Call him the guardian of the Marvel galaxy.

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn Sunday again fended off criticism of Marvel superhero movies.

The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola called the films despicable not to mention unenlightening and uninspiring at a film festival in France over the weekend, following similar critiques from fellow director Martin Scorsese.

Martin was being kind when he said it wasnt cinema, Coppola said, per Variety . He didnt say it was despicable, which is what I say.

Scorsese had said the films were not cinema in an interview earlier this month. Jennifer Aniston also recently put down the comic book fare in an interview.

Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man for more than a decade, and Natalie Portman of Thor defended the flicks . But Gunn has taken a prominent role in the superheroic effort to fight back for the billions-earning blockbusters.

Gunn did not mention Coppola by name, but he did use despicable in his response Sunday on Instagram .

Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them despicable, Gunn wrote. 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.