Criticism of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not a new thing. The studio has been a constant juggernaut at the box office, but sometimes questions arise on the authenticity and how it differs from the mainstream ‘cinema.’ Famed filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Francis Ford Coppola are some of those who raised their thoughts on Marvel movies. Following all these criticisms, Chris Hemsworth who has been part of the MCU as Thor, comes to defend the studio and such superhero genre movies.
Chris Hemsworth Targets MCU Critics
Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth is frustrated, and annoyed with all the criticism of the MCU over the years, particularly from auteurs like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Hemsworth said it “felt harsh” and that bothers him.
Speaking to the Times of London, the actor said, “It felt harsh, and it bothers me, especially from heroes. It was an eye-roll for me, people bashing the superhero space. Those guys had films that didn’t work too — we all have. When they talked about what was wrong with superheroes, I thought, cool, tell that to the billions who watch them. Were they all wrong?”
Scorsese first spoke about MCU in 2019, when he called these films a “theme park” and not cinema. Later, Coppola also echoed what Scorsese said, “What is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”
Countering these statements of the filmmakers’ duo, the Australian actor said, “Cinema-going did not change because of superheroes, but because of smartphones and social media. Superhero films actually kept people in the cinemas during that transition and now people are coming back. So they deserve a little more appreciation.”
Apart from Scorsese, Tarantino, and Coppola, James Cameron, two-time Oscar-winning actor Jodie Foster also came forward to critique MCU.
Chris Hemsworth Also Has Addressed the Criticism of Superhero Movies by Actors Who Appeared in the MCU
Chris Hemsworth in Thor (2011). Image Credit: Marvel
Hemsworth was also vocal about the criticism of the MCU from the actors who once appeared in Marvel movies. However, he did not mention any name specifically.
Though no names were cited by Hemsworth, we can smart guess it. He is definitely talking about Thor: Love and Thunder co-star Christian Bale, who previously complained that acting in front of a green screen was a “monotony”. Another co-star of Hemsworth, Idris Elba, had said it was “torture” filming a Marvel film.
“It’s, like, ‘They’re films that are successful — put me in one. Oh, mine didn’t work? I’ll bash them,’” Hemsworth said. “Look, I grew up on a soap opera. And it used to bother me when actors would later talk about the show with guilt or shame. Humility goes a long way. One of the older actors on ‘Home and Away’ said, ‘We don’t get paid to make the good lines sound good, but to make the bad ones work.’ That stuck with me.”
Chris Hemsworth, who has portrayed the role of Thor in eight MCU movies, said he would try to do something different if he ever played the superhero on the screen again,
“If I ever went back to (Thor) I’d wonder how we could change it again. But there is a superhero curse in the sense you get pigeonholed, and I’ve felt a little hamstrung with what I could do, so (I) desperately wanted something to scare the shit out of me. And ‘Furiosa’ did,” he said, referring to his upcoming movie Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
George Miller directed Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is releasing on May 24 from Warner Bros.
