It has been, I kid you not, over three years since Martin Scorsese first said that Marvel movies are more like theme parks than real cinema. The silly debate is somehow still raging on today, despite having little effect on how anyone feels about going to the movies, or whether they are having a good ol' time while watching them.
Adding fuel to the eternal flame of nonsensical takes earlier this month, Quentin Tarantino decided to state on a podcast that franchise heroes like Captain America incentivise people to the movies more than the actors playing them. "Part of the Marvel-isation of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters," Tarantino said on the “2 Bears, 1 Cave” podcast a little over a week ago. "But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times… but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star."
In a just world, you wouldn’t have to respond to every absurd thing someone says on the Internet, but that’s just not how this works, is it? Following some heated dissatisfaction from Shang-Chi’s Simu Liu, longtime Marvel star and frequent Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson threw his thoughts into the storm this week. Appearing on The View, the Nick Fury actor challenged the Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood director’s claims, stating, "That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars."
"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?" Jackson continued. “Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.”
So, there you have it, folks. Marvel movies are movies because I see them in the cinema. Actors are movie stars because they star in the movies. Can we put this to bed now?
Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.
