Martin Scorsese has called for Christopher Nolan and other directors to "save cinema" from a comic book and franchise culture.
The 80-year-old filmmaker - who has made the likes of 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull', 'Goodfellas', and 'The Departed' - has previously claimed Marvel movies "aren't cinema", and he has now claimed superhero movies are a "danger" to our "culture".
In a profile with GQ magazine, he said: "The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture.
"Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those - that’s what movies are.
"They [audiences] already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger.
"And it’s got to come from the grassroots level.
"It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves. And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up.
"Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema."
Scorsese insisted "manufactured content isn’t really cinema" and compared such movies to what an Artificial intelligence (AI)-made film might look like.
When it is suggested cinema could be "anything", he replied: "I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema.
"I don’t want to say it. But what I mean is that, it’s manufactured content.
"It’s almost like AI making a film. And that doesn’t mean that you don’t have incredible directors and special effects people doing beautiful artwork.
"But what does it mean? What do these films, what will it give you? Aside from a kind of consummation of something and then eliminating it from your mind, your whole body, you know? So what is it giving you?"
As well as Scorsese, fellow legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has also criticised Marvel movies.
Chris Hemsworth - who has played Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - recently admitted it is "super depressing" to hear such criticism from his "heroes".
He told the same publication: "That’s super depressing when I hear that.
"There goes two of my heroes I won’t work with. I guess they’re not a fan of me."