DC Now Means Darker Cinema

It is, of course, too early for these reports to count as gospel. Nevertheless, it looks like my earlier suspicions about a darker DC Universe on the silver screen are already justified:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080822g.php

Let me say first that I am all in favor of rebooting Superman. While I liked Superman Returns well enough upon initial viewing, it has aged very, very poorly. At the end of the day, while it's a solid bookend to the Donner films, it just was not the Superman film we needed. It was too much of a rehash of, well, everything that had come before. For an example of what I think a reboot should look like--or at least the tone it should take--look to my reading suggestion.

The film's problem was its darkness (and its ultimately yawn-inducing plainness relative to the other films). And now we want to make the reboot darker? So, is Superman forbidden from even cracking a smile now as he stands tall in a black and silver costume? Will Batman start introducing himself as "the goddamned Batman?" And how does one make the Flash darker without killing everything that makes him great, both in and of himself AND in relation to the other characters in the DC Universe?

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad DC's following Marvel's plan to introduce characters in their own movies first and then tie them together into the Justice League. It's what they should have done in the first place. And, it should be said that I've liked the Marvel films leading up to The Avengers (i.e. Iron Man & The Incredible Hulk).

I just find the irony ridiculously rich with respect to tone of these films. Excepting the last few years, these companies' film series are taking the polar opposite approaches to their respective comic universes. I generally consider Marvel's to be a darker comic universe...mostly because DC characters smile more often. (Okay, that's not the only reason, but still...) DC has always felt more fun and sweeping to me, as opposed to Marvel's more grounded approach.

Now Marvel is shooting to make us marvel again at their characters on the silver screen, while thanks to the brain donors over at Warner Bros., DC now means Darker Cinema.

I hate being right about crap like this.


Read: Superman: For All Seasons, by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
Watch: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (dir. Eric Radomski & Bruce Timm, 1993)
Listen to: ME, you idiots who are going to make ruinous films with some of the greatest characters ever created! Don't do it! Do right by the characters!