Marvel movies not ‘cinema’ sparks debate

Scorsese, Coppola may not like Marvel movies, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t art

With Disney+, the studio’s new online streaming subscription service, set to launch in just a few weeks, access to (and the sheer quantity of) Marvel content has never been greater.

The service will include a plethora of movies, animated shows and five entirely new series currently in development.

There are already 23 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which have amassed over $22 billion at the worldwide box-office, making it the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.

In other words, Marvel is a booming business. And to some, like director Martin Scorsese, it’s more a financial enterprise than art. Therefore, Marvel movies are not, in his opinion at least, “cinema.”

In an interview with Empire earlier this month, the director said of Marvel films, “I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s 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. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

It’s a bold argument to make for someone who hasn’t actually seen a Marvel movie. Perhaps if he had sat through one in its entirety he’d better understand that, simply put, these films are not for him. I can relate.

They also aren’t for me — I’d have to be paid to catch one.

But even with an Oscar-winning resumé, it seems a bit much to be so declarative about a series of films that is so wildly popular with movie-going audiences.

Nevertheless, after being hit with instant social-media backlash, Scorsese doubled down on his comments this week at the London Film Festival, saying,

“What has to be protected is the singular experience of experiencing a picture, ideally with an audience. But there’s room for so many others now, and so many other ways.

The value of a film that’s like a theme park film, for example, the Marvel-type pictures, where the theatres become amusement parks, that’s a different experience.

We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”

Francis Ford Coppola reaffirmed the sentiment for Scorsese this week at a press conference, saying, “Martin was kind when he said it wasn’t cinema. He didn’t say it was despicable, which I just say it is.

We expect from cinema that it brings us something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration. I don’t think anyone takes anything away from the experience of watching the same film over and over.”

While there is certainly something to be said for the many filmmakers who struggle to find funding, much less have their work make it into a theatre, the beauty of cinema is the way it reaches different people through different formats, different genres, different stories and different characters.

There’s no denying that Marvel films are loaded with narrative and character (one might say too much). Based on source material that goes back decades, they have a dedicated fan base.

For some, Captain America or Thor may not be much more than explosions and loud noise, but for others, it’s an entire world that has been painstakingly built through imagination. Avengers: Endgame had fans coming out of theatres in tears, while Thor: Ragnarok had more laughs per scene than most straight-up comedy films.

Then you have something like Black Panther, featuring a predominantly black cast and black superheroes, while exploring concepts of nationalism and colonization.