A few weeks after Martin Scorsese criticized superhero films, people are still being asked about it and therefore people are also still giving their two cents. The latest to respond to the Oscar-winner's comments were the pair of screenwriters who penned the script for Avengers: Endgame, which started its run with an insane amount of hype and ended it as the highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema.
That would be Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and they were asked about Scorsese's criticisms while attending the 2019 Governors Awards, specifically that part where Scorsese said Marvel films weren't cinema.
After prefacing his statement with the obligatory note that everyone's entitled to their own opinion, Markus talked about the massive reach Endgame.
"But, clearly this movie has reached a great number of people and has pleased a great number of people in a way, I have to say, in a way a movie has not for a long time," he said. "And if that's not cinema, I don't know what is. That is a collective, emotional experience that happened worldwide."
McFeely added to that by stating that "all sorts of movies for all sorts of people." But he pointed out that "this one seemed like it was for a lot of people."
Scorsese initially stated in an Empire Magazine article the following about Marvel movies (which probably meant big action blockbusters in general): "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 addition to Endgame, Markus and McFeely have also written Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), in addition to creating the Marvel ABC series Agent Carter.
