Roger Corman: Marvel Could Get Better By Following James Cameron's 'Story Comes First' Tactic

Legendary B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman has officially entered the Marvel debate.

The 96-year-old director and producer admitted he had a "pretty bad reaction, to be honest" toward the MCU, in part because he had "an option with Marvel to do one of their movies, with Orion" years ago. Now semi-retired while developing a remake of "Little Shop of Horrors" for Paramount, Corman admitted to having notes on what Marvel could do better.

"I think, actually, they're extremely well done and the special effects are just phenomenal. I think they're good pictures," Corman explained. "But if I have a problem with them is that… Jim Cameron, who started with me, when you see a big budget effects movie from Jim, you always recognize that the story comes first, and the special effects are just there to help the story. Whereas with Marvel, sometimes it feels like the special effects are the star, and the story can frankly be filled in between the special effects."

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Corman summed up, "It could be improved if they followed Jim's lead and worked more on their stories."

Used to shoestring budgets, Corman considered first funding "Little Shop of Horrors" with $35,000.

"The new one would cost around $8 million!" Corman added, "The script is still being worked on, we went through two or three writers and the third writer finally hit the mark, I think."

Meanwhile, James Cameron's own "Avatar" universe returns to the big screen to take on the MCU. Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of the Water" hits theaters on December 16 and has an estimated budget of $250-600 million.

Former Corman collaborators Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have previously criticized Marvel for being akin to "theme parks." Scorsese said he tries not to watch Marvel movies because it's "not cinema" and doesn't "convey emotional and psychological experiences to another human being".

Coppola later agreed, "When Martin Scorsese says Marvel footage isn't cinema, he's right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, enlightenment , knowledge, inspiration...I don't know that everyone wins by seeing the same movie over and over again," the director of The Godfather said. "Martin was kind when he said it wasn't a movie. He didn't say it was despicable, which I'm just saying it is."

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