What does everyone think? I grew up reading Marvel Comics (we once owned a copy of Spider-Man No. 1) and loved them and all the legends and characters. I haven’t been able to keep up on the Marvel Comics Universe movies, but the last few I’ve seen have been pretty boring.
Marvel movies are just summer blockbusters made for the masses and a quick buck. There’s no artistic aspect to them at all.
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I think you just put your finger on the reason why I stopped reading the comic books after about the age of 13.
I am generally not a fan of comic book movies. With a few exceptions. But it isn’t like Scorsese doesn’t do sensationalist stuff in his movies, which is difficult to call “artistic”.
While I’m a fan of Scorsese, how many times can I see one organized crime thug shoot or beat down another organized crime thug? Not saying he doesn’t do what he does well…just that he’s also kinda one note. The top Marvel movies aren’t life changing but they are cinema unless you only allow non-action drama to qualify.
Not a huge fan of Scorsese. Brutality gets old too, and dispiriting.
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Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Most “Art” films I personally find pretentious and boring. I tend to want to watch movies to have a good time and be swept away in them, which action movies in general tend to do and which Marvel Excells at.
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I don’t think it raises our conciousness in any particular manner, which to me is what the very best cinema, literature and art can achieve. Seems to be more like eating fast food. I don’t seek these movies out and I don’t think the story-lines matter. Eye candy and fantasm
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You will find in movie what you wish to find.
You have social commentary in every single Marvel film. You choose to not see it because there are cartoon style characters delivering the messages.
Just because a movie is filmed in a grey hue and chooses to for some unknown reason zoom in on the lead characters dirty fingernails every 30 seconds doesn’t make the message more real or profound.
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I just like good stories with characters I care about. I don’t like movies I walk out of wishing that I could get the last 2 hours of my life back or that I could unsee what I’d just seen.
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Wonder how Martin would rate Big Trouble in Little China or The Sand Lot for instance.
Watching the Sand Lot is a holy experience for me. It depicts my summers growing up from about age 12 to 15.
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Exactly
Your point is well taken - and this is a reach - but sometimes, I think that these movies kind of elevate villainous behavior, by making it more intriguing or attractive than needed; somehow equivocating POV’s which extends to the modern body politic.
But, I’m veering towards political discourse, so I will stop.
I guess maybe what I’m trying to say is that it seems like they’re basically kind of silly and childish, but they’ve become multibillion-dollar industries, thereby creating a perpetual motion machine of CGI with no real substance.
I get the sentiment. But I have to admit that sometimes I enjoy watching the comic book movies at home with my kids. On the other hand I would never in a million years sit down and watch one of these movies by myself. I’d rather watch sports or read a book.
Finally, I get that it’s not Marvel, but the Dark Knight trilogy was by far my favorite of the comic book movie genre.
The Marvel movies are great. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and they’ve done it amazingly well. They’ve made, what, 20 movies? How many have been truly awful? Maybe none, maybe 2-3, depending on how harsh you are. Some of them (2-4 maybe) are worthy of inclusion in the action movie hall of fame.
I also like Martin Scorsese films and theme parks. I may just be easy to please. To everything, there is a season.
Meh- auteur who has mostly worked the gangster genre disparages another genre that has nearly as little bearing on ordinary people. I recently rewatched Casino and Good Fellas; they’re well crafted, but I found they shed even less light on the human condition (unless you only relate to sociopaths) than some of the better Marvel films.
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Nothing wrong with the Marvel movies. Just not that attractive to me. To each his own. That’s the nature of art.
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Many valid points made. @badbadute I agree, there is meta in many or possibly all comic movies. There is also some in Scorsese films.
Reminds me of a saying…
“Politicians tell lies to hide the truth. Artists use lies to reveal truth.”
I have long liked that. So in that sense, I can enjoy any movie that expresses truth about the world in an interesting way.
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Astute point
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