A colleague of mine - the ever-hilarious Sinead in the City - once made the most brilliant distinction when she said, "I don't watch films, I watch movies" - the difference being that "films" are arthouse and thought-provoking Oscar material, while "movies" are pure entertainment.
It's Roma vs Fast and Furious, Call Me By Your Name vs Avengers, La La Land vs Zombieland.
What's happening now is some of the most prolific and highly lauded directors in Hollywood have picked a side - and it is not going down well.
It all started when Scorsese (Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Departed) told Empire Magazine he'd "tried" to watch Marvel films, "but that's not cinema", instead comparing them to theme parks.
Real cinema, he said, involved "human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being."
Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) then doubled down telling a journalist in Lyon that Scorsese was being too kind because: "He didn't say it's despicable, which I just say it is."
Since then it's just been alert after alert as various celebs and Hollywood heavyweights weigh in.
Veteran director Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) compared the Marvel films to "hamburgers" saying, "it's about making a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation… it has nothing to do with the art of cinema."
The other side of the debate is less heated, due to the respect everyone has for Scorsese and Coppola. Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau literally said, "these two guys are my heroes… They can express whatever opinion they like." And Marvel stars Robert Downey Jr Natalie Portman and Samuel L Jackson all gave similar versions of the same "each to their own" argument.
But Marvel director James Gunn and Captain America star Sebastian Stan actually made solid rebuttals.
Gunn compared Marvel films to old school gangster flicks and westerns saying, "Superheroes are simply today's gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers. Like westerns and gangster movies... not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses."
And Stan told a press junket he always had fans telling him how the films inspired and affected them. They told him things like "now I feel better, now I feel less alone" and he says, "So how can you say these movies are not helping people?"
And those two points are what it all boils down to. Movies are movies. The idea that some are "films" and some are "movies" stems from elitist nonsense - you either like something or you don't. To some of us, Star Wars is just as nonsensical as the Marvel universe, yet I doubt anyone's going to go on record and call it "despicable" and argue it isn't "cinema".
And here's the thing; to a lot of us, Marvel matters. Just because it's got magic powers and stupid spandex outfits, doesn't mean it has no heart or meaning.
Look at the difference Black Panther made to the world. Look at what it means to girls across the world to be able to see themselves as the next Jean Grey or Carol Danvers. What it means to see the underdog fight back against all odds.
And at the very least, what harm is there in creating an escape while the world goes to hell around us?
Surely, the fact that it rakes in the cash at every box office proves it's cinema. People aren't sitting around waiting to download a bootleg, Marvel films are some of the main products taking people to the actual cinema.
Plus, Black Panther was nominated for Best Picture (and six other awards) at this year's Oscars, where Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won best animated feature.
Before that, superhero films have been turning up at the Oscars since the late 70s when Superman received a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects.
Coppola was once nominated in the same category as a Batman film (for Dracula, which is somehow cinema despite the fact that superheroes are not), The Dark Knight won Heath Ledger the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Logan was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and you'd better believe Joker will get some nods next year.
So. All due respect, but if it looks like "cinema", changes fans' lives like "cinema", creates societal change like "cinema" sells tickets like "cinema" and wins awards like "cinema", it's probably safe to call it cinema.
