On Wednesday, journalist Josh Horowitz interviewed Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who asked Gunn what it was like to confront and defend superhero movies against people like Martin Scorsese. Martin, when promoting his film The Irishman in October 2019, said the Marvel Cinematic Universe was "not a movie" and compared superhero movies to theme parks.
Gunn objected to Scorsese's remarks at the time, saying on Weibo abroad: "I get very angry when people criticize The Last Temptation of Christ (a film directed by Martin) without seeing the film. I'm sad that he now judges my films the same way," while Gunn also calls Scorsese "one of my favorite 5 living filmmakers."
But in an interview on Wednesday, Gunn changed his tune to say scorsese's remarks were a form of "terrible cynicism" in an attempt to use Marvel to draw attention to The Irishman.
"He just kept coming out against Marvel in order to get media coverage for his films," Gunn said. "He created his films in the shadow of Marvel movies, so he used it to attract attention because he didn't get as much attention as he wanted."
But at the same time, Gunn again praised Scorsese's unparalleled skill as a filmmaker, and Gunn said he agreed with much of Scorsese's view that "there are a lot of heartless, soulless spectacle films that don't reflect what should have happened." ”
After this remark was issued, it caused great criticism on the Internet.
Less than eight hours later, Gunn again clarified his remarks, further praising Scorsese as "probably the greatest American filmmaker in the world," while noting that they "failed to agree on only one point: if a movie is based on a comic, then it's not inherently a movie." ”
There has been a debate about whether a superhero movie is a cinematic art form, or whether it exists only as a commercial work rather than a work of art. Kate Shortland, director who directed Marvel's new film Black Widow, said in an interview in July that she agreed with Scorsese that Marvel movies aren't exactly movies in the traditional sense.