Smallville: A Season In Hell

So, The Dark Knight was, appropriately, a fairly dark movie. The Dark Knight also made like a million dollars. Since Warner Bros. can put two and two together, they've decided all superhero movies should be dark from now on, and plan to test their theory by doing a dark, Hulk-style reboot of the shadowy, brooding character known as Superman. From WSJ:

"Like the recent Batman sequel -- which has become the highest-grossing
film of the year thus far -- Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies
to be bathed in the same brooding tone as "The Dark Knight." Creatively, he sees
exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner
Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the
characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as
well.

"'Superman' didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted
it to," says Mr. Robinov. "It didn't position the character the way he needed to
be positioned." "Had 'Superman' worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for
Christmas of this year or 2009," he adds. "But now the plan is just to
reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at
all.""

"Hey! We should make our next Superman movie dark, too! Let's just completely ignore that the darkness of character, plot and literal appearance exhibited in The Dark Knight is completely intrinsic to the Batman mythos and inappropriately shoehorn that sensibility to a vast, well-established fictional universe!"

It makes about as much sense as sending the cast of Saved By The Bell to Hawaii for a season. "People like Hawaii; people like Saved By The Bell. Saved By The Bell IN Hawaii? Can't miss! So what if the very title of the show refers to school. We don't need the school!"

Maybe the "dark to the extent that the characters allow it" is a good sign, at least. But probably not. No, it's just not. Sigh.