic Rhythm said:
MovieBob said:
Elsewhere, Badass Digest (one of the many sites along with this one to run stories based on the quote) points out [http://badassdigest.com/2014/11/05/christopher-nolan-the-quote-is-inaccurate/] that the Guardian quote is actually an out of context second-hand account of Nolan's words on the matter from Zack Snyder.
Anyone with some basic reading comprehension skills could have figured this out by reading the Guardian article. Pretty shoddy journalism that your original article didn't even moot this point before running with the interpretation that allows you to crucify Nolan as arrogant.
I have to defend Bob here, which trust me, is the last thing I'd expect to be doing, because the Guardian article really does make it appear that Nolan said that. For reference here's the entire paragraph verbatim.

The Guardian said:
He noticed something interesting in the studio's reception to Batman Begins, which he had purposefully given the biggest possible scale, with locations as far flung as the Himalayas and a climax involving the detonation of Gotham. Despite this, what he heard was "Well, is it really big enough?" He realised that scale in movies was itself something of an illusion. For the sequel, The Dark Knight, he actually scaled down from the original, setting the film almost entirely in Gotham, which he then proceeded to open up with storytelling and cinematography modelled on Michael Mann's Heat, which was set in Los Angeles, but shot in such a way as to make it seem as rangy as the wild west. Nolan's movie took over a billion dollars. "The Batman movies - that take, that tone - came out of nowhere," said director Zack Snyder, who first met Nolan on a Warner Bros plane heading to a film industry convention in Las Vegas and leapt at the chance to direct a similarly toned Superman reboot, Man Of Steel - for which he studied, at Nolan's request, test footage from White Sands, New Mexico, to get a sense of how objects behave at high velocity. When the studio asked if Snyder would add a comedy coda ending, in the style of Marvel, Nolan's reply was "A real movie wouldn't do that."
If it isn't supposed to be implied that Nolan said those exact words with that exact meaning, it's very hard for me to understand how else it could be interpreted. If the entire quote was made up or inaccurate, then okay, but Bob could hardly be expected to know that.

Now of course MovieBob's decision to zoom in a single one-off quote from a long interview and draw unrealistic implications from it, then write an entire news story about it in a way that frames Nolan and Marvel comics as enemies of some sort should certainly be questioned; but I don't think you could argue that he factually misrepresented the quote from the article.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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Olas said:
I have to defend Bob here, which trust me, is the last thing I'd expect to be doing, because the Guardian article really does make it appear that Nolan said that.
Only if you take it at face value, which is exactly what a good journalist should not be doing.

If it isn't supposed to be implied that Nolan said those exact words with that exact meaning, it's very hard for me to understand how else it could be interpreted.
Forget what they imply. Look at what they report and whether it seems fair to interpret it as a back handed dig at Marvel.

Let me pick some holes in the Guardian account for you. We're told the studio asked Snyder to add a comedy coda ending. There's indication of whether or not Nolan was present for that request or whether he was asked separately by Snyder. There's even some ambiguity as to who he made that remark to - was it Snyder or someone else? It's also unclear whether or not the "in the style of Marvel" was the Guardian embellishing the account for the benefit of the reader, as opposed to paraphrasing the studio's request, which changes the context of his remark greatly if you're accusing him of making a dig at Marvel. It's also not conveyed exactly how the request was put to Nolan: did they emphasize the comedic nature of the coda, or did they emphasize the idea of it working as a teaser for a subsequent film? All this stuff could potentially influence what is a fair interpretation of Nolan's remark.

If the entire quote was made up or inaccurate, then okay, but Bob could hardly be expected to know that.
He should be expected to recognise when there's not enough contextual information to draw as aggressive a conclusion as he did. Hell, even making mention of a potential alternative viewpoint would have been good.

Now of course MovieBob's decision to zoom in a single one-off quote from a long interview and draw unrealistic implications from it, then write an entire news story about it in a way that frames Nolan and Marvel comics as enemies of some sort should certainly be questioned; but I don't think you could argue that he factually misrepresented the quote from the article.
I argued nothing of the sort. I pointed out that he gave no thought or consideration to whether or not this was an official or secondhand account of Nolan's words, he neglected to consider any context that might have allowed it to be interpreted as just an off hand statement of opinion rather than a direct dig at Marvel. Woeful journalism.