Ethan Hawke Slams ‘Logan’ And Other Superhero Movies
Was Logan a great movie, or was it just a great superhero movie? This question hasn’t been posed by many movie critics, but according to MovieWeb, actor Ethan Hawke thinks maybe it should be.
In a recent interview, Ethan Hawke discussed film festivals and their relevance to modern cinema, suggesting that without them, independent movies would be completely obscured by Hollywood blockbusters.
Logan was a spinoff film of the X-Men movie franchise and follows the later years of the titular character, Logan, better known to many by the name of Wolverine.
The movie was critically lauded for its reliance upon cinematic artistry, solid storytelling, and outstanding character development. Director James Mangold also released a black and white version of the film, dubbed Logan: Noir, which ran only in smaller art house theaters and in select cities.
Ethan Hawke is pushing back against Mangold’s attempt to bring comic book movies to the world of art house prestige. Hawke maintains that Logan is only great for being a superhero movie and doesn’t hold a candle to other well-received film festival honorees.
“Now we have the problem that they tell us Logan is a great movie. Well, 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. I went to see Logan cause’ everyone was like, This is a great movie and I was like, Really? No, this is a fine superhero movie. There’s a difference but big business doesn’t think there’s a difference. Big business wants you to think that this is a great film because they wanna make money off of it.”
Alongside films like The Dark Knight, The Crow, Sin City, Hellboy, and a few others, Logan is considered by a number of film critics to be a rare example of how movies based on comic book superheroes can, in fact, carry significant artistic merit.
In 2014, director Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the Oscars for best original screenplay, best director, and best picture for his movie, Birdman, which took superhero and comic book movies to task for their perceived lack of artistic merit. The film starred Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, both of whom starred in major super hero movies.
The animosity between art-film aficionados and comic book fans is a squabble that has been raging for years, as films like The Avengers, Black Panther, and Guardians of the Galaxy dominate the box office. Many filmmakers feel the heavy focus on such movies prevents them from receiving the funding to innovate and make more experimental types of movies.
