Books vs Movies

On Black Friday, my husband went to Walmart and got:
I Am Legend
Dark Knight
Taken
Return of the Kings
The Two Towers
...And some other ones that I can't remember off the top of my head..but all basically dark and somewhat depressing (LOTR not so much but, still).

I remember going to see Dark Knight in theatres, and I remember leaving thinking, "this is why we have so many messed up crazies out there. They see movies like this and think it will be cool to be the Joker" (cue 7 out of 10 boys dressing up as the Joker the following October*).

On the other hand - I have read my share of dark novels (The Road - ok, really The Road trumps all other dark novels I have read), and even though they are disturbing and dark, I still enjoy reading them.

I realized over Thanksgiving while my husband and his friends were watching "The Shooter" that the difference is that with books, there isn't the visual. You can see things in your mind, but not in full color in front of your face.

I've thought about what books I will read my kids. The real Peter Pan? Grimms Fairy Tales? A lot of stories are surprisingly violent - but I read somewhere (yep, wont cite it) about how violence in stories can be good for children because they can understand that there are bad things out there without actually having to experience them first hand.

Anyway, point of this is that I don't know if watching violence in movies is actually worse than reading violent books, or if it's just that I prefer books to movies.

*Not a real statistic, just to clarify