Dark Knight Rises cinematographer Wally Pfister calls The Avengers appalling

[brightcove]1213024251001[/brightcove]

The Dark Knight Rises ’ Wally Pfister is one of the pre-eminent cinematographers working today, thanks in no small part to his work on Christopher Nolan’s films.

He’s currently working on his own directorial debut (details of which are very hush-hush), and he recently sat down for a chat with the Herald Tribune .

The most interesting thing that emerged from the conversation however, regarded TDKR ’s superhero rival, The Avengers .

When asked, ‘What’s most important in shooting a film?’, Pfister responded, “What’s really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn’t support the story.

“I thought The Avengers was an appalling film. They’d shoot from some odd angle and 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.”

Not a fan then. Earlier in the interview, he even expressed hesitation at taking on Batman Begins :

“I’m not a big superhero fan. In terms of the movie-going experience for me, I love the realistic stuff because it’s just that much less formulaic. When I was first approached by Christopher [ Nolan ] for Batman Begins I was like, really? A guy in a rubber suit?”

The Dark Knight Rises hits DVD and Blu-ray on 3 December 2012.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.