To call director Steven Spielberg a legend is an understatement. The filmmaker has shaped childhoods for a generation and continues to do so with his impeccable balance of grandiose storytelling with a simple artistic touch. He invented the Summer blockbuster with his slasher horror Jaws and has created beloved IPs such as Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park.
The pioneer of blockbusters had a few opinions on the current blockbuster trend of superhero movies being produced continuously. The MCU in particular has been drawing criticism due to its churning of multiple films and TV shows a year, with Martin Scorsese even calling it not cinema. While Spielberg did have similar opinions, he mentioned that he had a favorite in the genre.
Steven Spielberg On Superhero Films
Director Steven Spielberg has been active in Hollywood for over five decades and has been an avid cinephile even before. His latest film The Fabelmans was semi-autobiographical and as shown in the film, he too made films as a kid with his father’s camera and was a huge fan of John Ford. So, Spielberg knows a thing or two about movie trends.
Talking about the avalanche of superhero and franchise films in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg compared it to the trend of Westerns in Hollywood and their slow demise. In an interview with the Associated Press (via Esquire), he said,
“We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. It doesn’t mean there won’t be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns…I’m only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture.”
The director was right about the trend as the industry saw traditional Westerns dying out in favor of newer genres by the end of the 1960s. Westerns have been few since then, sometimes returning in the form of a revisionist Western and the neo-Western.
While Spielberg echoes his contemporaries on the fatigue of the genre, he did give a shoutout to some of his favorite superhero films, with his favorite being current DC Studio chief James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Steven Spielberg’s Favorite Superhero Film
When one thinks of superhero films that have been novel and have redefined the genre, films such as Tim Burton’s Batman, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, or even the Genesis of the MCU Iron Man come to mind. However, director Steven Spielberg had James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy at the top of his list. Talking to the French magazine Omelete (via Far Out Magazine), he said,
“When his projection was over, I left with the feeling of having seen something new in movies, without any cynicism or fear of being dark when needed.”
While the director did give a shoutout to Richard Donner’s Superman starring Christopher Reeves, Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and Iron Man, he still considered the superhero film that put James Gunn on the map to be his favorite in the genre. The film was released in 2014 and has since received two sequels, the latest of which Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.3 was released earlier this year. The original was a surprise hit at the box office, earning rave reviews and earning $773 million against a $119 million budget.
Source: Omelete (via Far Out Magazine)
