Taika Waititi and Kevin Smith have spoken up in response to Martin Scorsese saying that Marvel films are "not cinema," and both are in agreement that they are, in fact, cinema.



"Of course it's cinema! It's at the movies." Director Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) of "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Jojo Rabbit" responds to Martin Scorsese's criticism of Marvel movies as "not cinema." pic.twitter.com/nawpRK6FTl — AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) October 15, 2019

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Scorsese's comments came from an interview with Empire Magazine where he was asked about the superhero genre and the MCU. He said "I don't see them. I tried, you know? 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. It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being."In response, Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit, spoke to AP Entertainment and said "Well, it's too late to change it to the Marvel ...Atic Universe," He said of removing 'cinema' from the name. "Of course it's cinema! It's at the movies. It's at cinemas near you. Marvel Cinema--tic Universe...scene!"Kevin Smith, during the screening of his film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, spoke to THR and praised the legendary director of Goodfellas and the upcoming The Irishman, but also said that Scorsese has been "saying the same thing about action movies.""Martin Scorsese is a genius," Smith said. "But to be fair, my entire film career — even prior to my film career — he's been pretty much saying the same thing about action movies."He expanded on those thoughts to THR, stating that Scorsese "made the biggest superhero movie ever.""For my money, I think Martin Scorsese made the biggest superhero movie ever, which was The Last Temptation of Christ," Smith argued. "Don't get much bigger of a superhero than Jesus. He beats Superman and [Robert] Downey [Jr.] every time, so maybe Martin is bending on that territory."Smith then took a more nostalgic root and tried to put things into perspective."My feeling is, Martin Scorsese never sat in a movie theater with his dad and watched the movies of Steven Spielberg in the early '80s or George Lucas in the late '70s. He didn't feel that sense of magic and wonder. I can still step into one of those comic book movies, divorce myself of that fact that I do this for a living, release, and my dead dad is back for a minute, for two hours," Smith explained. "And it's personal for a lot of the audience. You know, and we're not arguing whether or not it counts as cinema.""I guarantee you there's something he enjoyed with his parents, like a musical — I bet you some cats would say, 'A musical is not really cinema,' but Martin Scorsese grew up on musicals, and I bet they mean a lot to him," Smith concluded. "These [Marvel] movies come from a core. They come from a happy childhood. And they're reflections of a happy childhood. He's not wrong, but at the same time, neither are we for loving those movies. And they are cinema."Waititi and Smith were hardly the only ones to speak up about these comments, as Samuel L. Jackson, James Gunn, and Robert Downey Jr. have also voiced their opinions.Scorsese, on the other hand, is not backing down. Instead, he is calling for "theater owners to step up for that to allow theaters to show films that are narrative films." Cover images courtesy of Getty Images/Kevin Winter (Taika Waititi) and Getty Images/Rich Polk (Kevin Smith).

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