Super(ior) Art?

I’ve noticed that a lot of my blogs have been me defending superhero movies; in fact, of the 101 entries I’ve written prior, the number dedicated to chewing out critiques of them stand at 11. This doesn’t include pieces that reference my frustrations, as that’d up the number. Regardless, this has taken up way too much of my time and energy. So why do I keep at it?

Recently, actor Ethan Hawke opened his mouth about superhero movies. He called them “overrated”, stating that they’d never be serious films. While this annoys me on a nerdy, superficial level, it really shouldn’t bother me at all. Because it’s an opinion. A rather ill-stated opinion, but it’d be hypocritical to jump on him considering some of the nonsense I’ve written on The Whitly-Verse…

…Or it would’ve been, had he not said the following:

“Now we have the problem that they tell us Logan is a great movie…it’s a great superhero movie. It still involves people in tights with metal coming out of their hands. It’s not Bresson. It’s not Bergman. But they talk about it like it is.”

What?!

I know some of you are groaning in preparation for “yet another whine-fest about superhero movies”, and you’re right. But where the miscommunication comes from is in the assumption that I hold any criticism as invalid, irrespective of content. That’s simply not true. I’m not against criticism of any kind of movie, as I do a lot of it myself. The issue merely stems from framing, and how that framing is used by the person offering it. I’m not the kind of person who demands a long-winded rant on why something doesn’t work, but if you frame it in a way that respects the strengths of the material while still being critical, then it doesn’t bother me. This is how I could stomach Cosmonaut Variety Hour’s lengthy analysis on The MCU, even if a lot of what he said I didn’t agree with.

Unfortunalely, a lot of the critiques are snobbish and pretentious, even if unintentionally, because they lack that lens. Which leads me back to Ethan Hawke’s criticism. Because by saying that superhero movies can’t be on-par with the greats, he’s boxing in films that are incredibly-flexible and range in quality. He’s being ignorant, in other words.

It’s easy to become bored of a genre of storytelling. The Western, for example, was a staple of Hollywood for decades, to the point where the 1950’s saw over 150 of them by its end. Even in the 1970’s, when Watergate destroyed the trust Americans had in government, the Western didn’t go away, but rather morphed and became more-introspective. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that the bubble popped. But yeah, we survived 50+ years with a single genre of film, and I’m sure people got sick of that too.

It’s worth noting that because superheroes have been compared to Westerns, especially in how they’ve managed to capture the populace’s psyche. At the same time, however, there’s a key difference between the Westerns of old and superheroes of now: the internet. The internet’s become increasingly dominant in how information, and criticism, gets relayed, such that superhero films have evolved and accelerated their trajectory at speeds not seen before. We’re at a point where superhero movies are more widely-discussed than most other genres, even though they aren’t released any more frequently than horror movies, traditional action films, comedies or Oscar dramas. And while that doesn’t worry me, it worries some.

Where Ethan Hawke’s criticism becomes pretentious is in his insinuation that a genre of film can never be “high art”. Ignoring that “high art” is subjective anyway, I don’t think this is a fair claim. Because superhero films have had their moments of cultural weight. I’m not only including The Dark Knight, but also campier fluff like Superman: The Movie, Spider-Man 2, The Avengers and Wonder Woman. Even Black Panther from this past year was enough to send cultural shockwaves, to the point where Marvel’s considering submitting it for a Best Picture nod at The Oscars. Even if they don’t fit the definition of “high art”, superhero movies are equally as valid as an Oscar drama.

Additionally, does it matter if they’re not “high art”? Does it matter if The Incredibles isn’t on-par with Bresson or Bergman? Why is it relevant if Logan classifies itself as a post-modern Western? And can The Avengers still be fun and culturally-relevant, even if it’s not deep? Is this really that much of an issue?

The flaw with going down this rabbit hole is that it opens a can of worms that doesn’t need to be opened: that of cultural relevance. Ignoring The Oscars’ decision to include a Best Popular Film category, the fact remains that the “more serious films”, the “Oscar-baits”, don’t get the same coverage as superhero movies because they lack the oomph of their lighter, fluffier colleagues. They’re thinking pieces, movies of the head, whereas superhero movies are more crowd-pleasers, movies of the heart. It’s not as easy to sell a thinking piece, hence it’s not as appealing.

And that’s okay! As much as I don’t like the “no one will remember this in 5 years” argument when it comes to dramas, especially since they’re routinely discussed in film and history classes, people are allowed to like fluff. Even if superhero movies are the film-equivalent of sugar cereal, it’s not a crime to enjoy them. I watch all kinds of movies, and they hold different places in my yearly favourites lists.

But honestly, the issue is that, in the end, Ethan Hawke’s remarks reek of a bigger problem I’m seeing in film discourse: this idea of filmic reality being more important than that of filmic escapism. It’s no different than saying that Renaissance Era paintings are more artistic than the surrealist works that came later; after all, why should a Picasso be lesser than a Da Vinci? Why does Ethan Hawke get to dictate which films are worthy of being “high art”? He’s not an authoritative voice!

Perhaps I’m overthinking this, maybe. But it’s this level of chutzpah that bugs me. The world is already a scary and frustrating place without the escapes that art, particularly film, allows for. Even if it ends up being disposable, there’s an inherent value to a film that allows for a reprieve from the stresses of reality. Superhero movies merely happen to be the ones that are popular right now. If that bothers you, then maybe it’s not the superhero movies that need to disappear, but rather you that needs to retreat and re-evaluate your outlook on them.