Samuel L Jackson has responded to Martin Scorsese’s criticism of Marvel movies, after the director claimed they were “not cinema”.
Speaking to Variety, Jackson said: “I mean that’s like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. Everybody doesn’t like [Scorsese’s] stuff either,” he said.
“We happen to, but not everybody [does],” he continued. “There are a lot of Italian-Americans who don’t think he should be making films about them like that.”
“Everybody’s got an opinion, so I mean it’s okay,” Jackson added. “Ain’t going to stop nobody from making movies.”
In an interview with Empire Magazine published last week, Scorsese said that he had “tried” to watch movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that they 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. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
The comments earned immediate criticism from Marvel fans, while Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn expressed sadness over Scorsese’s statements in his own tweet.
“Martin Scorsese is one of my five favourite living filmmakers,” Gunn wrote. “I was outraged when people picketed The Last Temptation of Christ without having seen the film. I’m saddened that he’s now judging my films in the same way.”
