As you’ve likely heard by now, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is dominating movie theaters, the box office, and arguably killing all the competition that is severely hurting in comparison. The superhero crossover movie has surpassed the $876 million mark worldwide, is already the highest-grossing film in North American in 2021, with $385 million, and is poised to hit $1 billion on Christmas Day, according to Deadline, which would make it the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide too.
Given that it’s pumping back money into movie theaters, Sony Pictures are apparently taking this as an opportunity for it to vie for Oscar contention, probably under the guise of some” ‘Spider-Man’ save cinemas” campaign. The Hollywood Reporter has a lengthy report about Sony’s intentions and their Oscar plan, which we’ll get into elsewhere. Still, first and foremost, during the various interviews conducted for the piece, filmmaker Martin Scorsese came up, of course. Scorsese notoriously said Marvel films were “not cinema” in 2019, likened them to “theme-park” rides, clearly struck a nerve with all moviegoers and filmmakers, and basically hasn’t heard the end of this criticism since.
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In the course of discussing why ‘No Way Home’ is Oscar-worthy and deserving of some recognition, ‘No Way Home’ star Tom Holland, seemingly unprompted, brought up Scorsese and his past superhero criticisms.
“You can ask [Martin] Scorsese, ‘Would you want to make a Marvel movie?’ But he doesn’t know what it’s like because he’s never made one,” Holland said, clapping back at Scorsese’s now-infamous criticisms of the world’s most popular and highest-grossing films. “I’ve made Marvel movies and I’ve also made movies that have been in the conversation in the world of the Oscars, and the only difference, really, is one is much more expensive than the other. But the way I break down the character, the way the director etches out the arc of the story and characters — it’s all the same, just done on a different scale. So I do think they’re real art.”
“When you’re making these films, you know that good or bad, millions of people will see them, whereas when you’re making a small indie film, if it’s not very good, no one will watch it, so it comes with different levels of pressure,” he continued. “I mean, you can also ask Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr. or Scarlett Johansson — people who have made the kinds of movies that are ‘Oscar-worthy’ and also made superhero movies — and they will tell you that they’re the same, just on a different scale. And there’s less Spandex in ‘Oscar movies.’”
At this point, this discourse and debate will never end, and so you pick and choose who you side with, but three things to consider before you do. One, Martin Scorsese has done so much for the art form of cinema, so he’s entitled to his opinion. Two, no one or no thing is above criticism. Three, maybe the most popular films in the world, the highest-grossing ones that dominate every single aspect of movie culture, and those involved can be graceful about it, stand to take a lump or two and not whine about it so much. At this point, you’re on the top of Everest. Is it really worth shooting down at those chipping away at the mountain’s eternally-impervious base?
