Have movies and TV shows become overreliant on comedy?
Have movies and TV shows become overreliant on comedy?
I saw a post on Reddit, didn't know if it was posted here yet (I'm using Thunder, and idk if any other client has the ability to search in communities), so decided to do so...
I have now come to hate Marvel movies. The only recent movie that actually made me feel like, "Yeah... There's a consistency here." was Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Sure it's got humour, but so did the other 2. That's it's shtick. Old music, fancy visuals, over-the-top comedy mixed in with some serious tones.
The Flash would've been good, if only they stuck to the fucking tone.
Imagine... You lost your mother in a murder, and your dad is wrongfully convicted of the crime. You gain superpowers and one day, get a chance to maybe right that wrong. BUT... By doing so, you will tear the fabric of reality. And after an attempt at righting the wrong, you realise the consequences of your actions. And have to put things back the way they were, even if that means going back to the world you were in before.
Bro that is SOOOOOO fucking heavy. And not to mention the fact that there's some scenes in the movie where they definitely delivered on that pain... Barry Prime lashing out at Neo Barry for a Mom joke, because he's never had one and Neo Barry seems to take her and his entire life for granted. And instead of acting out like a child, Neo Barry actually behaves like an adult and apologizes... Knowing that even if he doesn't understand why, Barry Prime probably has a reason.
BRO how fucking cool would a movie that maintained this, have been? HUH??!!
But no. They smash all that into the ground because Spider-Man No Way Home brought back old actors, so shall we (for no reason).
Plus the incessant dumb jokes! And the fact that they forgot that he has the calories limitation at the beginning of the movie.
LIKE BRO.
(I'm sorry this turned into a The Flash rant.)
I listen to a podcast that has a theory about this. The comedy in those kind of movies was always there, it just changed form.
Prior to the sort of wry, Joss Whedon-esque dialogue tons of action movies used slapstick for levity. The verbal jokes were the domain of comedy movies.
Then after Avengers made a billion dollars studios started aping the style and comedy as a genre in Hollywood just sort of stopped existing in favor of dramedy and action-comedy.
That would be really interesting to listen to, because that's exactly how I feel. Avengers 1 to avengers 2 had some great comedy. I felt natural, like a bunch of friends, just goofing around while trying to save the world.
Now it feels so forced in, like it's clearly some Hollywood executive saying make it be funny instead of it naturally feeling like friends hanging out
I don't think you can just lump verbal jokes as comedies. Lots of movies used the occasional cheap verbal joke, especially action movies. What changed is reducing the movie making process to a formula based on what talented directors do. Every scene now needs a joke or an action sequence no matter what, maybe an exception for 1-2 scenes to establish a story at the beginning. This completely destroys the ability to build drama, or have sad scenes when appropriate. They also don't hire directors that would fight them on this either.
Well said.
Hell, look at the James Bond, John McClane any of Arnold’s heroes. They all joke.
True. But I'd argue those jokes were "one liners". They wouldn't use a one liner all the time. After a while you knew there was one coming, but that was because everyone got used to that style.
These days it's more like "every other liner" jokes. Character A says something, and character B cracks a joke. Then Character C says something and character A cracks a joke. For the entire movie.
Pretty interesting.
I remember when comedy wasn't just obvious jokes or sarcasm. Now everything is sarcasm or sarcastic. OR BOTH.
Adam Devine, is that you?
https://deadline.com/2023/08/adam-devine-marvel-theory-superhero-movies-ruined-comedies-1235457090/
Look at the original 1930's version of the movie 'Scarface.' The Pacino version is pretty close to the original, but the first one has an inept hood in the crew for comic releif.
Hollywood has been putting comedy into dramas since the beginning. It comes and goes in waves.
Interesting. Will watch.
I think that's why I liked the movie watchmen, it was just dark and real feeling
I really like the suicide squad. It's brutal, funny and entertaining, but even then after rewatching it maybe the 4th time i keep thinking: can't you go a minute without a joke?
Not comedy, but postmodern self-awareness to the point where the content doesn't take itself seriously anymore.
I recently saw a really good video about this called "Well, that just happened": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLAahsH9e7k
I agree.
The concept of self-awareness is best served in small doses or full blown parody pieces.
This new method of mild self-awareness is... mild.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=XLAahsH9e7k
https://piped.video/watch?v=XLAahsH9e7k
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Vocal comedy, yes.
You're lucky if you get one good visual gag these days. Pain from doing something stupid will never NOT be funny !
True. True.