The Marvel movies are obviously much more lighter than the WB/DC movies. After all, Avengers had bunch of jokes and funny stuff, while Man of Steel was the movie where Superman broke Zod’s neck.
Many people say that the DC movies are so dark gritty, but is that a bad thing?
Let’s face it, two of the best and most influential comic-book movies in the last 15 years were Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. Both of these movies changed the game for comic-book movies. Iron Man was so good because it some queues from Batman Begins, as Marvel did a much serious and realistic version of Iron Man. Many people will say that the first X-Men movies were pretty realistic and dark, but it was only after the Batman Begins movies that Hollywood started to take comic-book movies much more serious. And I think we can all agree that The Dark Knight is defiantly one of (if not) the best comic-book movies ever made.
Marvel are going more for jokes and have much more humor. Most of the time it works, but sometimes it hurts the Marvel movies. They went on this “so many jokes” started with Avengers. Marvel saw that this works for them, and so many of their movies went to a direction that there are lots of jokes and humor in the movies, sometimes too much.
This direction is defiantly what made Guardians of the Galaxy work and what made GOTG so great. Same thing goes with so many other Marvel movies. But in the same time, this direction also did some damage to movies like Iron Man 2&3.
The Iron Man sequel movies had many problems, but I think that one of these problems was that there were too many jokes and too many moments that Marvel were trying to make us laugh so much. Good things come in small dosage. Too much jokes can hurt a movie, especially if it’s not actually a comedy. I mean, how can you take Pepper’s “death” scene, of a moment later there are 4-5 jokes.
It creates a very uneven and inconsistent vibe to the film. I know that sometimes the jokes come after a very sad moment to break the ice, but sometimes you don’t need to break the ice, sometimes preluding a sad moment had much more power and effect. Putting a silly joke right after that takes away from the moment. Like in Thor 2, just after Frigga’s death, we get a stupid silly scene.
One of the things that really gave power for Coulson’s “death” in Avengers was the reactions of the characters to his death. Seeing Iron Man just devastated by this death was just one the money. That great moment would’ve been totally destroys if there was some stupid joke.
The same problem of the silly jokes and too much humor affects the villains. Let’s face it, other than Loki, all the other Marvel villains feel so not menacing and sometimes just silly. Most of these villains are being beat in a very jokey way, and it’s always end with a big laugh. Plus, it doesn’t help that all of these villains are just bad guys for the sake of being bad guys.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not ranting on Marvel. I love the Marvel movies, I enjoy watching them and I can’t wait to see what they are going to do next.
It is interesting to see that Marvel might actually going darker, because “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” had some dark moments, and there were far less unnecessary jokes.
Anyway, Marvel have their own thing. WB/DC have something else. I personally don’t really understand why so many people rant about the fact the Man of Steel was a much darker take on Superman. WB is defiantly going the Nolan direction, and taking a much darker and serious spin on their cinematic universe.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I believe that people got used to the humor and funny jokes of the Marvel movies, so much that they think that every movies should be like that. I’m not saying that Man of Steel was a masterpiece, it had many problems, but being dark and gritty wasn’t one of them.
I want a much darker comic-book movies. Some of my favorite comic-book storyline are a dark take on the superhero genre. Not every comic-book has to be funny and silly. I’m totally ok with the DC movies going the dark road, because it will be interesting to see something different from the Marvel movies.
I don’t think that the DC movies shouldn’t have few little jokes, and I don’t think that WB is going to remove any sense of humor from the movies. Because even in very dark movies, you must have some humor.
But you have to do it smart. Too much humor and the movie becomes a comedy, too less the movie becomes too depressing.
But I like the fact that WB aren’t afraid to let Superman break Zod’s neck. It so different from the Marvel movies, and just makes the character more human. Sometimes I feel like the Marvel characters are too comicy and too good. Humans make mistakes, even superhuman. And we can see how human and heartbreaking Superman reaction was. That scream was really heartfelt, and still gives me chills every time I watch that scene.
But dealing with those mistakes and facing the conciseness makes a great story and character study. I want to see how Superman lives with the fact that he has taken a life. I want to see how the world reacts to that. This just makes it much more interesting, and brings more gravity to the characters. It also brings much more importance to Zod as a character.
Since he played a major role in defining Superman as a man and as a superhero. This kind of direction will be amazing and nerve racking when Batman will be facing the Joker of the DCCU. It’s so different from the Marvel movies, were you have a villain, that the hero defeats that villain (and make no mistake, most Marvel villains were killed off) and everything is ok, and it’s time for the sequel and time to face the next bad guy.
Plus I like me some serious themes in superhero movies, it just makes the movies better. And like I said many lines before, there is a reason why everybody loves Dark Knight.
I don’t want to come-off as some DC fan boy, because I’m not. I find that by loving both DC and Marvel, I can enjoy both world, but I also can critic these two world, without the need to protect them like some fan boy. It will be weird have a heated dissection with myself about who is better.
The bottom line is that I’m glad that WB/DC are going for a much darker and serious direction then Marvel. I’m not saying that I don’t want some jokes, but all needs to be in the right substance. You must have a balance with humor.
I loved Guardians of the Galaxy (which is one of my favorite movies this year) not just because of the jokes. But I think that James Gun n found the right balance with the jokes and gave the movie heart. I really hope that WB/DC will be able to find their own balance with their movies, and make them great. Dark and gritty, but not depressing to the point that I will need Superman to break my neck too.