Matt Damon Once Revealed What Superhero Movies Did to Cinema Made Him ‘so Depressed’
Matt Damon has been one of several celebrities who’ve voiced their concern about superhero movies. The Oscar-winner had at one point opened up about his belief that superhero movies were here to stay for a long time. But the longer they stuck around, the more harm he felt they’d do to the film industry. Damon admitted that the thought of that depressed him.
Matt Damon believed studios choose to keep making superhero movies because they’re easy
Damon recently spoke up about his opinion regarding the changing landscape of cinema. The Martian star expressed his disappointment with how the future generation of audiences consumes movies nowadays.
“The way they watch is different to how we did. How can you watch a movie if you are texting? As someone who makes these things I can’t say I love that. Movies as we know them aren’t going to be a thing in our kids’ lives. And that makes me sad,” Damon told Sunday Times (via Comic Book).
This growing habit of movie-watching wasn’t helped by superhero films, which Damon felt studios constantly gravitate to for the wrong reasons.
“It made the most profitable movie, one that could travel around the world. And if you want a movie to travel and play big you want the least amount of cultural confusion. So there is the rise of the superhero movie, right? They’re easy for everyone. You know who the good person is, who the bad person is. They fight three times and the good person wins twice,” he continued.
Matt Damon revealed he found the way superhero movies changed cinema depressing
Damon once went a little deeper in his feelings towards the superhero genre in an interview with The Tech. Speaking candidly, Damon felt that superhero films were pushing away the type of films he enjoyed making. A scenario that didn’t sit right with him.
“I think nowadays I’m so depressed about … things because movies have changed since I was where you are. That was 25 years ago. Because of these bigger influences on the business, now they’re making these giant, giant movies that are these 300 million dollar behemoths, and they’re all about people in capes running around,” he explained. “I’d say what irks me the most right now is that the movies that were my bread and butter, you know, the Good Will Hunting-type movies, or The Informant, or movies like that, that range from say 20 to 60 million dollars and are about people talking to each other, have just evaporated.”
Damon also mentioned how other film genres similar to superhero movies would fade out over time. But there were no signs of the momentum of the superhero genre slowing down. This was a point of worry for The Bourne Identity actor.
“And that’s what’s alarming, like normally these things move in phases and there’s a correction, there’s kind of a re-correction and a rebalance and we kind of get back to how we all like entertainment. But right now, it looks like there hasn’t been that correction,” Damon said. “In fact, I’m thinking of one thing that bothers me; it’s that the scripts have become so simple, and the stories have become so simple and predictable, and we’re not getting tired of them yet.”
Matt Damon would star in a superhero movie if Christopher Nolan was involved
Christopher Nolan might be one of the only directors once capable of getting Damon to star in a superhero project. Despite the actor being displeased with the popularity of superhero movies, he was once a fan of a superhero himself. He and lifelong friend Ben Affleck read Daredevil comics when they were kids, and he considered playing the character in the 2003 film.
“But when that one came along I chickened out, because I couldn’t tell,” Damon once told NY Daily News. “I hadn’t seen the director’s (Mark Steven Johnson’s) work and I didn’t know. So I just said, ‘No.’ Ben was like, ‘I gotta do it.’”
However, if someone like Nolan approached Damon about a Daredevil movie, Damon wouldn’t hesitate.
“I would be in,” he said.
