Chris Hemsworth Opens Up About Superhero Movie Critiques

As we get the summer blockbuster season underway, right at the start of Cannes, movies seem to be in flux. We're not sure what's going to bring audiences back to theaters, but everyone has an opinion.

Some of the pressure on the box office stems from Hollywood focusing on tentpoles like Superhero movies over the last two decades.

Those movies took a lot of heat in the trades, particularly from Martin Scorsese and even shots from Coppola and Ridley Scott.

In a new interview from The Times of London, Chris Hemsworth, who stars as Thor in many a Marvel movie, opened up about what it was like hearing criticisms from some of the greatest living filmmakers over superhero movies.

Hemsworth told The Times, “It felt harsh, and it bothers me, especially from heroes. It was an eye-roll for me, people bashing the superhero space... Those guys had films that didn’t work too — we all have. When they talked about what was wrong with superheroes, I thought, cool, tell that to the billions who watch them. Were they all wrong?”

Hemsworth stars in the new Mad Max movie this summer, Furiosa, as well. So he's no stranger to these blockbuster movies that seem to carry the box office year in and out. He went on to elaborate his feelings on the changing box office.

He said, “Cinema-going did not change because of superheroes, but because of smartphones and social media. Superhero films actually kept people in the cinemas during that transition and now people are coming back. So they deserve a little more appreciation.”

Hemsworth continued, “Look, I grew up on a soap opera. And it used to bother me when actors would later talk about the show with guilt or shame. Humility goes a long way. One of the older actors on Home and Away said, ‘We don’t get paid to make the good lines sound good, but to make the bad ones work.’ That stuck with me.“

He has a point when it comes to the respect for the material and who it is meant to entertain. He did the work that paid, and did a great job at making Thor a character audiences knew and loved.

But it sounds like he doesn't take it too personally.

"But hey, it’s all a lesson,” Hemsworth continued. “And if I ever went back to [Thor] I’d wonder how we could change it again. But there is a superhero curse in the sense you get pigeonholed, and I’ve felt a little hamstrung with what I could do, so [I] desperately wanted something to scare the shit out of me. And Furiosa did.”

Let me know what you think of all this in the comments.