Steven Spielberg Says "Superhero Movies Will Go the Way of the Western," Sounds Like a Saltine
Sigh, Steven Spielberg is in the news not-so-subtly displaying salt and disdain toward the state of the movie industry again, especially the blockbuster glut of superhero and tentpole movies. He and fellow washed up billionaire auteur George Lucas have gone on record predicting a Hollywood implosion because of the blockbuster-dependent structure. Now, while doing promo for Bridge of Spies, his upcoming Cold War thriller with Tom Hanks, he's added to those comments with specific darts at the superhero sub-genre.
AP: You caused a stir two years ago when you predicted Hollywood was headed toward an "implosion" because of the over-abundance of mega-budget movies. Do you still feel that way?
Spielberg: I do. I still feel that way. 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. Of course, right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I'm only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us.
It's not that he's wrong per se—no fad lasts forever and superhero fatigue is already kind of setting in tbh. But my guy sounds like a cantankerous saltine every time he talks about contemporary Hollywood. Meanwhile Quentin Tarantino rightfully debunked his ominous old-guard finger-wagging in his interview with Vulture: "I don’t know why Spielberg and Lucas would be complaining about movies like that. They don’t have to direct them...But people said what Spielberg is saying all through the '90s, and they said it all through the '70s."
It's just kind of wack to hear and see the legend making headlines whining about the current state of things when he hasn't contributed a good movie in literally 10 years. 2005 saw him drop both War of the Worlds and Munich, two very different and very great films. I haven't even bothered to see a Spielberg film since then. But if that's how he feels then it's probably good he and Dreamworks are probably definitely taking their talents from Disney, super-factory of superheroes, to Universal. You know, the place where Spielberg just helped contribute to blockbuster box office mania with that indie film Jurassic World.
Either way, stop harping about the times and make something worthwhile again my guy.
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