He could have just said…
"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.
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. 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.
But I sometimes feel like I miss grown-up things.
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."