Martin Scorsese says Marvel movies are not cinema

[Ron Obvious]

Martin Scorsese, one of cinema’s most venerated current directors, has decried superhero movies – the dominant force in today’s industry. The director of films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas told Empire magazine that his attempts to get up to speed with contemporary superhero films had failed.

“I tried, you know?” the director said when asked if he had seen Marvel’s movies. “But that’s not cinema.”

He continued: “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. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/04/martin-scorsese-says-marvel-movies-are-not-cinema

I can't stand them either. Watching them is like watching someone else play a moronic, frenetic video game as someone mentioned in the comments.

To be fair, I don't like gangster movies either.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

1. I agree.

[underpants]

2. He has a new movie coming out, right?

Looks good.


This is a counter to the TV world rejecting reality shows but the Marvel movies are, by definition, not reality. It's counter to reality.

Old saying in the arts - on your way up everything is cool, on your way down yo picks fights. Martin is an untenable level and he should act as such.

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't like the entire genre but we went through the long "live action" period

and hopefully, we'll return to more meaningful scripted movies too.

[aikoaiko]

4. Even great artists can fail to identify art.

He’s definitely wrong about them not being the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.

People of all ages cried at the end of infinity wars and erupted with cheers during Endgame’s battle. And then cried again with a bitter loss.

I’ve necer seen that kind of emotion at a Scorsese screening.

I’m not saying Marvel movies are great cinema or even better than most of Scorcese’s movies, but helps just wrong about the emotion and intellectual connection viewers have with Marvel films.

[shenmue]

5. Well, they are.

[Orrex]

6. I wonder how he feels about Joker.

[Ron Obvious]

8. It's an interesting question

"Out today is Joker, Todd Phillip’s revisionist take on the DC villain, which borrows much from the films of Scorsese, notably 1983’s The King of Comedy."

I haven't seen that one either.

[Orrex]

12. Saw it last night. Quite a good film!

Very different from other "comic book movies," and it would have stood on its own just fine without any ties to the DC mythos.

Of course, comic book movies aren't cinema. Just like sci-fi films aren't cinema, and westerns aren't cinema, and period romances aren't cinema, and gangster films aren't cinema, ad nauseam.

Scorcese is far better at making films than I'll ever be at watching them, but his complaint sounds very similar to that of "serious" writers who insist that genre fiction isn't "really" literature.

[klook]

7. "Black Panther" isn't cinema??

Okayyy...

Then I guess sometimes I like cinema, and sometimes I like movies that are just fucking great anyway.

[Newest Reality]

9. The eye of the beholder...

Imputing values on abstractions.

I like them for what they are. They are not trying to be anything else and I don't pretend they are. They can be fun spectacles and great for fans who are invested in the worlds they conjure up. They are not beyond critique.

And I say that from the perspective of being an aficionado who appreciates film as art, also.

[Locrian]

10. can't stand them either

I find them super boring and lazy story line, terrible dialog.

but realize that's like, my opinion, man...

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

11. I think of film like I think of books. It's just a medium for expression

...and it's not a limited resource. There's room for all kinds of books to exist, so why bother fretting about or dissing categories of books I don't like but others do? I just don't read em, and what's it to me if other people do and enjoy them?

Film's much the same way, and in a time when people shoot films on their smartphones, is becoming moreso. The existence and success of genres I don't care much about doesnt affect me.

(Big tentpole movies in fact have enabled many another movie to be made. They can crowd other types of movies out of a big studio too, of course. But smaller studios and independent producers are where a lot of the best films are made anyway.)

Scorcese was saying that to him Marvel movies aren't "cinema" like someone might say some category of books, to them, aren't "literature." Okay, opinion noted. Life in the film or book world goes on.

[LeftInTX]

13. Can't stand them...too much CGI....basically a video game

Too much green screen which puts emphasis on blue and orange colors....shaky cameras

My hate after with them started with Batman and Green Hornet back in the day. (ick....)

[pressbox69]

14. Odd,

Did anyone ask him about the new Joker movie being loosely based on his King Of Comedy?