It's been a weird weekend for the superhero movie.

Despite their dominance at the box office, comic book films took a beating during both the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards. During Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards ceremony, Nightcrawler director/writer Dan Gilroy blasted the "tsunami of superhero movies that have swept over this industry." 

During Sunday's Oscars ceremony, Jack Black poked fun at the superhero flick during Neil Patrick Harris' opening music number, singing,

"Stop! This is what you sound like: movies, movies, wow, they rock. Listen up, kid, it’s all a big crock. Now it’s market trends and fickle friends and Hollywood baloney. Believe me, Neil, you’re better off just polishing your Tony. This industry’s in flux, it’s run by mucky-mucks pitching tents for tentpoles and chasing Chinese bucks. Opening with lots of zeroes, all we get are superheroes: Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Jedi Man, Sequel Man, Prequel Man, formulaic scripts! And after Fifty Shades of Grey they’ll all have leather whips! In a world where our greens dropping common machines, only screens we’ll watch them on are the screens in our jeans. Screens in our jeans! Screens in our jeans! The only screens we’ll watch them on are the screens in our jeans!" 

The real silly thing, of course, is that, as the Wrap points out, there are nine acting nominees with comic book roles. There's Michael Keaton as Batman and Birdman, Edward Norton in the Hulk, Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers (and its sequel), Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises, Bradley Cooper voiced the badass Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy... and Benedict Cumberbatch will soon be playing Doctor Strange.

Guardians of the Galaxy (which, by the way, grossed $774.2 million worldwide and was the highest-grossing superhero film of 2014) director James Gunn decided to take to his official Facebook page to respond to these quips: 

“Whatever the case, the truth is, popular fare in any medium has always been snubbed by the self-appointed elite. I’ve already won more awards than I ever expected for Guardians. What bothers me slightly is that many people assume because you make big films that you put less love, care, and thought into them then people do who make independent films or who make what are considered more serious Hollywood films.

I’ve made B-movies, independent films, children’s movies, horror films, and gigantic spectacles. I find there are plenty of people everywhere making movies for a buck or to feed their own vanity. And then there are people who do what they do because they love story-telling, they love cinema, and they want to add back to the world some of the same magic they’ve taken from the works of others. In all honesty, I do no find a strikingly different percentage of those with integrity and those without working within any of these fields of film.

If you think people who make superhero movies are dumb, come out and say we’re dumb. But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a ‘serious’ filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken.”

Tell 'em, Gunn.