Why Are Superhero Movies Always Dark?

I suspect that there are several reasons. From a film editing perspective, it is usually easier to remove light than to add light. It is easier to remove unwanted elements from dark films.

In the days of technicolor, editors used a labor intense three color process. They were adding color to films and editors liked producing bright colorful films like the 1939 Wizard of Oz.

I understand that filmmakers today are shooting in high resolution digital. The like to apply filters and masks to the film to create a consistent look and feel.

You can play around with saturation and contrast with photo editors like Gimp or Creative Suite. It is easy to get interesting looks and feel to a photo.

BTW: An interesting related theme is why have the story lines behind Super hero movies become so dark? The super hero movies of yesteryear simply had the super hero save the day. Today, the movies tend to have extremely dark themes framed by a dark setting.

I suspect that the answer to the second question has a lot to do with the ideological capture of Hollywood.

!pizza