When Hollywood types aren’t talking politics, they’re full of thoughts on their own industry, and in cinema, they’re not as supportive of the popular vote.
For instance, Steven Spielberg doesn’t want Netflix films to win Oscars since they don’t spend enough time in the theater. Actor Ansel Elgort complained when audiences hated The Goldfinch. And Martin Scorsese thinks Marvel films are kind of phony.
The legendary director of Taxi Driver and The Departed upset superhero fans across the nation last week when he told Empire magazine that Marvel films are “not cinema.”
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks,” he said. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Joss Whedon, who directed the first two Avengers films, took umbrage at Scorsese’s criticism of superhero films’ emotional weight, and he responded by quoting the Hulk: “there’s a reason why ‘I’m always angry.'” While Whedon conceded that “I do see his point,” he echoed the sentiments of many resentful Marvel fans.
Of course, films such as Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame cannot fall into the same category as, for example, Scorsese’s American crime drama Goodfellas. But despite treating audiences to the mood of a theme park — rather than a look at the darkness of the soul, as Goodfellas does — they must be doing something right.
Marvel movies are killing it at the box office, whether or not film buffs consider them true art. Avengers: Endgame, which raked in $2.8 billion, is so far the highest-grossing film of 2019. Marvel fans will probably not try to tell you that they’re watching great cinema, but if they’re putting their money where their mouth is, they’re pretty happy.
When asked about Scorsese’s comments, Samuel L. Jackson, who played Stacks Edwards in Goodfellas in 1990 and Nick Fury in the Avengers saga, demurred. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, he said.
“I mean that’s like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. Everybody doesn’t like his stuff either,” he told Variety. “Everybody’s got an opinion, so I mean it’s okay. Ain’t going to stop nobody from making movies.”
So while critics battle over which films deserve viewers’ appreciation, they can take what they like from those comments and leave the rest. Whether or not a film is “art” is one discussion. Whether or not it’s worth making and enjoying is another.
If watching Disney’s Avengers gives viewers only the same experience as going to Disneyland itself, at least they can enjoy the ride.
