Ketchup
08-27-2014, 01:55 PM
Has Warner Bros. Decreed The DC Movie Universe Should Be Joke Free? (http://io9.com/has-warner-bros-decreed-the-dc-movie-universe-should-b-1627507951)
According to Hitfix, Warner Bros. has issued a mandate that its DC superhero movies all be joke-free. And I don't mean they don't want to make comedies, I mean they don't want to have a single joke in any of the nearly 10 movies they have coming up.
I could get into a whole thing about how I think the DC pantheon is infinitely more suited to being less serious than Marvel, but I won't. Instead, please think about the future ramifications of this. Are we really going to have a Flash movie where Barry Allen isn't allowed to crack wise? Is The Flash going to be as dark and tormented as Man of Steel? Because that sounds horrible. Will the Shazam movie be joke-free? Will we watch a movie about a 10-year-old who turns into an adult superhero without any humor whatsoever? That's madness.
Look, whether you really love DC's movies or not, the thing that kills me is that humor is a basic narrative tool. That's like trying to write a book without metaphors — yes, you probably can, but why would you? I'm not saying Man of Steel 2 needs to be screwball comedy, but can you really tell me audiences will enjoy it more if they're never given a single reason to smile? You'd think the Marvel movies — all of which had humor, and the most recent, Guardians of the Galaxy, was pretty close to an outright comedy, might have shown WB that perhaps audiences might want more from their superheroes than brooding and angst, but apparently not.
DC continues to show how adept they are at making great well rounded movies. If this proves to be true.
According to Hitfix, Warner Bros. has issued a mandate that its DC superhero movies all be joke-free. And I don't mean they don't want to make comedies, I mean they don't want to have a single joke in any of the nearly 10 movies they have coming up.
I could get into a whole thing about how I think the DC pantheon is infinitely more suited to being less serious than Marvel, but I won't. Instead, please think about the future ramifications of this. Are we really going to have a Flash movie where Barry Allen isn't allowed to crack wise? Is The Flash going to be as dark and tormented as Man of Steel? Because that sounds horrible. Will the Shazam movie be joke-free? Will we watch a movie about a 10-year-old who turns into an adult superhero without any humor whatsoever? That's madness.
Look, whether you really love DC's movies or not, the thing that kills me is that humor is a basic narrative tool. That's like trying to write a book without metaphors — yes, you probably can, but why would you? I'm not saying Man of Steel 2 needs to be screwball comedy, but can you really tell me audiences will enjoy it more if they're never given a single reason to smile? You'd think the Marvel movies — all of which had humor, and the most recent, Guardians of the Galaxy, was pretty close to an outright comedy, might have shown WB that perhaps audiences might want more from their superheroes than brooding and angst, but apparently not.
DC continues to show how adept they are at making great well rounded movies. If this proves to be true.