Open Forum Friday: Do You Prefer Your Comic Book Movies Serious or Funny?
With the release of new trailers this week for both Green Lantern and The Green Hornet, the door has been re-opened on a long-standing debate over whether or not comic book movies can or should have a sense of humour. For many years, comic book fans had to put up with campy interpretations of their favourite heroes, and it was only in the late ’80s and early ’90s with Tim Burton’s Batman that we started to see the more dark and serious takes on some of these characters. This led to a couple of decades of overly melodramatic superhero adaptations, and a fanboy culture that would not permit anything even remotely resembling a joke in their high brow masterpieces. A couple of years ago, however, Jon Favreau was able to inject a lot of humour in Iron Man, and the result was a massive box office hit. Is it time we put the funny back in the funnybooks?
I think the obvious stance here is that it really depends on the movie and the character, and clearly there are adult graphic novel adaptations that were never meant to be goofy or fun. But when it comes to the traditional superhero flicks, even franchises that would have seemed appropriate for a more comedic take (ie. Fantastic Four) still ended up getting slammed for indulging in it. On the other hand, as great as Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies have been, their humourlessness can also be pretty oppressive at times. Personally, I think just about any major blockbuster (particularly a summer blockbuster) can be improved with some well-placed comic relief. Steven Spielberg is a master of this, and I am always open to it, as long as it is well written. What do you think? Do most comic book movies work best when they take themselves seriously, or are comics an inherently funny medium? Which superhero movies have successfully found a balance between the two? Are Green Lantern and The Green Hornet simply trying too hard to make us laugh? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
