Marvel's Kevin Feige offers predictable defense of the artistic merit of superhero movies
Hold on to your butts, everybody: The guy who makes all the Marvel movies has rejected Martin Scorsese’s argument that Marvel movies aren’t “cinema.” That’s right, we almost went a whole week without having to start this whole thing up again, but now here we are and it’s super fun! This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which sat down with Marvel Studios boss (and newly ordained Chief Creative Officer of Marvel) Kevin Feige and got him to weigh in on one of the most iconic filmmakers of all time writing an op-ed for the New York Times about how his movies aren’t good because they don’t involve any creative risks. Weirdly, though, Feige defense of the entire past decade of his career is somewhat passionless, with him telling THR that it’s “unfortunate” that Scorsese feels the way he does, because he and everyone else who works on this stuff “loves cinema” and “loves movies.”
It comes across as sort of a dejected acceptance of Scorsese’s opinion rather than an honest rebuttal, but later in the chat with THR, Feige notes that his movies have done some risky things. “We had our two most popular character into a very serious theological and physical altercation,” he says, referring to Captain America: Civil War, and, “We killed half our characters at the end of [Infinity War].” Feige says that it’s because Marvel movies have been so successful—and have built up faith in their audience—that they’re able to do things like that.
Going back to more of a “I’m sorry you don’t like it” reaction, Feige also says that “everybody has a different definition of cinema” and “everybody has a different definition of art,” and “everyone is entitled to their opinion” and to “repeat that opinion” and to “write op-eds about that opinion.” Basically, he has no intention of trying to argue with Scorsese or stop him from saying what he wants to say, because he and the rest of Marvel are just “going to keep making movies.”
Feige also shows a bit of life when talking about some upcoming MCU projects like The Eternals and Disney+’s WandaVision, saying they “might not be for you” if you’re “turned off by the notion of a human having extra abilities, and that means everything in which that happens is lumped into the same category.” So the guy who makes Marvel movies likes making Marvel movies, and the guy who doesn’t like Marvel movies likes to explain why he doesn’t like Marvel movies. Are we all still clear on where each of us stands on this debate?