Kevin Fiege was ready to defend the Marvel cinematic universe he built after Martin Scorsese slammed superhero movies as more akin to theme park rides than films.
In a recent interview with Empire, the Oscar-winner responsible for films such as “The Departed,” “Taxi Driver,” “Goodfellas” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” was asked whether he’s watched any of Marvel’s massive slate.
“I don’t see them. I tried, you know?” he said. “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,” he continued. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
The remarks brought defenders and detractors of Scorceses’s words as the director himself took to a New York Times op-ed to clarify his arguments.
Meanwhile, Feige — Marvel’s chief creative officer — sat down with Scott Feinberg for a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about the controversy.
“I think that’s not true. I think it’s unfortunate,” Feige said when asked if superhero movies are a negative for cinema. “I think myself and everyone who works on these movies loves cinema, loves movies, loves going to the movies, loves to watch a communal experience in a movie theater full of people.”
Scorsese — for the NYT’s piece — said, “What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk. The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes.”
But Feige maintains that the large canopy of Marvel films allows for a variety of themes including “Ant-Man” as a heist film and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as a political thriller.
“We did ‘Civil War’. We had our two most popular characters get into a very serious theological and physical altercation,” Feige said. “We killed half of our characters at the end of a movie [Avengers: Infinity War]. I think it’s fun for us to take our success and use it to take risks and go in different places.”
Feige ultimately argued that art is subjective.
“Everybody has a different definition of cinema. Everybody has a different definition of art. Everybody has a different definition of risk,” said Feige. “Some people don’t think it’s cinema. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Everyone is entitled to repeat that opinion. Everyone is entitled to write op-eds about that opinion, and I look forward to what will happen next. But in the meantime, we’re going to keep making movies.”
But Chadwick Boseman — who plays the lead in “Black Panther” — believes the “magic” that Scorsese said is missing from the superhero films may have been underestimated by the famed director because of cultural and generational differences.
Speaking to BBC 5 Live, Boseman stated, “The mystery that Scorsese is talking about is in ‘Black Panther’,” he said. “If he saw it, he didn’t get that there was this feeling of not knowing what was going to happen that black people felt. We thought, you know, ‘White people will kill us off, so it’s a possibility that we could be gone.'”
“We felt that angst. We felt that thing you would feel from cinema when we watched it. That’s cultural. Maybe it’s generational,” he added.
Boseman also posed the theory that Scorsese was saying inflammatory remarks to get his new movie “The Irishman” more publicity.
“He’s saying it when he’s possibly campaigning for an award. He’s saying it at a time when he’s making a Netflix movie, so that’s how eyes get on his film, and it’s not going to be in the cinemas — it’s not going to be seen the best way,” mused Boseman.
Even Scarlet Johannson and Chris Evans got in on the debate during a Variety: Actors on Actors interview.
The frequent co-stars chalked up the movie landscape as something entirely different from past generations with the advent of streaming services and the ability to consume all the available content on different devices.
“I think new original content inspires new original content,” explained Evans. “I just believe there’s room at the table for all of it. It’s like saying a certain type of music — isn’t music, why bother, who are you to say that.”
Scarlet agreed, and at the end of the interview, she sneaked in a question asking if Chris would be returning to the Marvel world. “You never say never,” Evans answered coyly.
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