"We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it"
The implication is what I've been fearing since Dark Knight started prison-pounding box office records after it was released in July. As the reports rolled in I could hear the clicking of gears over at WB: Dark Knight was a superhero movie, Dark Knight was Dark, Dark Knight did well, therefore in order to be successful all superhero movies have to be dark.
The funny thing was they also mentioned in the article that they were modelling their strategy after Marvel's since Iron Man did so well, what made it particularly funny was that Iron Man was a fairly upbeat film. The only thing they seem to be interested in imitating, however, is Marvel's plan to release fewer films in general and introduce characters in their own films as a buildup to a big team-up movie somewhere down the line.
"Well that's great," I hear you say, "Dark Knight was awesome, so we'll get a lot more awesome superhero movies! I'm getting my raincoat and going to buy my tickets now!"
To which I would respond that Dark does not always equal Good. Good Equals Good, which is why Dark Knight and Iron Man, two vastly different approaches to very similar subject matter, can both be good movies even though one is dark and brooding and the other is fun to watch.
Dark Knight happened to catch the fancy of moviegoers more than the Iron Man did, but the moviegoing public has always had a soft spot for Batman, back as far as when Adam West played him. And I have no doubt that Iron Man would have gotten killed by Dark Knight had they been in release at the same time, but they still both made assloads of money, Dark Knight made more assloads of money, but there were still assloads of money changing hands. Assloads.
And keep in mind before you buy your ticket for whiny, brooding Goth Superman or self-cutting Wonder Woman or whatever, that it probably won't have Christopher Nolan writing and directing it. Sure a somber tone is great when Christopher Nolan does it, but can you imagine someone like the guy who directed Fantastic Four trying it? Cause that's probably what's gonna happen. In the wrong hands, a downbeat tone, especially shoehorned in where it doesn't belong, can make for teeth grindingly awful movie experience.
Also, an update on the whole Kevin Pereira hair thing: He appeared last night on AOTS with a crew cut, which is not a bad look for him, really. It cuts down on his resemblence to Mac Tonight:
It was explained during the show, by the way, that the previous evening's hair trimming was something that was agreed upon during a commercial break, but the reality went well past what was negotiated.
In the end Pereira came up with a kind of weird way to get even with Munn. The fact that it was based on performance art serving to make it an even weirder. It required an apparatus that looked like what would happen if you had to design a torture machine using only stuff that could be purchased at The Happy Birthday Store.
So it looks like that's all settled, anyway.
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