14 DAY TRIAL // Even if you’re not a fan of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, which started with “Batman Begins” in 2005 and ended with “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012, there’s no denying the mark it left on all superhero films.
In fact, it marked a new stage in moviemaking, in which many blockbusters, be it of the genre or not, aspired to be huge in scope, serious in treatment and dark in visual style, just like Nolan’s three films. Movie pundits call it the Nolanization of movies, and you can notice it everywhere, from the marketing campaigns (movie posters or trailers) to the actual films.
Suddenly, everything had to be darker, more serious, more violent, bigger and with more dramatic music, preferably by the amazing Hans Zimmer.
The Nolan-era of moviemaking is over
That can’t possibly last for much longer, Matthew Vaughn believes. Vaughn is the director of “X-Men: First Class,” “Stardust” and “Kick-Ass,” and the upcoming “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”
If you’ve seen any of his films, you know that his style as a director is the exact opposite of what makes Nolan’s films stand out. Not that he’s comparing his work to Nolan’s, but he does say that the time for bleak blockbusters is up – because audiences can’t stand to see any more dark movies for much longer.
“People want fun and escapism at the moment,” Vaughn tells THR. “Look at the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think Nolan kick-started a very dark, bleak style of superhero escapism, and I think people have had enough of it.”
Indeed, in a sea of “serious” superhero films, “Guardians” came like a genuine breath of fresh air, which is probably why no one actually gave it a fighting chance at first. “Guardians” became the best selling movie of 2014 because it didn’t strive to be anything more than it was: a silly superhero movie with good acting, good VFX and a good script, trying to show people a fun time.
Of course, that’s not to say that Nolan is at fault: the man had a vision and he just made it happen, it is not his fault that everyone tried to copy him afterwards. But Vaughn makes a good point that audiences are getting tired of all these Nolan-esque superhero films.
Lighter, more fun superhero releases
Criticism of the Nolanization of superhero films reached a peak with the Superman reboot, “Man of Steel,” which was directed by Zack Snyder but had Nolan as producer – and ended up looking as if it was directed by a lesser Nolan clone, down to the Hans Zimmer OST.
Vaughn is right: superhero films need to get back to their origins. It’s nice to see that seriousness can be achieved within the genre, precisely because few thought it could. It’s amazing to see a film that makes these superheroes into real, flesh and bone characters, but that doesn’t mean that everything has to be so dire all the time.
It’s not like you can’t have “real,” well-defined characters in a superhero movie unless the color palette is all blues and grays and the occasional reds, or the scope of everything is huge, overwhelming. “Guardians of Galaxy” proves that this isn’t the case: and we need more of this type of movies too.