Kevin Smith On Martin Scorsese's Comic Book Movies Stance

Over his decades-long career, Martin Scorsese has done so much for movies. Like his pal George Lucas, he’s a champion of film preservation. He’s helped out other filmmakers, like Akira Kurosawa, Spike Lee, and the Safdie brothers. And of course, he’s directed untold masterworks. But to some, he’s the guy who dissed comic book movies almost three years ago. Some have never gotten over it, including, it seems, comic book superfan and fellow filmmaker Kevin Smith.

In an interview with Forbes, Smith — who recently unveiled the first trailer for his threequel Clerks III — took some time to weigh in on how the maker of Goodfellas and Silence may not be so into movies like Thor: The Dark World or Aquaman.

“In our very tribal culture, somebody like Martin Scorsese referring to comic book movies as amusement parks and theme park rides gets a bunch of people who have made comic book movies their lives for the last 10 years very unhappy,” Smith said. But he does wonder why people were so shocked by his statements.

“You’re asking a guy who made ‘Goodfellas’ what he thinks about Spider-Man, what do you think you’re going to get?,” Smith said. “He’s a very serious filmmaker, and he’s a man who’s of a certain age and stuck in his ways. You should not be surprised that’s his response.”

Scorsese’s comments came around the time The Irishman was released, which became one of the most-watched original Netflix films in the streamer’s history. In an op-ed for The New York Times, he wrote, “I don’t think they’re cinema,” and bemoaned how they’ve cornered the market at the multiplexes. “In many places around this country and around the world, franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen. It’s a perilous time in film exhibition, and there are fewer independent theaters than ever.” Indeed, The Irishman only had a tiny theatrical run, with most people watching it on their TV screens.

In the meantime, Smith this weekend got to celebrate a very important anniversary.