I don’t think Lexi Alexander would argue with me if I were to say she seems to be pushing herself further and further away from Hollywood with a lot of the comments she’s made over the course of her career, and mostly the comments she’s made since the box office disappointment of Punisher: War Zone back in 2008. Since that time Alexander has made a movie called Lifted (which doesn’t appear to have even been released in theaters) and an episode of something called “BlackBoxTV”, but she continues to be outspoken and I’ve even detailed one of her previous interviews concerning her Punisher movie on the “How Did This Get Made?” podcast. Well, she’s at it again and this time she says she wishes Marvel had a little more input on her movie, not Lionsgate.
Alexander posted an interview she recently did with Les InRockuptibles on her blog (via The Playlist) and when asked about her collaboration with the Marvel she says:
My relationship with them was different than those of the other filmmakers they work with because Lionsgate had the rights to Punisher and paid for the movie. Marvel was an equal partner, but unfortunately when there were creative decision conflicts, Marvel would let Lionsgate be the tie breaker. I always regretted that I made a Marvel movie this way, because 99% of their notes were much better than the studios and I was more in tune with them.
As for her opinion on Marvel in general, and their impact on the world of film, she makes a fine comparison:
I’m not sure they are that mysterious. To me (and most of my filmmaker friends) they are like the Coca-Cola brand. Everybody knows it, it’s not groundbreaking or healthy for you, but it’s not supposed to be. Everybody likes to drink a Coke once in a while, it’s when we run out of everything else to drink and we’re only left with Coke that we need to start worrying. But we can’t blame them for doing their thing well and they are obviously serving a demographic that’s happy.
[…]
They are sticking to the same recipe and other than DC Comics, they dominate the market completely. It would be as difficult to try and enter the market with a new “superhero” brand as it would be to enter the market with a new Cola, even if it had a better recipe. You can’t compete with that much brand recognition and marketing money.
[amz asin=”B001QB9H2E” size=”small”]The Coca-Cola comparison is perfect, especially the “when we run out of everything else to drink and we’re only left with Coke that we need to start worrying” note. We all like our share of junk food, it’s when we start eating nothing but junk food that we begin looking and feeling terrible. It’s one of those aspects of film criticism that is hard to get over. Just how many bad movies must I see? And after seeing so many bad movies it’s hard not to get jaded. I am currently waiting to see Avengers: Age of Ultron and Furious 7… I need some good junk in my life, because Insurgent isn’t packing it.
One of these days Alexander will get another chance, if she wants it, to make a movie her way. As of now, Green Street Hooligans is probably the closest she’s gotten and, in that sense, it’s also her most respected picture. Go figure.
