Not everyone has been a fan, of course. Martin Scorsese famously said in 2019 that superhero movies were “not cinema,” adding, “Honestly, the closest I can think of them—as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances—is theme parks.” Francis Ford Coppola agreed, calling superhero movies “despicable.” He spelled out his contempt: “There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And 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.”
