Rumor: Warner Bros. Imposes "No Jokes" Rule On DC Comics Movies

[SeeDarkly_Xero]

If their rule is "no jokes" then why is so much of what they are doing laughable?

Incidentally:

Spoiler: This is from Man of Steel...

And it's essentially a fart joke [http://youtu.be/T6DJcgm3wNY?t=2m40s]...

... and not a well delivered one.

 

[Piorn]

Whoop-de-Doo, can't wait for more dull, brooding superheroes wallowing in their drama.
No jokes at all? Really? Sure, why don't we start cooking without salt? Build streets without uphill slopes? Or do Math without the number 88? (that actually happened in berlin at some point, didn't work.) I mean seriously, you cripple your writers set of tools JUST to set yourself apart from Marvel? I'm not asking for a comedy, I'm asking for Characters.
But who am I kidding, one glance at the Movie Posters reveals how grey and dull all those characters will be anyways.

 

[Dark Knifer]

I doubt the legitimacy of this.

Even the nolan movies had jokes in them, why pass something this specific seems odd unless its trying to click bait, in which it totally succeeds.

 

[Reaper195]

I don't mind this, to an extent. It will help set them apart from Marvel's movies but if true, WB is kidding themselves if they are not going to allow any kinds of moments of levity in their films. They would just get too exhausting to watch.

Depends on the movie and atmosphere. The Dark Knight was brutally dark and gritty almost the entire movie. I fucking hated that one cop trying to make it 'lighter' by commenting on shit the Koker just did. "Yes! I DID just see that! Shut the fuck up and let me watch this movie!"

Unlike almost everyone else, I'll wait for the movie to come out before I even consider judging.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I don't think the Joker's gonna like this rule.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

HAH. Good one. I'd like to see them try to make an entire movie without an once of comic relief. People will be bored out of their skulls.

 

[Citizen Graves]

That's right, folks, "NO Jokes!!!" Comic-Book Superheroes in tights, cowls and capes are serious business and aren't supposed to be fun!!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Expect a lot of grey and a lot of brooding from DC in the near future, kids.

A brooding Flash is not a Flash at all.

I'm starting to get a little tired of Nolanism and I'm glad Guardians of The Galaxy ran with humor as its main strength.

DC: Nope, none of that. COMIC HEROES ARE SRS BSNS GUIZ.

 

[Azuaron]

What was the best and, arguably, the most mature of the recent (highly successful) Batman films? What was it? The Dark Knight? With the villain of, wait for it, the Joker?

Oh, yes, DC, this is going to go so well.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Hopefully, this rule will not be exercised literally. Because that would be really weird. Every serious movie needs at least one joke, or a character that says something funny every now and again. Like Alfred in Nolan's Batman.

 

[spartan231490]

I'll take: how to guarantee our movies suck, for 1000 Alex.

Seriously, this is just not going to work out well for DC. DC should stop trying to make movies, which usually suck, and focus on TV shows, where they've done pretty good.

 

[Delock]

All I can think of is "Didn't this help mess up Watchmen? The director's cut helped give a lot of characters some actual personality, which included some extra jokes in the mix."

And seriously, that missing content is what makes the theatrical version absolutely inferior to the director's cut. How could you miss the lesson that given more rounded personalities besides "these people are action heroes in costumes" makes for a far more entertaining piece when it's a lesson learned from something you guys made yourselves?

Hell your animated movies have been getting darker with your switchover to the new 52-ish set up (ever since you guys did Flashpoint) and they've still included a lot of humor to help round out their characters. Hell, Arrow, the show where Deathstroke says with a voice so gravelly it could be used to polish diamonds just how he's going to destroy everything about the main character's life in vivid detail, and then proceeds to do so for episode after episode, is half based around humor, and it's popular enough that it's onto season 3 and has spawned a lighthearted Flash spinoff.

You're not just missing the point of Guardians, you are literally ignoring your own history and crippling yourself right out of the starting gate.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

The irony is that when a film does everything straight-faced, then it becomes funny in it's own right. I look forward to laughing at stuff they didn't intend to be funny. I mean, look what people have already done with pictures of superman in the rain...

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

well, admittedly it's kind of difficult to do humor considering the tone they're going for it's not surprising. Trying to do the kind of humor the Marvel films are doing would just make for a very jarring tonal dissonance. You can get away with the occasional witty line or black humor (seriously, Nolan's Batman films are FILLED with lines like that) but trying to be silly or funny would just be weird (just look at how Michael Bay films have a problem of going from somber, "serious" scenes to slapstick and pratfalls). If that's what they're trying to avoid, go for it. Not every superhero films needs to blur together. I seriously doubt they're just going to keep characters from making witty quips; that's allowed.

What was the best and, arguably, the most mature of the recent (highly successful) Batman films? What was it? The Dark Knight? With the villain of, wait for it, the Joker?

Oh, yes, DC, this is going to go so well.

The Joker was also a megalomaniacal madman whose antics were drenched in depraved antics that HE found hilarious but when you realized his antics included terrorism, torture, murder, and all other kinds of horrendous acts he wasn't FUNNY, he was TERRIFYING. His garish costume and demeanor only served to highlight just how evil and frightening he was.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

If its non stop dark and moody its going to become boring to watch. Need humour to build characters. If the no joke thing is correct how are the Justice League going to bond as a team if they all spend their time moody and serious? No witty banter or mocking each other?

 

[Samael Barghest]

While not the biggest DC fan, I have watched enough of their animated movies to know that no jokes between Batman and Superman is definitely a bad thing. Their witty banter aimed at each other is one of the reasons they make such a good team.

 

[Nowhere Man]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

I meant the movie that tried to be all 'lolarmy' at the beginning, but then descended into a boring sci-fi fest using an awkward teenage drama as a backdrop.

Maybe it was so subtle I couldn't notice it, but the only times that the movie felt satirical was during those infomercials.

 

[Gorrath]

No jokes eh? I'm sure the Joker will be a freaking barrel of laughs with this no jokes rule. Batman's number 1 villain can't even get the audience to crack a smile anymore? How grand. I wonder if WB realizes that a lot of people were pretty damned sick of the grimdark by the third Batman, and that continuing that tiresome trend is foolish as hell.