There's no doubt that comic book and superhero films are here to stay. They are a billion-dollar business, after all, making them the entertainment industry's life blood by some metrics.
Nevertheless, many of the industry's heavyweights have derided the many Marvel franchises as lacking artistic merit—or even injurious to the film industry as a whole.
But Elizabeth Olsen—starring again as the Scarlet Witch in Marvel's newest film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—isn't having it.
In a new interview with The Independent, Olsen said she finds a lot of the criticism of Marvel's output unfair, and she gets "a little feisty about" the perception comic book and superhero movies are somehow a "lesser type of art."
A handful of iconic Hollywood directors have been outspokenly against films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, especially because of the way they have changed the industry--smaller, auteur-led films are now harder than ever to get financed.
Martin Scorsese has derided them as "more like theme parks," and winner of this year's Best Director Oscar winner Jane Campion recently told Variety simply, "I hate them."
But perhaps nobody has been as direct as three-time Best Director nominee Ridley Scott, who has called the films "fu*king boring as sh*t."
Olsen, a Marvel mainstay who cut her teeth in small-budget, highbrow independent films, has had it with these criticisms--especially given how much work goes into them. She told The Independent.
"I’m not saying we’re making indie art films, but I just think it takes away from our crew, which bugs me."
She went on to point out that crews who work on Marvel movies are often the same artists and technicians who also work on Oscar-winning art films helmed by the auteurs who seem to hate them so much--and that irks her.
"I feel diminishing them with that kind of criticism takes away from all the people who do award-winning films, that also work on these projects..."
"I do think throwing Marvel under the bus takes away from the hundreds of very talented crew people. That’s where I get a little feisty about that."
On Twitter, many applauded Olsen for taking a hard stance toward what many feel is artistic snobbery in the industry.
But there was no shortage of those who agree with the likes of Scorsese and Campion.
Art or not, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a $185 million opening weekend despite mixed reviews from both critics and fans, so these films are not likely to go anywhere any time soon.
