Nicolas Cage has worn the flaming skull twice and the fedora once. He played Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012), voiced Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, then brought the same character into live action in Spider-Noir. He is not technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he has spent enough time in Marvel costumes to argue that these movies are built like a show.
At a recent Fan Expo Dallas panel, Cage drew a line between Avengers-scale superhero films and professional wrestling, and the comparison was not subtle.
“I do say this with love,” he told the crowd. “When I see these 50-plus and otherwise intelligent and remarkably gifted thespians putting on these ridiculous outfits and getting ready for the fight, let’s face it, it’s all cutting to the fight; it’s hard for me not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE.”
In Cage’s telling, wrestling and the Avengers are closer to each other than either is to a traditional movie. That is the heart of his criticism: these stories are less about cinema than about repeatable spectacle. He is not the first person in the business to say as much.
Martin Scorsese is known to dislike superhero movies as an art he often compares the films to theme parks and said they were not “the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” Francis Ford Coppola went further, agreeing with Scorsese and saying Marvel pictures were “not cinema,” then adding that Scorsese had been kind. “He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
Actors have said similar things. Mickey Rourke, who played Whiplash in Iron Man 2, later praised the cast of Law & Order: SVU by drawing a hard line: “the work that you all do is real acting, not like that crap that all on Marvel.”
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Quentin Tarantino said “part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters” “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star.”
Whether that is an insult depends on what you think movies are for. Plenty of people love WWE and love Avengers movies for the same reason: the entrance, the colours, the collision. Nicolas Cage is not denying the talent work of effort that goes into these films or the wrestling matchs just comparing them as an art.
