Skip to main content

Quality Over Darkness

I sometimes hear people accuse DC's new movies of being "too dark" or MCU movies of being "too lighthearted". There's some definite weight behind these claims. Perhaps Superman really shouldn't be dark. Perhaps Marvel stopping drama for the sake of comedy keeps the movies from being as good as they could be.
But one video essayist (I want to say it was Captain Midnight. Here's his YouTube channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCROQqK3_z79JuTetNP3pIXQ) made a really good point: Dark superhero movies like The Dark Knight can be really good, and light-hearted superhero movies like Guardians of the Galaxy can be really good. It's all in the execution.
A darker and gritty Captain America movie... already happened. And Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of the best movies of the MCU. A light-hearted Batman movie... already happened. And The LEGO Batman Movie might just be the best movie with Batman in it - rivaling even The Dark Knight.
So what matters isn't the darkness. What matters is the quality and how well they make it work in context.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Age of Ultron as a Hawkeye Movie

We sometimes say that Tony is the ultimate antagonist of the MCU. We sometimes say that Avengers: Age of Ultron is a movie more about Hawkeye than any other character. But it turns out: You could rewrite Age of Ultron in a way that takes out Cap, Thor, Hulk, and Nat and you would have effectively the same movie. The plot of Avengers: Age of Ultron  is pretty simple: When Tony Stark gets manipulated into creating a robot to protect the planet that goes awry, the rest of the Avengers try to stop the robot from destroying the earth. Cap, Thor, Hulk, and Nat don't actually help  Ultron or the Avengers to succeed in their goals. So let's re-imagine Age of Ultron  as a solo Hawkeye movie. In this version, Hawkeye becomes the main character, and b ecause of their traumatic experiences involving Stark, Wanda and Lame Quicksilver are still villains. Tony is rewritten as an obvious villain, giving us 4 major villains:  Tony, Wanda, Lame Quicksilver, and Ultron, ...

I Don't Want The Current X-Men Multiverse To Fit In The MCU

Why don't I want the current X-Men multiverse in the MCU? I don't want the X-Men of the current X-Men multiverse to be fit into the MCU. The MCU has had seamless continuity the whole time (except for that one time). The X-Men multiverse has had such bad continuity that they created an entire movie to fix the continuity, and they STILL managed to throw in more continuity snags. The MCU has had more good films than bad films. The X-Men multiverse has had more bad films than good films. Avengers: Infinity War already has too many characters. X-Men: The Last Stand had too many characters. An Avengers/X-Men crossover is just BEGGING to have no emphasis on any given character. And frankly, I'm ready for the X-Men movies to be done. X-Men: Days of Future Past - The Rogue Cut  was both an excellent movie and an excellent resolution to the series. I'm emotionally resolved enough that I want the series to be done there. Not because the series is bad - but because The Rogue Cu...

Thoughts and Prayers Aren't What You Think

We each occasionally hear people giving other people a hard time for sending thoughts and prayers to the people involved in a tragedy. Sitting around feeling sorry for someone else won't do any good any more than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. And when someone says that they're sending "thoughts and prayers" when they're really just sitting around feeling sorry for someone, they're not actually sending thoughts and prayers. When they're just going abou t their normal lives and not thinking about or praying for the victims of tragedy, that is obviously not sending thoughts and prayers. But when someone is actually sending thoughts and prayers, that is a wonderful and essential part of helping people overcome both personal and public tragedy. Prophets and Apostles have clarified for decades that true prayer requires acting on our prayers, not just wishing that God would do it all for us (Sources may include David A. Bednar's April 2006 Confer...