The Big Picture: Done With Dark

[MrMajenta]

i'm all about grim and dark, but i can't take someone seriously when they're trying to be gritty while wearing tights. that's just ballerina emo. and you can't do that. black swan took the market

 

[walsfeo]

I don't know I kinda like my dark stories, although I don't think I've had to experience something light from my childhood all of a sudden becoming gritty (most of my childhood entertainment consisted of game boy games, crash bandicoot, spyro and nickelodeon shows though).

Also because I think it's relevant besides Batman I can think of exactly one dark reboot that worked (and oh man did it work).

Loved that game, even though I pretty much hated the back story. A perfect example of where darkly comic should be used instead of darkly gritty. The game concept was designed to appeal to kids - shape shifting icecream truck mechs and a guy welded into giant wheels do combat? Heck yeah! But I couldn't let my son play the campaign 'cause the cut scenes would have given him nightmares.

 

[Andronicus]

I guess I didn't like Thor as much as other people seemed to. I didn't think it was particularly horrible, just overwhelmingly unnoteworthy. It just seemed like 2 hours worth of Avengers exposition, although in retrospect, it occurs to me that my experience watching it may have been biased as I knew all about the upcoming Avengers movie. Yes, it was nice and flashy and all, and usually pretty interesting when in Asgard and the ice giants' world, but the bits of the movie set on earth I mostly found just cringeworthy.

Anyway, I'll let MovieBob make up his own mind about it when America gets it.

Incidentally, Chris Hemsworth is Australian. That's about the only connection to Australia that I can make that might have led to its early release here, but maybe that's enough?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

so far only Nolan has actually done the gritty thing, mostly because it's REAL grit and doesn't do things for shock or amusement. Hopefully Thor is good.

 

[V Gray]

I'm so sick of the media trying to package adult theme entertainment, and only slapping on a shallow helping of blood, gore and tits.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Can someone enlighten me with the whole Todd McFarlane bashing part?

 

[gphjr14]

Watched it all the way through and you kind of lost me after the "Transformer movies are aweful" bit. Though I agree they are pretty bad, I don't think it needs to be cover addressed over and over again.

 

[Genixma]

Oddly enough Space Viking with Magic Hammer actually sounds like a horrible movie from -insert stereotypical year here-

 

[Sutter Cane]

Although i do agree that sometimes grim'n'gritty goes too far I don't really have problems with movies like Hulk (the 2003 one) and Iron man, as I really like to see movies bring depth to the characters and iron man manages to balance its themes with a crapload of humor, so i think it can really play well to all ages. The fact is it has to be done WELL, and if it's not, it sucks.

 

[MB202]

I agree with Bob, but not really for his reasons. I don't like grim and gritty settings because... Well, they just don't appeal to me. Never have. I don't like excessive violence and I almost loathe anything sexually-related, mostly because it makes me feel like a pervert or sicko whenever I watch something like that.

Also, WALL-E FTW! My favorite movie of all time, by the way.

I agree. Some writers/artists try way too hard in that regard. It makes me almost embarrassed to be reading comics sometimes.

Indeed... Especially in regards of Frank Miller.

 

[walsfeo]

I don't know I kinda like my dark stories, although I don't think I've had to experience something light from my childhood all of a sudden becoming gritty (most of my childhood entertainment consisted of game boy games, crash bandicoot, spyro and nickelodeon shows though).

Also because I think it's relevant besides Batman I can think of exactly one dark reboot that worked (and oh man did it work).

Loved that game, even though I pretty much hated the back story. A perfect example of where darkly comic should be used instead of darkly gritty. The game concept was designed to appeal to kids - shape shifting icecream truck mechs and a guy welded into giant wheels do combat? Heck yeah! But I couldn't let my son play the campaign 'cause the cut scenes would have given him nightmares.

Twisted Metal was always kind of dark (or at least the stories were), this game just ran with it.

Also in this game you have a car (Brimsotne) whose special weapon is suicide bombers (this came out before 9/11 so it wasn't meant to be bad taste).

Oh and I thought the back stories were really well done, but yeah definitely not for kids.

They were pretty well done, I just hated them. I wasn't looking for deep psycho darkness from my "blowing up cars with wacky weapons" game. A lot of what TM was always skirted bad taste, but in a light-hearted way. The suicide-bomber religious nut was just another manifestation of that.

However game play and sound track rocked mightily, and for all of that I love the game.

 

[AntiChrist]

Michael Bay's 'Transformers' is a darker and edgier [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkerAndEdgier] remake of the original series?

I remember the trailers did foreshadow a mature portrayal of an apocalyptic tale of extraterrestrial sentient machines bringing a millennia old civil war to Earth.

The movies themselves however, seemed more like comedy films with a little action thrown in here and there. I have no problem with that - if that's you're thing then go for it. I'd wish the marketing campaigns had been honest about it though.

The films certainly do contain a lot of sex jokes as you point out Bob, but I'm not sure that sex jokes qualify as a gritty remake.

 

[Falseprophet]

I just find it ridiculous that superhero comics are still basically dictated by the direct market, and all but ignoring all the potential preteen readers who are potential future customers. I actually think the Disney/Marvel merger is a good thing, since Disney clearly purchased the latter with the intention of marketing to young boys.

Can you still have superhero books for 25+ year old males? Sure. But why can't you also publish books for the 6-18 year old market, boys and girls?

Uh, yeah. Gritty reboots have gotten silly. I thought we realized this as a culture somewhere around the mid-nineties.

By the way, Nolan's Batman movies are really the only recent superhero movies that might be considered gritty reboots. I don't think anyone is going to call Iron Man "gritty".

Nolan's Batman might be gritty compared to previous film and television versions of Batman. He's not particularly gritty compared to Batman comics of the last 20-30 years.

 

[shrub231]

now to just get the message out that dark is not the best thing since sliced bread.
a lot of things from card games to video games to movies seem to think that there is a morality system needed here, and that the bad guys need to be cooler than the good guys... why exactly?

 

[Powerman88]

I see your point Bob, but.... Kick Ass. That is all.

 

[GiantRaven]

Can you still have superhero books for 25+ year old males? Sure. But why can't you also publish books for the 6-18 year old market, boys and girls?

Because they sell like shit. Although I imagine trying to get comics sold outside of comic stores would help towards that a little (that's easier said than done though really).

The 90's was the best comic age... by a large margin.

Nah, the best age of comics is right fuckin' now.