Jon Favreau Says Martin Scorsese Has 'Earned the Right' to Criticize Marvel Films
Jon Favreau is speaking up about a hotly contested debate regarding Marvel films.
The director, 53, spoke to CNBC on Tuesday about the validity of Marvel films as cinema after Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola voiced criticism of the studios’ superhero films.
“These two guys are my heroes, and they have earned the right to express their opinions,” Favreau said. “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if they didn’t carve the way. They served as a source of inspiration, you can go all the way back to Swingers [to see that].”
He added, “They can express whatever opinion they like.”
The debate over Marvel blockbusters started when Scorsese, 76, gave his honest opinion of the studio’s output earlier this month, saying the films are “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,” he said in an interview with Empire via The Guardian. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Coppola, 80, added his voice to the conversation as he took Scorsese’s side.
“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” The Godfather director, 80, told journalists after accepting the Prix Lumiere in France, according to the AFP.
“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,” he continued. “Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
The discourse has prompted reactions from big names such as Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, Robert Downey Jr. and Oscar winner Natalie Portman, who will star in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder.
“I think there’s room for all types of cinema,” the actress, 38, told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday at the Los Angeles Dance Project Gala. “There’s not one way to make art.”
“I think that Marvel films are so popular because they’re really entertaining and people desire entertainment when they have their special time after work, after dealing with their hardships in real life,” she added.
