Empire Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters

[shadowgrin]

Based on the people who criticise the old Batman movies and the characterisations therein simply because they're not dark like the recent ones.

The Burton Batman movies seem dark to me. Not Begins or TDK dark but dark nonetheless in its own way. May be it's the "gritty"part that distinguishes the "dark"of Begins/TDK as compared to the Burton ones.

[Andrew]

Based on the people who criticise the old Batman movies and the characterisations therein simply because they're not dark like the recent ones.

Ah, like so. No doubt the Batman movies of yesteryear did suck huge nuts (although I was still a fan ), but as Joe said, Burton's versions weren't all that bad. Schumaker screwed them up after that.

But yeah, you have to give it to Batman, he was written in a dark style, so I guess people aren't too off when they criticise the old ones.

But I hope we're only talking about the Batman movies, I don't think the general consensus of people of now is that every movie should be "dark" and "gritty". I can't imagine a movie like Transformers to be "dark" and "gritty".

I won't lie, I'm a big fan of the "dark" and "gritty" theme, Fight Club is one of my favorite movies of all time, but I don't want every movie to follow the trend.

I don't mean to say that people who say that don't have a point, the tone of the latest Batman movies certainly fits the characters origins and works very well. I just don't think Burton's films are as bad as they're sometimes made out to be, it's not as though they were the same interpretation as the TV series with Adam West (though I think that still has its place in the character's history and various interpretations).

I guess it isn't the consensus but reading the things people say about some films these days (not necessarily here but in other forums) there seems to be a bit of disdain for movies that aren't dark and a bit of an elitist reverence for movies that are. Of course, that could be just the usual Internet approach of "I'm smart because I like these movies and you're dumb if you like anything else". The Batman movies are probably the most prominent examples of it but I've seen movies in other genres (Kevin Smith movies, for example) dismissed for similar reasons. That's not to say those movies are above criticism of course, far from it, but I don't think a movie is necessarily bad because it has a lighter tone.

But like I said, maybe it's just an online thing.