You don't need us to tell you that superhero movies are big business these days, accounting for some of the greatest successes in Hollywood's history.

But that doesn't mean that everyone's a fan. Whether rightly or wrongly, here are some filmmakers who had harsh words for our saviours in spandex.

1. Ridley Scott

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The legendary Alien and Blade Runner filmmaker told Digital Spy that he's keen to "keep making smart films" instead of taking on a superhero property.

"Superhero movies are not my kind of thing – that's why I've never really done one," he said. "[I've been asked] several times, but I can't believe in the thin, gossamer tightrope of the non-reality of the situation of the superhero."

Scott's distaste spreads far and wide, to be fair, as he added that "cinema mainly is pretty bad" these days.

2. Alejandro G Iñárritu

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He may have made Birdman – which is superhero adjacent-ish – but Alejandro G Iñárritu had some quite poetic words for Deadline on the fascistic overtones of the superhero genre.

"I sometimes enjoy them because they are basic and simple and go well with popcorn. The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right wing. I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not being who you want them to be. I hate that, and don't respond to those characters.

"They have been poison, this cultural genocide, because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn't mean nothing about the experience of being human."

3. Clint Eastwood

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At 87, Clint Eastwood is apparently too old for the MCUs and DCEUs.

"I read comic books when I was a kid – I don't read them now," he said during a CinemaCon Q&A. "I prefer adult-oriented pictures. I mean that in the PG-13 or R sense, but that's as far as it goes."

Does that mean he's okay with the Deadpools and Logans out there? Somebody should ask him.

4. Roland Emmerich

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Independence Day's Roland Emmerich feels both a cultural divide and a sense of guilty responsibility when it comes to the superheroes.

"I felt like when I saw some of these Marvel movies or DC movies from Warners. I felt, 'Oh my God, that looks familiar to me'. Why is Superman bashing so many buildings?" he told Loaded.

"I was actually warned already by Steven Spielberg that this will happen. He said Independence Day will be the most imitated film of the next 20 years – and he was right."

He also argued to The Guardian that there was a vital difference between his movies and the modern comic-book epics.

"When you look at my movies it's always the regular Joe Schmo that's the unlikely hero," he said. "A lot of Marvel movies, they show people in funny suits running around. I don't like people in capes. I find it silly when someone dons a superhero suit and flies. I don't understand it. I grew up in Germany, that's probably why."

5. John McTiernan

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John McTiernan made his name on macho classics like Die Hard and Predator. So his contempt for Captain America and his fellow vigilantes can't help but feel a bit hypocritical.

"The cult of American hyper-masculinity is one of the worst things that has happened in the world during the last 50 years," he told The Guardian. "Hundreds of thousands of people died because of this stupid illusion. So how is it possible to watch a movie called Captain America?"

6. David Cronenberg

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Cult filmmaker David Cronenberg likes Christopher Nolan, but thinks that his Dark Knight trilogy might be ever so slightly overrated.

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

"I think it's still Batman running around in a stupid cape... 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.

"What he is doing is some very interesting technical stuff, which, you know, he's shooting IMAX and in 3D. That's really tricky and difficult to do. I read about it in American Cinematography Magazine, and technically, that's all very interesting. The movies, to me, they're mostly boring."

7. Mel Gibson

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Mel Gibson is gobsmacked by the amount of money spent on superhero movies. "I look at them and scratch my head. I'm really baffled by it," he told Deadline.

"I think there's a lot of waste, but maybe if I did one of those things with the green screens I'd find out different. I don't know. Maybe they do cost that much. I don't know. It seems to me that you could do it for less."

When he asked what "they're admitting to" spending on Batman v Superman and was told $250 million plus marketing, his response was succinct and beautiful. "And it's a piece of shit."

He was later invited to talk to Warner Bros about directing Suicide Squad 2 (a job that eventually went to Gavin O'Connor), just to prove that – sooner or later – Gibson really can get away with saying anything.

From: Digital Spy