According to HitFix, Warner Bros. is taking an odd approach when it comes to humor in their comic book movies. Whereas Marvel encourages it and often finds clever ways to insert humor and provide laughs for the audience, apparently Warner Bros. is asking their writers to refrain from putting any humor at all in their DC Comics adaptations.
As it is, Warner Bros. already takes a more grounded and dramatic approach to their superhero films, so I don’t see why they would need to implement a seemingly random rule like this. I highly doubt that people like Chris Terrio (who’s penning Justice League) is sitting there thinking of witty one-liners for Batman and Superman to spit out.
The other thing that’s interesting to note here is that if the studio really is implementing a no joke policy, then what’s going to happen to some of their lighter characters, like Aquaman? Obviously a Batman flick would have a pretty serious and dark tone, but for someone like Aquaman, I would think that the movie would need to lighten up a bit and include at least some humor. The same goes for a few of their other properties.
Apparently, the reason for the no joke policy is two-fold. One, it’s to distance themselves from the tone that Marvel goes for with their films (even though Guardians of the Galaxy, which had some superb humor in it, shattered the box office this summer). The other reason is because Green Lantern had its fair share of jokes in it and that film flopped pretty hard. Although, what the studio doesn’t understand is that Green Lantern failed for having a crummy script, among other things. The humor had nothing to do with it.
Personally, I think that Warner Bros. is just at a loss when it comes to handling their comic book properties. I mean, sure, The Dark Knight trilogy was superb, but everything they’re doing now in order to catch up with Marvel just makes very little sense. I get that they want to have their films be more grounded and dark, that’s fine, and I’m all for it, but audiences enjoy humor and I don’t think that lightening up a few scenes here and there would be such a bad thing, especially for certain characters.
Tell us, do you think Warner Bros. should be implementing a no joke policy? Sound off below with your thoughts!
