In this day and age, even back into the late 80’s, comic book movies have been getting darker and darker. IT started with Tim Burton’s Batman(excellent film btw) and gradually progressed from there with Batman Returns, Blade, The Spirit, V For Vendetta, Batman Begins, etc. Nowadays, in order to be successful, you have to have a dark tone with your comic book movies. You can’t keep it light and airy, or else it will flop. But I do ask now, does every Comic Book Movies (from here on referred to as CBM) have to be grim and dark?
To the younger audience it certainly seems so. I admit, no one wants to see Batman in tights running around with an unintentionally “queer” sidekick. They want to see a vengeful, hateful, dark Batman with no sidekicks or absurd gadgetry. Hell, they want to see that with every CBM, even though it doesn’t always work. Films soon coming around like The Green Lantern and Thor seem to be trying to balance the light with the dark but it inevitably leans toward darker tones. Even Warner Bros’ is trying to make light and fun characters like The Flash and Superman draw out their inner dark side. So does a CBM have to be dark to be good? I say this isn’t always right. Superman is usually a bright and cheery hero who saves the day, not a dark, brooding misunderstood man like Batman. The Flash and Green Lantern are more “light” as well, in an energetic, comedic sense. So why try to change it up for the movies? Because it sells.
I mean, look at The Green Hornet and Kick-Ass. They were light in tone but dark with the humor, but that lightness brought near awful box office results. Kids these days don’t want to see these “indie” characters be all bright and happy, they want dark and depressing. The thing is, these characters (and movies) were already pretty light to begin with. They followed the comics pretty well, but people don’t like that apparently. I loved both The Green Hornet and Kick-Ass because the characters weren’t so grim; they were having a fun time, which is something everyone can relate to at some point in their lives. Yet the box office results were beneath expectations, because it isn’t “cool” or “hip” to have fun loving characters. This brings down hope for future sequels because they were good movies with bad results and mixed reviews.
Not every CBM has to be dark. We can have light and fun stuff too, you know. It’s just that the demand for darkness in movies has been so high as of late. And as much as I love his two CBM’s, you can blame Tim Burton for kick starting the whole dark CBM trend. So tell me, do you think every comic needs a dark reimagining to be good, or can it be light and fun and not suck? Tell me in the comments please.