David Cronenberg Slams Superhero Films, Calls 'Dark Knight Rises' Boring

Go down the list of shared aspects between The Dark Knight Rises and Cosmopolis: They both feature a city in tumult, the overthrow of an economic system, a brooding billionaire and a really cool ride. But the similarities end there, as far as director David Cronenberg is concerned.

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The veteran filmmaker is out promoting his Robert Pattinson-starring Cosmopolis, which concerns a day in the life of a nihilistic financial wunderkind, and was asked by the MTV site Next Movie what he thought about the trend of top directors helming superhero films. Would he ever consider doing so?

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"I don't think they are making them an elevated art form," he said of top-shelf filmmakers and their tentpole pics. "I think it's still Batman running around in a stupid cape. I just don't think it's elevated. Christopher Nolan's best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don't think his Batman movies are half as interesting, though they're 20 million times the expense."

Cronenberg did admit that he appreciated Nolan's technical efforts, with IMAX cameras and the like, but was still unimpressed with the actual movies. Unlike horror films, which he says have the potential of being art, comic book films don't stand a chance.

"A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it's comic book. It's for kids," Cronenberg asserted. "It's adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying, you know, Dark Knight Rises is supreme cinema art, I don't think they know what the f--- they're talking about."

The closest Cronenberg, who has helmed 20 features, has come to a comic book film would be the time he spent developing an original version of Total Recall, as well as fielding interest in making Return of the Jedi.