Couldn't agree with you both more.

I think the SPIDER-MAN films are the one set of superhero films that have not quite gone completely in the direction Paul described. In regards to the BATMAN films in particular, Joel Schumacker (or whoever it was) went to far in the goofy direction with his last two BATMAN entries, and for me they are unwatchable. For James Bond, both Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan in their later films just got too goofy and tried to be too funny for my taste.

Basically what I'm noticing is a shift back to the "too serious side" and my hope is that they can once again find a good BALANCE between humor (without getting outlandishly corny and undermining the drama) and seriousness (but not so serious that you want to run out of the theater and slash your wrists)....so I agree with Andy on that. That's why I think the SPIDER-MAN movies have succeeded so much, and that's the type of balance that needs to be in these other films...though I am enjoying humorless films right now in the BATMAN and Bond series. Nolan has always made pretty depressing films anyway, and for now the humorlessness of the Bond character fits because these films are his beginnings, so to speak. I'm sure with the third film he'll lighten up a bit, but hopefully not too much. Anyway, just some thoughts to add to what has already been said.

mkaroly wrote:For James Bond, both Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan in their later films just got too goofy and tried to be too funny for my taste.

I thought Casino Royale was great, because in this case I appreciated the return to a more serious tone in a Bond film. I also think a serious approach suits a spy film (even a Bond film) better than a comic adaptation. But I do hope that future Craig films find a way of interjecting humor (without becoming campy like Moore's).

But if you look at the great adventure movies of the past 30 years -- be it old fashioned movies like Star Wars or Raiders, gritty action films like The Lethal Weapon or RoboCop, or even violent historic epics like Last of the Mohicans or Braveheart -- ALL of them had humorous moments when the audience could "come up for air". Yet somehow a movie about a crimefighter who runs around in a cape and black tights is above such "frivolity".

I actually think that Batman Begins had plenty of humor cutting through the seriousness (any scene with Michael Caine, and moments like Bruce Wayne excusing the behavior of his dinner companions with the line "Excuse them, they're European"). Dark Knight was obviously "darker", but even there there was gallows humor. The Spider-Man and X-Men movies did a good job balancing faithfulness to the comics with well-placed levity (like Wolverine's "You're a d**k" line to Cyclops).

Casino Royale worked because the plot, while "grittier" than the increasingly silly Brosnan Bond films, still allowed for glimmers of the old-school, Connery-esque witty banter ("I'm the money" ~ "Every penny of it"), which was sadly omitted in Quantum Of Solace. Hopefully, Craig's third 007 adventure will find the delicate balance that CR had, but if it follows the same downward trajectory of the Brosnan films, I doubt it.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that MJ. You're pointing out one or two lines of dialogue in those movies -- it hardly makes them "humorous." Particularly THE DARK KNIGHT and CASINO ROYALE. The latter isn't as bleak as the pretentious Batman film but this mix of "humor" and seriousness -- man all I can say is I didn't get that out of the movie at all.

Nolan has always made pretty depressing films anyway,

He has Michael. And I appreciate his visual style, but I'm not a big fan of his movies...even MEMENTO I found overrated. And I confess that I hated THE PRESTIGE, thought it was absolutely ludicrous from a narrative angle -- as much "style" as it had, the story was a joke, particularly the ending. An utterly pointless movie.

Monterey Jack wrote: The Spider-Man and X-Men movies did a good job balancing faithfulness to the comics with well-placed levity (like Wolverine's "You're a d**k" line to Cyclops).

I think the humor in the X-Men movies works well (thanks mainly to Hugh Jackman), but the films are too bogged down by incessant, preachy statements about bigotry.

I did admire how Magneto personified the hypocrisy of radical revolutionaries -- his having been a victim of a nation trying to exterminate "undesirables" to make way for for master race, and then pursing his own genocidal agenda in the cause of HIS master race.

But otherwise, while I agree that using the mutants as a metaphor for oppressed minorities was valid, the films just harp on it endlessly. It just gets tiresome.

AndyDursin wrote:And I confess that I hated THE PRESTIGE, thought it was absolutely ludicrous from a narrative angle -- as much "style" as it had, the story was a joke, particularly the ending. An utterly pointless movie.

The Prestige really held my interest...until it was revealed that David Bowie's teleportation device duplicated people. That was much too far-fetched. I also found it impossible to accept that Hugh Jackman would go so far as to kill himself so his "copy" could pull the same trick (and then kill himself in the next show) just to one-up Christian Bale.

Paul MacLean wrote:

AndyDursin wrote:And I confess that I hated THE PRESTIGE, thought it was absolutely ludicrous from a narrative angle -- as much "style" as it had, the story was a joke, particularly the ending. An utterly pointless movie.

The Prestige really held my interest...until it was revealed that David Bowie's teleportation device duplicated people. That was much too far-fetched. I also found it impossible to accept that Hugh Jackman would go so far as to kill himself so his "copy" could pull the same trick (and then kill himself in the next show) just to one-up Christian Bale.

That's the whole problem with the movie -- it holds your interest until you find out it's a veritable shaggy dog joke. I couldn't believe or dramatically accept the film's basic premise for a second. Once it was revealed it was like a house of cards that completely fell apart.

THE PRESTIGE also held my interest and I loved how creepy it was visually. I guess I didn't so much mind where the story went because I bought the idea that Jackman's character was just insane enough to do it. And I enjoyed Julyan's score as it fit well as a brooding "pedal-tone" through the movie.