Marvel Studios is arguably the biggest film studio on Planet Earth right now. There is no one and I repeat no one that can match the scope of the MCU. The fan following, the number of movies and the box office dominance all points towards MCU’s success. It all started in 2008 with RDJ’s Iron Man since then Kevin Feigi and company changed the entire landscape of Hollywood as Superhero movies that were once considered a niche suddenly became mainstream. The 11 years of build-up was all supposed to culminate with Avengers: Endgame and it did however, after that Marvel started a new saga that has been a hit or miss, mostly a miss. However, after the MCU’s unseen success every studio wanted to replicate it and hence everyone got sucked in to the new Superhero trend.
While everyone was happy to see this new Hollywood as it was about their childhood heroes come to life but the veterans of the industry soon identified the existence of MCU as a problem. In 2019, Martin Scorsese talked about how he finds all Marvel films as he doesn’t finds them as real art and they’re adventure park movies. At the time, I was petrified at Scorsese but soon I got the maturity of what he was trying to say and soon after that I switched sides as I too faced the Superhero movies fatigue. After Scorsese many other industry greats like Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron stepped into the fire where they shot arrows at Marvel. There was some retaliation from Marvel as well like when James Gunn took a shot at Scorsese for bad mouthing Marvel.
The most recent addition to this Marvel vs Real Art debate was Quentin Tarantino as he talked about what his problem with Marvel is. As usual Tarantino made logical points and I agreed with him. However, in response to Tarantino’s criticisms, Samuel L. Jackson someone who has extensively worked with the director has clarified some points.
Samuel L. Jackson Points Out A Flaw In Tarantino’s Marvel Criticism!
In a recent interview with Tom Segura’s 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Quentin Tarantino explained how he doesn’t find Marvel actors to be big movie stars. He talked about the Marvelization of Hollywood which he doesn’t find to be good thing.
Tarantino said, “I don’t love them. No, I don’t. I don’t hate them. But I don’t love them. I mean, look, I used to collect Marvel comics like crazy when I was a kid. There’s an aspect that if these movies were coming out when I was in my 20s, I would totally be fucking happy and totally love them. [But] they wouldn’t be the only movies being made, they would be those movies amongst other movies. I’m almost 60 so I’m not quite as excited about them.”
“My only axe to grind is they’re the only things that seem to be made,” Tarantino continued. “And they’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement amongst a fanbase or even for the studio making them … So it’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now. There’s not really much room for anything else. That’s my problem. It’s a problem of representation.”
“Part of the Marvel-isation of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” he added. “But they’re not movie stars, right? Captain America is the star. Thor is the star. I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times, but it’s these franchise characters [that] become a star.”
“Back in 2005, if an actor stars in a movie that does as good as the Marvel movies do, then that guy’s an absolute star. It means people dig him or her and they like them and want to see them in stuff. Sandra Bullock is in Speed and everyone thought she’s amazing in it. Everyone fell in love with her … They were excited by Sandra Bullock and wanted to see her in something else. That’s not the case now. We want to see that guy [keep] playing Wolverine or whatever.”
This was Tarantino’s criticism, now in response to this Simu Liu who starred in Shang Chi had mentioned how if it wasn’t for Marvel then he would’ve never gotten a chance to star in such a big film, as Tarantino and Scorsese’s time was an extremely white era. In addition to Liu now Samuel L. Jackson’s good friend, who has starred in many Tarantino films has pointed out how Tarantino’s criticism is flawed. The veteran actor said,
“It takes an actor to be those particular characters, and the sign of movie stardom has always been, what, asses in seats? What are we talking about?. That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars. Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.”
Now the more I think of it, the more I agree with Jackson and Liu even though I love Tarantino and I’m not happy to see what Marvel is doing to the current landscape of movies. I hope that changes however, the actor vs star criticism of Tarantino does appear to be faulty. Let me know what do you think of this.
MCU’s newest film Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania will release in theatres near you on 17th February 2023.
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