Quentin Tarantino loves movies, but he is also somewhat critical when it comes to evaluating the works of other directors. He finds it hard to appreciate superhero movies. However, there is a curious exception.
What does Tarantino think about superhero movies? The director and screenwriter is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the cosmos of cinema. However, he is critical of superhero movies.
Tarantino already explained to Variety that he was a big comic fan, especially as a child and young man. He collected Marvel issues and is sure that if the current MCU movies had been released back then, he would have liked them.
Today, at 62 years old, he is much older and criticizes in another conversation with Variety that the blockbusters from Marvel, DC, and others dominate the market. Additionally, as a director of these works, one is merely a lackey of the studios – something Tarantino does not want to be.
However, there is one exception, a superhero movie that he still likes very much. For this, we need to look a few years back – to “Superman Returns”.
A Critique by Tarantino
What kind of film was “Superman Returns”? Curiously, Tarantino names a superhero flick that is popular but certainly not among the absolute best. “Superman Returns” marked a return to the big screen for the hero in 2006. The last feature film prior to that was Superman 4 from 1987.
The title character was played by Brandon Routh in 2006, and it was directed by Bryan Singer. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently stands at 72%, placing it in the ranking at number 4, just behind the new Superman by James Gunn from 2025.
By the way, a few places behind “Superman Returns” is “Man of Steel” featuring fan-favorite Henry Cavill.
What does Tarantino say about “Superman Returns”? The director told The New York Times that he was at the film festival in Cannes in 2006 and watched many films there. “Superman Returns” was not part of the program, but it was released around the same time in theaters.
Tarantino made his own small ranking of the films he saw. He would have given the prize for best direction to Bryan Singer for his Superman film. But that’s not all:
I am a big fan of “Superman Returns”. I am currently working on a 20-page review of this film, but I am not done yet.
Quentin Tarantino
The interview was published three years after the release of “Superman Returns”, in 2009. It is unclear if Tarantino has finished his review today – unfortunately, there is nowhere to read it yet.
However, it fits Tarantino well that he engages deeply with a single film and writes down his opinion in detail.
Perhaps the text will find its way to the public someday. After all, Tarantino has been active as an author for several years now and has written a novel version of “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” as well as “Cinema Speculation”, a book about cinema. He also expresses criticism regarding series, but there is one exception: A horror series on Netflix is so good that Quentin Tarantino loves it, even though he doesn’t care for streaming
