Simon Pegg pulled no punches when said that the recent slate of comic book movies are “kind of dumbing down” cinema.
“Because it’s taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about… whatever,” Pegg told the Radio Times. “Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.”
The actor, known for his roles in the “Star Trek” franchise and cult hits like “Shaun of the Dead,” also said in the interview that movies used to have a more artistic bent.
“Before ‘Star Wars’, the films that were box office hits were ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘The French Connection’ – gritty, amoral art movies. Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed,” he said.
“Now, I don’t know if that is a good thing. Obviously I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science-fiction and genre cinema,” Pegg continued. “But part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we’ve been infantilized by our own taste.”
“But I sometimes feel like I miss grown-up things,” he concluded. “And I honestly thought the other day that I’m gonna retire from geekdom. I’ve become the poster child for that generation, and it’s not necessarily something I particularly want to be. I’d quite like to go off and do some serious acting.”
Pegg will next appear in “Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation” and the comedy “Absolutely Anything.” He is also co-writing and will star in “Star Trek 3.”
