Marvel films are action comedies with unremitting Whedonesque quips and identical endings. And that's fine; I enjoy that. It's fine that you didn't enjoy BvS; but it being a drama rather than a comedy isn't a serious criticism.
I just think there might be a middle ground between action comedy and 98% pure drama.
Something where there's a joke more than once every hour.
Or even a happy moment of peace, where there's not constant tension. A scene where people aren't broody and melodramatic.
OK. So? We go to see movies because we like them, not because your children like them. Sorry!
I'm glad to see that not all superhero flicks have to appeal to 6-year-olds. I'm 40. I don't need to spend my entire life seeing movies designed for small children.
I don't disagree.
There is
absolutely a place for a range of ratings and tones to superhero movies.
My son isn't seeing
Guardians of the Galaxy any time soon because that tone is too risque. And I loved Deadpool because the hard-R non-PG atmosphere worked with that character. It fit the movie. And I'm okay with the harder edged to the Nolan Batman films, and probably thought they could even have been punched up in a few places.
Dark Knight had to compromise between clarity and the rating, so it was unclear what Joker does in a couple scenes (like the one mobster before the pool cue tryouts).
And
Suicide Squad should absolutely not be kid friendly. Dark, black comedy mixed with action is likely the way to go for that.
But when you have Superman in the mix, not going kid friendly is a gamble.
Superman is one of the few characters you should be able to go light PG easiest, without having to go cheesy or soften the character.
DC and Warner are also trying to launch a franchise and get their smaller film properties off the ground. And they're doing it with a movie that has to crack a billion dollars to even really be considered a success. (Unlike Deadpool that only had to clear a hundred million.)
So making a movie that's not kid friendly is
going to hurt your bottom line.
Because when you bring kids into the mix, the money comes too. The biggest movie of the year, the one crushing BvS and Deadpool alike is Zootopia. And I can't help but wonder if part of the reason for that is parents taking their kids to see that rather than BvS. And not just the families like me with a 6yo, but the ones with mixed ages where the youngest is in that 4-8 age range.
And, as I said earlier, the best way to make a movie
adult is not to make it
inappropriate for children. There's a wealth of movies out there - entire sub-genres - that are wholly and entirely inappropriate for kids but also exceedingly juvenile. Like Deadpool...
