I am Sick of the Dark Age

I am just really tired of everything trying to be dark and gritty and cool. It's really getting grating. Now I'm OK with things that are really dark, but everything now seems to be dark and grey and gritty these days. Movies, TV shows, Books, Video Games, everything is trying to be dark and cool. Three things that I saw and played this summer made me write this rant. Fuse, Man of Steel, and the Lone Ranger. Each of these are trying desperately to try and make everything dark and edgy and cool so that people will like them. Let's look at each of them individually

Fuse- It was originally announced as Overstrike and was supposed to be this fun, campy, colorful co-op shooter. And then it was re-branded as Fuse. Everything that made me love this game when it was announced was completely washed away with it's darker color pallet, adding ore gritty violence, and some of the most generic story and game-play ever put to a game. it's just a demoralizing tale of how something interesting can be turned into Generic Slush.

Man of Steel- This movie has received mixed reactions across the board, and i'm finally giving my opinion on it. Wow. this movie is just trying so hard to try and make Superman cool, that it sucks away all color, joy, and happiness so it can be dark, edgy, and cool. A superman movie that's trying to inspire hope and sucks away all joy making a really hollow film.

The Lone Ranger- This one is probably the worst offender of them all. This terrible movie has alot of problems, but the one that stuck out to me the most when watching it was how they transformed a light hearted TV show like The Lone Ranger into some darker and edgier tale. For example, they turn the main villain into a Cannibal. Seriously! What the fuck movie!

I know why this is happening. Movie studios and Game Developers are trying to make their films like Call of Duty and The Dark Knight Trilogy. and it also doesn't help that all of the dude bro doucebags and 12 year olds like this crap because they think anything that has humor or color is "Kiddie" or "gay". Well, i'm fucking tired of it. This dark age fad really needs to die off soon.

Superman himself wasn't even dark in the movie. It was the world that he lives in was dark. The film may have been kinda dark, but it never felt like it was dark just for the sake of being dark. Maybe if the movie came out before Iron Man 3, my opinions would have been different. Because Iron Man 3 had way too much humor to the point where I felt no suspense at all.

Mecha, Man of Steel WAS dark just for the sake of being dark to make superman EDGY ND KEWL.

When I found out what happened to Overstrike I decided never to buy an Insomniac game ever again. It was one of the very few games I was truly excited for. Me and a mate played the demo and we didn't even finish it, it was probably the worst time I've ever had playing a videogame. I'm happy that the DARK AND GRITTY phase has passed for comics though, from the 90s to 2010 everything was dark and gritty, but now it's more, fun and varied and adventurous and you know, ENJOYABLE.

have you ever thought about watching anime? it has a good mix of light hearted stuff and dark stuff.


try gurren lagann

It's the same with comics. They somehow manage to be dark and light-hearted at the same time. But movie adaptations can't mix both dark and light-hearted very well for some reason. This is one of the reasons why comic books are better.

No it's not, you just sound like a complete fucking retard constantly spewing this bullshit about why comics are better, you honestly make me want to hate comics.

Good.

Yes, because we all know Shumacher/Adam West Batman or Reeve Superman campyness wouldn't get shredded by everyone. No matter how much people hail Reeve Superman films, they've aged really badly.

Also Man of Steel isn't as dark as people make it out to be. Just because it has a tone filter and isn't riddled with jokes doesn't make it dark and joyless. Not to mention there was a lot of joyfull moments. Superman wasn't dark either. He was a really optimistic character. Also what do you mean across the board? Last I checked audiences and fans of superman loved it. the only place it got a mixed reception was with critics.

If everyone (including those dude-bros and 12 y/o's) hated light-hearted films Avengers would have bombed. So there goes that point.

I don't mind The Avengers being light-hearted. But what bothers me is that people expect the MCU to be light-hearted, even though Marvel isn't light-hearted all the time. So if people bitch about The Avengers 2 not being as light-hearted as the original, they need to slap themselves in the face.

Gotta love Mecha and Yonny damage controlling over their most favoritest movie in the whole wide world. If you guys like this dark age crap, then by all means like it. I'm just sick of it is all.

Man of Steel wasn't even dark; it was srs. Even if the world is dark later in the movie, well, some big evil shit was happening then.

Besides, repeating the light-hearted formula done by the last four films (I don't know about Superman Returns) would be dull.

@Chobo

Well sorry for not riding the Man of Steel hate bandwagon, but we have are own opinions too. Not everything should be like The Avengers, where thousands people die, yet the characters go eat shawarma right after like nothing happen. It's funny how a film's tone can change a person's opinion. People don't like how Superman kills Zod in Man of Steel, oh but it's perfectly okay to kill Zod in Superman II because it was light-hearted. Nice logic.

@Mecha What bothers me is they expect every hero to be a comedian like Tony Stark. Superman is a "serious" hero. Most of his jokes are subtle, and Man of Steel had those subtle jokes. Last time people complained something was too dark and edgy we got Shumacher Batman.

The reason for the double standard is because in Superman II, Superman and Lois kill Zod and Ursa with joy!

yonny616 wrote:

@Mecha What bothers me is they expect every hero to be a comedian like Tony Stark. Superman is a "serious"  hero. Most of his jokes are subtle, and Man of Steel had those subtle jokes. Last time people complained something was too dark and edgy we got Shumacher Batman.

The reason for the double standard is because in Superman II, Superman and Lois kill Zod and Ursa with joy!

You gotta admit those Bat-Nipples, Bat-Asses, and Bat-Codpieces were a neat touch

It's funny because Tony Stark is suppose to be a bit of a dark character himself, since he suffers from alcoholism in the comics. Which is why Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for the role. In the films, he's still an alcoholic, but he never gets FUCKED up like he does in the comics. Iron Man 3 was suppose to have Tony Stark go through alcoholism, but they replaced it with him having anxiety attacks instead, thanks to Disney.

Well adapting Demon in a Bottle would be shit and boring as fuck, the only reason it got praise was because it was one off the first comics to really deal with alcoholism.

Also cut the bullshit, try actually reading an Iron Man comic, Tony Stark isn't a dark character, and no, posting some stupid random panels doesn't prove your point.

Did I say dark? Sorry, I meant serious. Tony Stark is a more serious character in the comics, than he is in the movies.

Man of Steel was pretty dark; His father dies for trying to save their civilization, his earth-father dies for trying to make the world balanced, Clark is hurt, bruised and even trumatized by his childhood, Clark doesn't know his place, doesn't understand who he is, feels alone and different, Clark wants to know about his real father, but never seems to get the chance, Clark feels devastated that he can't be himself, etc.

How is that dark? It has a serious tone, yes, but I wouldn't call that dark. In the original Superman film, you actually saw the Kryptonians die on Krypton, Pa Kent goes into cardiac arrest. and Lois Lane gets killed as well. Which made Superman go totally berserk. Actually, now that I think about it, the original Superman film had a lot of destruction as well. Yet, people go easy on the film. -_____________-

If those things aren't dark, then please, explain to me: How is Batman Begins then? BB had Bruce being traumatized as a kid, him feeling left out, him feeling alone, his father dying to protect him, etc. 

Those are all similar traits to Man of Steel. Though, don't get me wrong: I'm not saying they're equally as dark, but just that Man of Steel is a pretty dark film as well, with lots of psychological aspects to it. If you can't even see that, then you're as blind as they come.

Also, what does the original Superman have to do my comment? I was replying to Chobo's post about the dark tone of Man of Steel, which has nothing to do with how OTHER people view the original Superman movie.

@Rambo

What does Batman Begins have anything to do with this? Also you're the blind one, since you can't read where I said Man of Steel was a serious film. The only reason why I don't consider it dark, is because there are far more darker comic book movies out there. As for the original Superman film, it has dark elements as well, but you wouldn't call it a dark film now would you?

@Mecha

I compared it to Batman Begins because you've said before it's a dark film. Yet, despite Man of Steel having a lot of the same traits, it still isn't dark. At all. Apparently.  

I did read that. But there's a big difference between being a dark film and having a "serious tone". Plus, my comment was towards the film being dark, to which you tried to defend it as not being. 

No, I wouldn't call it a dark movie, because of the same reason you just said. It has dark elements, but that doesn't make it dark as a whole. The elements and actual execution/Story/Narrative are completely different things, alltogether.

Man of Steel isn't as dark as Batman Begins though. Also I can say the same for Man of Steel. It's not a dark film, but it does have dark elements to it.

Which is also why I said in my first comment: "Though, don't get me wrong: I'm not saying they're equally as dark, but just that Man of Steel is also a pretty dark film"


No, you can't say the same, because there's a difference between the elements and Narrative/Story/Execution in a film. Man of Steel has a dark Narrative/Execution, where as the original Superman movie had a more light-hearted one, while still having some elements that were dark in themselves. There's a big difference between the two.

I know what you said in your first comment. I just repeated what you said, because you said I said Batman Begins was dark. Even though I never compared Man of Steel to Batman Begins in the first place, which makes your comment totally irrelevant.

Man of Steel may have a different narrative, story, and execution than the original Superman film. But if I were to ask you what makes Man of Steel a dark film, you'll likey talk about the deaths of Superman fathers and how alienated Superman feels. Which I can do the same for the original Superman film.