Dark Knight Rises DP Wally Pfister Calls The Avengers Appalling

The Dark Knight movie poster
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Sounds like someone is being a little pissy about Joss Whedon’s The Avengers making a lot more money than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises over the summer.

OK, so that might not be the exact reason Dark Knight cinematographer Wally Pfister decided to take potshots at Whedon’s blockbuster in an interview with the Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune. But whatever the cause, Pfister went on record and called The Avengers “appalling” because of “odd” camera angles used by director of photography Seamus McGarvey.

“I’d think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling.”

Meow! What a totally unnecessary dig. Granted, everyone is allowed to be a critic, and if that’s Pfister’s opinion, he’s more than welcome to share it. It’s just rare that you hear members of the same artistic community take swipes like that on such a softball question.

In the same interview, Pfister tries to say that he doesn’t really like superhero movies – preferring the more realistic, grounded stories … like Inception, I suppose – yet when asked if he’d shoot a fourth Batman, he non-commits with, “Never say never.”

At the end of the Q-and-A, the Oscar winner teases his directorial debut, which he describes as “present-day science-fiction, a fairly big concept.” I’m willing to bet I know one person who is going to hate it already, though. Seamus McGarvey.

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.