“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. 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. But part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we've been infantilised by our own taste. Now we're essentially all consuming very childish things: comic books, superheroes ... Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously!

”It is a kind of dumbing down in a way. 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. 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.“

-- Simon Pegg (Scotty of the ”Star Trek“ movies), this week to Radio Times magazine. Couldn't agree more. Although to nitpick, not sure how big of a hit ”Taxi Driver“ was. Better sub in ”One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,“ which was a bigger hit than all of them. 

BTW, there's a poll after the article, asking ”Do you agree with Simon Pegg? Vote now." Please do. The votes against Pegg for stating the obvious are ahead 51.3% to 48.7%. The bastards keep winning. 

UPDATE: A day later, it's 52% to 48% in favor of Pegg. A bit of sanity.