This years awards season seems to have highlighted an almost elitist attitude in Hollywood towards superhero movies, and it's high profile in the cinematic landscape. Birdman (itself a send up of the superhero genre) director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu called superhero movies "cultural genocide", Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy, at the 2015 Independent Film Awards, called indie movies "holdouts against tsunami of superhero movies that have swept over the industry" (kind of a strange comment coming from the guy married to Thor's mother), and last Sunday's Oscars featured Jack Black singing about their place in the Hollywood production line. It may have been meant as a joke, but it was very close to sentiments we've heard a lot of times before. It's one I really can't stand. No matter the genre, be it superhero, comedy, horror or the so called "prestige genre" that deliver the award magnets every year, one movie isn't given importance over the other. They are all made by people who put their heart and soul into it, and labelling one movie as 'dumb' because you look down on the genre is just ugly and wrong.
Now, we're hearing the other side of the argument from within the industry, with Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn taking to Facebook to share his thoughts, and, I think really getting to the heart of the matter:
Whatever the case, the truth is, popular fare in any medium has always been snubbed by the self-appointed elite. I've already won more awards than I ever expected for Guardians. What bothers me slightly is that many people assume because you make big films that you put less love, care, and thought into them then people do who make independent films or who make what are considered more serious Hollywood films.
I've made B-movies, independent films, children's movies, horror films, and gigantic spectacles. I find there are plenty of people everywhere making movies for a buck or to feed their own vanity. And then there are people who do what they do because they love story-telling, they love cinema, and they want to add back to the world some of the same magic they've taken from the works of others. In all honesty, I do no find a strikingly different percentage of those with integrity and those without working within any of these fields of film.
If you think people who make superhero movies are dumb, come out and say we're dumb. But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a "serious" filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken.
Never a truer word said.
