MyVisionity wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:02 am
ABED wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:56 pm
Superheroes are very silly. It's people playing dress up to fight crime. It works because it's a colorful over the top genre, but if you try to take it 100 percent serious it all falls apart very quickly. Instead of Batman being heroic, if you put him in the real world, then you see him for what he is - the embodiment of white male privilege. He's a rich boy who instead of seaking a psychiatrist to help get over his issues, he dresses up in an expensive Halloween costume to live out a power fantasy. Even Nolan was right to point it out when Ra's al Ghul mocks him for taking his advice about being theatrical too literally.
Taking the comic books and putting them into movies is not the same thing as putting them into the real world. Both the films and comics are fantasy. Of course they shouldn't be taken 100% seriously. But the comic books were never aiming for "silly" or "comedy". They generally played it straight. So too should the movies. I don't mind humor, but the balance has to be right or else you risk disrespecting the source material or misrepresenting the stories and characters to the masses.
I'm not a fan of the notion that Batman needs a psychiatrist or has "issues". In the real world possibly. I don't mind it being used in the Nolan films as humor, but that's about it.
That's just a change in mediums. In a fictional setting, it's still inherently silly. The comics, nor the MCU are aiming purely for silly, they are usually aiming for fun. What prey tell is "the right balance?" That's such a vague idea and it's so subjective. These stories and characters have had many interpretations over the years, so I don't see how you can misrepresent characters and stories that are themselves pliable. And I'd like to point out that many of us grew up in the 80s and 90s so the comics we were exposed to as kids tended to be darker, but the 90s sucked for comics. The oversaturation of grimdark comics was a big reason for the comics bubble bursting. It wasn't a good time for the source material and isn't a great reflection of the genre as a whole.
Batman does have issues. He clearly has issues. He went through severe trauma and his way of dealing with it is dressing up and playing vigilante. I would also like to counter Julie's point that in most interpretations I've read, Bruce Wayne is a saint with his company. He pays his workers well, often hires ex-cons (many of whom he helped put away), is incredibly charitable, and tries to use his wealth to alleviate the poverty and corruption in his city. But, fighting corruption is more difficult than that plus it's an ongoing comic and Gotham has to stay corrupt in order to justify Batman's mere existence. It's a conceit you have to go with. Last point about Batman as this isn't a Batman forum, but I prefer incarnations where even as Batman, his method of dealing with situations isn't just using his fists. Yeah, that's fun, but I love whenever he shows empathy towards the villains like in the animated series and he tells Harley he had a bad day once, too.
Now, DB characterizations aren't as pliable, no moreso than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If whatever hypothetical film isn't Toriyama, it ain't Dragon Ball.
The biggest truths aren't original. The truth is ketchup. It's Jim Belushi. Its job isn't to blow our minds. It's to be within reach.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott
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