4. Using Franchise Building Stingers
I'm all for superhero films setting up a separate universe so that they can all be linked together. It was the next, logical step for the films to take so that they more closely gave us the superhero experience on screen. I remember years ago a throwaway line in Batman Forever Dick Greyson is attempting to catch up to the travlling circus after his parents have died and Bruce Wayne attempts to dissuade him with It has to be almost halfway to Metropolis by now. This blew my mind. If Superman lived in the same world as Batman, why not just call him up and get him to help out with Two-Face and the Riddler? Keep in mind, this is before I learnt that Batman absolutely hates asking people for help. So comic book films building franchises is good. The way its being done, particularly by Marvel, is starting to become a detriment as whichever film you watch involves a stinger building you up for the next film. Keep in mind you've just sat through a two hour film devoted to one character, can't we revel in the equilibrium of a job well done before we get teased for another movie? Again using Captain America as an example, the film ends with Steve Rogers waking up in the real world alive and well but having lost the world and people he knew. It's a solemn victory that leaves us guessing where he will go on from here. But you better buckle your seats, comic book fans, because here comes the Avengers trailer so quickly cut that if you blink you might just miss Hawkeye firing at something off screen or Thor standing next to a table. It completely breaks the tension by sprinkling you with excitement for the future, making you forget about the characters you've just watched. If you saw Captain America in the cinema, did you talk to your friends about it before the Avengers Assemble trailer? In the Avengers film itself we're left with the image of Thanos sneering at the camera. The leader of the army that was just defeated and assumed villain of a film that will be out in two year's time. Now that is what I call closure.