Don’t tell Samuel L. Jackson that Marvel movies aren’t cinema. In recent years, superhero movies have come under fire from filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, and Roland Emmerich, all of whom had negative things to say about the genre and its impact on Hollywood. The situation came up while Jackson was a guest on The View, and the actor brushed off their criticism by suggesting that directors criticizing superhero movies are in actuality just upset that their own films aren’t performing as well.
“Movies are movies. Those are the movies that I went to see when I was a kid. And the artistry of making a movie is something that was a mystery for so long. Making movies is no longer a mystery. Kids know how to do it on their phones. So it’s easy for [filmmakers] to dismiss it, only because people aren’t going to see their movie.”
Jackson went on to explain how modern society’s fascination with superhero films is nothing new, it’s just that the particular genre that’s most popular at any given time has changed over the years. The actor recalls how Western movies held that spot in his childhood, and while comic book adaptations have since become the newest craze in Hollywood, filmgoers are going out to see these movies for the exact same reasons.
“It’s like we’ve been dumbed down, but that’s always been the case. When we were younger, people went to see cowboy movies, and they went to see superhero movies of another ilk, they had superheroes on television. When you tell a serious story, yeah, you find a niche audience — the same thing still happens. People go to the movies to make themselves feel better and to get out of their daily existence… People go into the big, darkroom to have a good time. It’s a good time. You laugh together and scream together. I still do movies that I would have gone to see when I was a kid.”
