Last month, distinguished director Martin Scorsese criticized Marvel movies and likened them to theme parks. As a die-hard Marvel fan, I strongly disagree with this but found that I could not be upset at one of the greatest directors of all time.
Responsible for classic films such as “Goodfellas,” “Taxi Driver” and newer films “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “The Departed,” Scorsese has quite the resume under his belt and has earned the right to criticize Marvel movies. However, saying that Marvel movies “are not cinema” is simply incorrect.
Movies have, over the years, taken many shapes and sizes. There is a multitude of genres that exist in the film industry: animation, romance and action to name a few. What all these genres have in common is they all have people who support them.
Some people may prefer an action movie to a romance movie, but nonetheless, both genres have their fans. Is an animated movie not cinema because it’s created entirely on a computer? Of course not. That would be like saying “Toy Story,” “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Lion King” are not truly cinema. Those movies all have powerful life lessons that continue to resonate with people.
Marvel movies are no different. While they are enormously different from any of Scorsese’s films, they are without a doubt cinema. Scorsese was quoted by Empire Magazine saying, “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” I’m sorry but Scorsese must not have seen “Avengers: Endgame” because that movie was an emotional rollercoaster!
The entire movie is driven by the emotional responses of the characters to half the universe’s population vanishing from existence. Not only that, but I find the death of a character whom the audience has been invested in for multiple movies to be more emotional than the death of a character whom the audience has just met.
Cinema, like all things, is constantly evolving.
We are currently in the age of blockbuster movies. Marvel has dominated the last ten years of movie making and will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future. By no means is this a bad thing, rather it’s simply a part of life. The movie industry must evolve to remain relevant, and that is exactly what it has done. While Scorsese’s era of movies is all but over, his influence on the industry will remain for years to come.
There is no right or wrong way to make a movie, and there is no exact way to please everyone. Everyone is, however, entitled to their own opinions. While I disagree with Scorsese, he is entitled to his opinion and has earned, more than anyone, the right to criticize Marvel films.
Maxwell McAuliff, contributing writer
mcaulimr18@bonaventure.edu
