Recently, director Matthew Vaughn claimed that moviegoers are no longer interested in watching dark superhero movies, suggesting that the Marvel way of doing things is best. This could be due to how fans reacted to Man of Steel, but we do not believe fan reaction had anything much to do with the tone.
His comments were mainly directed towards Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, for in his mind, those movies have ran their course, and now moviegoers want something fun and exciting to watch when it comes down to superhero films.
As expected, we have to disagree with Vaughn, because it doesn't matter much if a superhero film is dark or lighthearted, as long as the movie is good.
Lighthearted superhero movies are great when done right and they make a lot of money due to the fact that the whole family can come out and enjoy what these films have to offer. Darker toned movies are different since they usually do not attract the eyes of children due to the lack of clowning around. However, adults and teenagers have no problem hitting the theaters if a dark superhero film lives up to expectation.
Let's take a look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Man of Steel, because these films are prime examples of why darker superhero films can still be successful.
The Winter Soldier in our eyes is the darkest Marvel movie yet. There weren't a lot of jokes thrown about when compared to other films in the cinematic universe. At the end of the day, it turned out just fine, and fans loved it. Many even went as far as to dub the movie the best Marvel film yet.
On the matter of Man of Steel, it was clear - from all the trailers and the fact that Christopher Nolan was involved - that this movie was going to have a similar tone to the Dark Knight trilogy. Knowing this, fans went ahead still, and the movie made over $700 million worldwide.
Now, granted Man of Steel wasn't as good as Captain America, but that had nothing to do with the seriousness of the movie. The pacing was the main problem, along with the director's inability to find balance between dialogue and action.
At the end of the day, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will prove once and for all if going dark is the wrong move, or just another way of creating a movie.
