Martin Scorsese Elaborates on His Superhero Movie "Theme Park" Comment

Famed director Martin Scorsese landed himself in some hot water for a comment he made recently in an interview with Empire Magazine. He was asked what he thought about the big budget superhero genre, and he replied saying that he doesn’t see them, said they are not cinema, and compared them to theme parks. He was then asked about those comments while at an opening of his latest film, The Irishman, in London, and he doubled down, saying:

“It’s not cinema, it’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”

Now we have his most recent comments on the ordeal, where he actually softens his stance a bit, and tries to offer some insight into his original comments. While talking to Entertainment Weekly, he said:

“Let’s say a family wants to go to an amusement park. That’s a good thing, you know. And at theme parks there’s these cinematic expressions. They’re a new art form. It’s something different from films that are shown normally in theaters, that’s all. My concern is losing the screens to massive theme park films. which I say again, they’re their own new art form. Cinema now is changing. We have so many venues, there are so many ways to make films. So enjoyable. Fine, go and it’s an event and it’s great to go to an event like an amusement park. But don’t crowd out Greta Gerwig and don’t crowd out Paul Thomas Anderson and Noah Baumbach and those people, in terms of theaters.”

I get what he’s saying. But I just don’t think that small, character driven stories are suffering from big budget superhero films. I think there’s enough room for all of it, and movies of all different sizes and genres are being made all the time. So there’s no need for anyone to cut back. Bring it all on!

What do you make of his comments?