Martin Scorsese stands by his assessment of Marvel movies.
The legendary filmmaker caught a lot of slack for suggesting that Marvel’s suite of superhero movies are not true cinema. The backlash has not deterred “The Irishman” director.
RELATED: Martin Scorsese Seriously Considered Directing ‘Joker’ Himself
“Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry,” Scorsese wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times. “You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don’t interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament.”
“I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself,” he continued. “But I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies — of what they were and what they could be — that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri.”
Scorcese described modern filmmaking as “market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption.” He subsequently acknowledged a number of modern filmmakers whose work he enjoys.
“They are everything that the films of Paul Thomas Anderson or Claire Denis or Spike Lee or Ari Aster or Kathryn Bigelow or Wes Anderson are not,” he wrote. “When I watch a movie by any of those filmmakers, I know I’m going to see something absolutely new and be taken to unexpected and maybe even unnameable areas of experience.”
RELATED: Martin Scorsese Explains His Comments About Marvel Movies
“My sense of what is possible in telling stories with moving images and sounds is going to be expanded,” Scorcese wrote.
Scorcese’s critique of Marvel movies drew criticism from the likes of Disney CEO Bob Iger, director James Gunn and actor Samuel L. Jackson.
