"Dark & Gritty" Rant

You may have heard a lot of people use the phrase "dark & gritty" when describing a film, especially superhero films, because this apparently is the big thing these days, that in order to appeal to the average movie going audience because they like dark & gritty movies, and anyone who has been paying attention to this is sick of it, but of course if you pay even closer attention to it then you can see how bullshit this trend is, because in fact very few movies have been following it, and I'm going to talk about those movies that do follow this trend and point out why it is in fact not a trend at all.

Now a lot of films over the years could be considered dark & gritty going all the way back to the early 20th century, but let's talk about the superhero movie that has restarted this "trend" The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is a fantastic movie and everyone loves it because it felt so real, so well made and took itself very seriously. Now no one will ever complain about a Batman movie feeling dark & gritty because...well it's fucking Batman, that's kind of his thing. So let's take a look at every superhero movie circa. 2008 and see how many follow this trend.

Iron Man: yeah okay the opening may have been DG but everything after that was balls to the walls fun.

Incredible Hulk: this one could be argued that it's DG but let's be honest, the source material can be pretty dark at times when you think about it, I mean a creature like the Hulk is going to leave some physical and psychological issues on a man, in fact considering what this film could have been about, it wasn't really all that DG.

Watchmen: again, sort of comes with the territory.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: did this movie ever actually take the time to set up a tone? It was a piece of shit.

Kick Ass: Dark comedies don't count as dark & gritty

Super: repeat previous statement (But this movie sucks)

Iron Man 2: Same as Iron Man 1

The Green Hornet: oh fuck off if you think this is dark & gritty

Thor: (sarcasm) oh yeah I'm sure a movie featuring the rainbow road is dark & gritty

X-Men First Class: ironically all the other X-Men movies were DG but they came out pre-Dark Knight

Green Lantern: oh fuck off again

Captain America: How can this be DG? Cap America is probably the most optimistic superhero there is

Chronicle: okay this is kinda DG

Ghost Rider 2: this probably would be DG if it wasn't for the fact it's Nicolas Cage

The Avengers: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah right!

Amazing Spider-Man: just because a film has a lot of scenes at night doesn't make it DG

The Dark Knight Rises: what do you think?

Dredd: also DG

Iron Man 3: The Mandarin is a drunk actor who supports Liverpool...

Man of Steel: okay so this movie is DG and is the only one that doesn't fit

The Wolverine: Eh, I guess...but not really

Kick Ass 2: refer to Super

Thor The Dark World: it has Dark in the title and that's about it

The Winter Soldier: Mature themes, colourful pallet scheme

Amazing Spider-Man 2: If I don't consider the first one DG then what do you think this one is?

X-Men Days of Future Past: Yes

Guardians of the Galaxy: .....................................................................................Fuck no

So out of those 27 movies only 7 of which are actually DG so let's talk about each of them shall we? First off, Watchmen, Dredd, Dark Knight Rises, X-Men Days of Future Past all have the excuse on being based on source material pre-Dark Knight so they're just sticking to what tone they should be, so that that just leaves 3 movies. The Incredible Hulk, Chronicle & Man of Steel. Now tell me, do 3 films out of 27 seem like a trend to you? Because that comes across as a minority to me, not the majority, and even within those 3 films, only one of them is unjustified. Incredible Hulk is only sort of DG and could easily be argued against it. Chronicle's tone is completely fitting with the story & characters and matches the rest of the film. And then there is Man of Steel...now to be fair I still like this film and I give em credit for trying to do something different with the character but the tone of the film is completely out of place given the theme & characters, it is just too unfocused, the DG tone is completely wasted and the story would have worked just as well if it was still light hearted and colourful like the original Superman.

-Danny