Aquaman actor Jason Momoa defends superhero movies against criticisms leveled by filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Matt Damon in a new interview. Superhero movies have been around for decades, but it wasn't until 2008 that they really took flight. The launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Jon Favreau's Iron Man changed the landscape of the industry and kicked off one of the most successful film franchises of all time. 24 films later, the MCU is still going strong, with Marvel and Disney's films regularly grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and plenty of them surpassing the $1 billion mark at the box office.
Aside from the MCU, Sony is in the midst of launching their own interconnected universe of superhero films and the DCEU is currently retooling its franchise after abandoning the SnyderVerse. The rise of the superhero film has not come without its detractors, though. In a recent interview, Matt Damon blasted both streaming and superhero movies as changing the landscape of cinema. Similarly, acclaimed director Martin Scorsese criticized superhero films while promoting his 2019 film The Irishman, sparking backlash from fans of the genre.
As the conversation around superhero movies continues, Momoa defended them in an interview with NYT, saying that people's designation of superhero movies as not real cinema is akin to saying that pop music isn't "real music." To Momoa, though, "it's all subjective." The way he sees it, superhero movies are just as capable of carrying deeper messages as more serious films are, pointing to Aquaman's themes of environmental issues as evidence that the superhero genre can have weighty themes, too. Check out Momoa's full statement below:
It’s like how people say that music is poppy and this music cool. But you know how hard it is just to get your music out there for people to hear? It’s all subjective. I try not to pick on anything. So, yeah, superhero movies are bubble gum, but they’re like Greek mythology: They have good and evil and heartbreaking moments. And, gosh, you’re taking away other art forms if you stop making them. You’re taking away visual effects, you’re taking away what you can do with makeup. I’m not someone who gets hired to play in a lot of cinema, but by being able to do a superhero movie, I can make a movie about something I really care about. I have a vision for the whole totality of “Aquaman.” There are environmental issues that I get to put into it. So while you’re going, “Oh yeah, it’s just this popcorn movie,” I’m like, “Well, I get to open people’s eyes to things that are important to me.”
Momoa is in the midst of filming Aquaman 2 and as one of the DCEU's founding characters, it seems unlikely his character will be going anywhere soon. The same can be said for superhero movies in general. The genre shows no signs of slowing down as both the MCU and the DCEU plan out their slates years in advance. Both studios behind the franchises are also delving into the streaming world, with Marvel having launched several series on Disney+ in 2021 alone to great success.
Both studios also have years of theatrical releases planned and although the box office is still struggling to recover from the effects of the pandemic, it doesn't look like they'll be going anywhere soon. This truly seems to be a case of letting people love what they love. An auteur like Scorsese may never feel that superhero movies are "real cinema," but that ultimately doesn't matter and Jason Momoa is certainly correct in that the genre itself is capable of putting heftier themes within their films. The package may be different, but that doesn't detract from the message itself.
Source: New York Times