Martin Scorsese Continued His Crusade Against Superhero Movies
Founding member of the high school Foreign Film Society and captain of the chess team, Martin Scorsese, is still trying to get a rise out of the dumb jock prom king, Marvel, who continues to be the more popular, if less likely to go to Harvard on a scholarship (mostly because it’ll probably get in as a legacy). Not long ago, Marty, who is doing press for his sure to be Oscar nominated film The Irishman, proclaimed that Marvel’s superhero movies are “not cinema”, and likened them to “theme parks”. And I guess since Marvel didn’t just throw in the towel immediately and start researching “jobs for jocks who can’t reed gud”, Marty doubled down on his criticism.
Over the weekend, Marty made an appearance at the BFI London Film Festival and urged movie theaters to ditch the (super) hero and get with a 9 time Academy Award nominated zero. According to IndieWire:
During a press conference this weekend at the BFI London Film Festival, the Academy Award-winning director said, “Theaters have become amusement parks,” according to CNET. “That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense… That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing; it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that.”
Scorsese did not relent in his screed against superhero tentpoles. “It’s not cinema, it’s something else,” he said. “We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”
I can’t for the life of me figure out why Marty would choose this hill to die on, instead of the mountain of cash, stocks, bonds, trophies, accolades, and gold coins he’s amassed over the years. And it’s not like any of this is new or that Marvel invented dumb, loud, popular movies. In 2006, the year Marty won his first directing Oscar for The Departed, the top grossing movie was Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, A LITERAL THEME PARK MOVIE. It grossed $423.32 million (per IMDB). The Departed was #16 and grossed $132.38 million. Somehow, these two movies were able to peacefully coexist at cineplexes across the globe. Theaters have to keep the lights on somehow, Marty! Indiewire reports that The Irishman is nearly 4 hours long. So Marty should be especially thankful they play his movies at all considering how much he’s running up their electric bill!
Pic: Wenn.com