Superhero films are ruining the viewing habits of moviegoers, at least according to actress Jodie Foster.
Whether or not you agree with her assessment, the star certainly has enough experience to comment on the business—a former child star, she has been making films for about 45 years now, and has won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs. She has currently taken a new turn in her career by working on the series Black Mirror for Netflix, and says that she would like to work for the streaming service “forever.”
But apparently one of the other big entertainment trend these days—superhero films—has had less of an effect on Foster, who is mostly known for complex character pieces with a lot of psychological depth. In a recent talk with the magazine Radio Times, she explained the problems that she has with the genre.
“It’s ruining the viewing habits of the American population and then ultimately the rest of the world,” she said. “I don’t want to make $200 million movies about superheroes.”
Foster’s problem seems to be that she sees most superhero movies as all about spectacle with little or not focus on character. Of course, many fans of the genre would take exception with that fact—after all, one cannot deny that characters like Iron Man and Captain America have evolved a lot over their years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to say nothing of films like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Conversely, one could argue that the relative failure of many DC Cinematic Universe films comes in large part to focus on impressive visuals over psychological depth.
Though another problem may be the whole “cinematic universe” formula, which Foster seems to allude to when she talks about her problems with modern films in general.
“Going to the movies has become like a theme park,” she said. “Studios making bad content in order to appeal to the masses and shareholders is like fracking – you get the best return right now but you wreck the earth.”
She did add that she would not be completely opposed to taking part in a superhero film, but only one with “really complex psychology.” Maybe Disney or Warner Bros. will send her a script sometime in the future.
