Kumail Nanjiani believes Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have earned the right to express their opinions on Marvel movies, whether the opinions be positive or negative.
Several celebrated filmmakers, including Scorsese, Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppolla, have recently bashed comic book movies for their takeover of cinema.
The Taxi Driver and Raging Bull director compared comic book features to theme part rides rather than films.
Fans of Marvel and DC have been quick to hit back at the acclaimed directors, but Nanjiana believes their contributions to cinema means that they can say what they want.
"I obviously love the movies Tarantino makes or Scorsese makes, and I may disagree with Scorsese’s opinion on superhero movies, but I mean, who else has earned the right to have an opinion?" the Eternals actor told Variety.
"If Scorsese hasn’t earned the right to have an opinion on movies, then none of us should have an opinion on movies. It’s so strange that people get upset about it."
What did Tarantino and Scorsese say about Marvel?
In 2019, Scorsese said: "The value of a film that's like a theme park film, for example, the Marvel type pictures where the theaters become amusement parks, that's a different experience. As I was saying earlier, it's not cinema, it's something else. Whether you go for that or not, it is something else and we shouldn't be invaded by it.
"And so that's a big issue, and we need the theater owners to step up for that to allow theaters to show films that are narrative films."
Tarantino, meanwhile, criticised the 'Marvelisation' of Hollywood, while insisting that the movies didn't feature real movie stars as the real stars were the characters, the comic book heroes.
"Part of the Marvel-isation of Hollywood is… you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters, but they’re not movie stars. Right?" the Pulp Fiction director explained.
"Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times … but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star."
Figures like James Gunn, Taika Waititi, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. have all weighed in on the debate recently, too.
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