I have been quite vocal about how Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” was ridiculously overpraised as some kind of second-coming back in the Spring of 2018. After giving Ryan Coogler’s film more than a fair chance with repeat viewing, my thoughts have still not changed.
I even caused a little stir when I posted a negative review of “Black Panther” at the time. It was one of only 5 negative reviews for the movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Suffice to say, I was in the minority when it came to Coogler‘s groundbreaking black superhero saga.
So, with my background explained, you mustn’t be surprised by the sheer delight I’ve had with the whole Martin Scorsese vs. Marvel “fight” currently happening. I absolutely adored Scorsese’s NYTimes op-ed, which felt like music to my eyes and ears. Scorsese’s argument seems to be about putting Marvel movies in a delegate non-cinematic category of movies due to the “theme-park ride” nature of those movies.
Major Marvel players such as James Gunn, Robert Downey Jr, Kevin Feige, and Damon Lindelof all chimed in with their two cents on the matter, but I’ve been waiting on Ryan Coogler to say something because, after all, he directed the most critically acclaimed movie from the MCU, and his film has been the most mentioned as an argument for Marvel being considered a form of “cinema.”
Coogler hasn’t yet chimed in but Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther himself, has and his obvious defense feels rather misguided and pointedly filled with a conspiracy theory that Scorsese was really just trying to make noise due to his having a new movie being released (“The Irishman”) at the same time as making the anti-Marvel comments.
Um, yeah ..
Speaking to BBC radio, Boseman, ever the gentleman, said he had “to respect his [Scorsese’s] opinion because he’s a genius at what he does. At the same time, you’ve got to think about when he’s saying it,” Boseman added, “He’s saying it when he’s possibly campaigning for an award.”
He continued, “He’s saying it at a time when he’s making a Netflix movie, so that’s how eyes get on his film and it’s not going to be in the cinemas. It’s not going to be seen the best way. So, he is speaking to the time period. He is speaking also to his advantage…I did the first, you know, the superhero movie that was nominated for a [Best Picture] Oscar. I’m secure in that.”
The notion that Scorsese was just trying to make some noise to market his new film is absolutely preposterous and gives off a rather limited understanding of the debate Scorsese was trying to achieve by making those comments. Also, the “I made the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture” argument is tepid.
But for his second argument, Boseman brings up the fact that “Black Panther” actually qualifies with the definition Scorsese has been using for real cinema. It’s just that the filmmaker isn’t the target audience.
“The mystery that Scorsese is talking about, it’s in ‘Black Panther.’ And I think he funny thing about it is if he saw ‘Black Panther,’ he didn’t get that. He didn’t get that there was this feeling of being unsure. There was this feeling of not knowing what was gonna happy that Black people feel. Cause we never had a superhero like this before.”
He added, “We thought that they, you know, white people will kill us off. So it’s a possibility that we could be gone. So we felt that angst, we felt that thing that you would feel from cinema when we watched it. Maybe Scorsese didn’t get that when he watched it. That’s cultural. Maybe it’s generational. I don’t know, but I’m secure in what we did, you know?”
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
What has Chadwick been smoking?! “White people will kill us off”? Is that the mindset he thinks African-Americans had when they went into screenings of “Black Panther”? This is just not the sensible and substance-filled argument I was expecting. In fact, this Boseman interview legitimizes the case for Scorsese’s arguments against Marvel even further.
The fact of the matter is this: “Black Panther,” for all its breakthroughs in diverse casting and, yes, its importance as being the first African American Marvel movie ever, is still very much what Scorsese called a “theme-park ride.” It follows the same beats as every other movie of the MCU, a fixed narrative with predictably rendered plot points and watered-down good vs evil dramatics. It may be the most important roller-coaster ride of the MCU, but it’s still a rollercoaster ride, and there isn’t anything out of the ordinary or risk-taking about it. It was made by Disney with the purpose to make as much money as possible. It adhered to the same MCU blueprint which has frustrated many movie fans, including myself, over the years. I almost wish some of these directors that Disney hires for Marvel extravaganzas could rebel against the mouse house and truly give us their own unadulterated vision. The problem is that if they do go against the creative beliefs of their masters, they end up at risk of losing their job. Just ask Edgar Wright about that.