One of Hollywood's best-known and most esteemed directors, Francis Ford Coppola, has backed up Martin Scorsese's negative comments about Marvel movies, and he took things a step further. The five-time Oscar winning director behind movies like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now said Scorsese is right when he said superhero movies are "not cinema" and that movie theatres have become more like "amusement parks."

Marvel movies don't offer enlightenment, knowledge, or inspiration, the 80-year-old director said to reporters after accepting the Lumiere Award in France recently.

"When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he's right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration," he said, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency and France 24.

"I don't know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it's not cinema," Coppola added. "He didn't say it's despicable, which I just say it is."

Coppola's comments led to a swift response on social media from movie fans and movie-makers. Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld said Scorsese and Coppola are titans of the movie business, and they have "earned" a place to share their opinions about film.

That being said, Liefeld correctly pointed out that Marvel, DC, and others will not stop making superhero movies just because Scorsese and Coppola don't like them.

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, meanwhile, said in a post on Instagram that no one should be surprised by the comments made by Scorsese and Coppola.

Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them 'despicable.' Some of our great grandfathers thought the same of westerns, and believed the films of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone were all exactly the same. I remember a great uncle to whom I was raving about Star Wars. He responded by saying, 'I saw that when it was called 2001, and, boy, was it boring!' Superheroes are simply today's gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers. Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful. Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that's okay"

Marvel's MCU is the most profitable film franchise in cinema history, grossing a gargantuan $18 billion over the past 10 years.