10 Bonkers Theories Roger Ebert Had About Famous Movies
6. "Comic Book Movie" Is A Derogatory Term
What Ebert Said
Ebert said a lot wrong about Batman Forever - mostly that it was better than Batman Returns (whose blend of film noir and Batman didn't work because there ARE no heroes in noir - which misses the whole point about Batman's Burton, of course) - but the worst was the suggestion that it deserved to be more than just a comic book movie.
The suggestion from his video review at the time was very much that the genre was a reductive term, that somehow the film couldn't be great and also a comic book movie simultaneously.
Somewhat erroneously on a more basic level, he also claims Jim Carrey's Riddler looks like his character in The Mask. Sure, he's green, but they're not even close.
The Reality
Several billion dollars and countless delighted fans disagree that the comic book movie genre is somehow inferior. And there are tens of complex comic book movies that are far more than empty spectacle and opportunities to fetishise the costumed characters.
So suggesting that there cannot be nuance or complexity under that banner in such a dismissive way was terribly wrong-headed.