What the first lesson means is don't overstuff your film with characters and side-plots. An average runtime consists of 2 hours and in that timeframe both the plot and characters must be developed and kept interesting. Introducing multiple side characters and side-plots can distract the film from its main characters and main plot-line. Side-plots are exactly that, stories off to the side that don't affect the plot in a major way. Don't focus large amounts of time or cut them completely if useless. Nobody likes filler. Worst Offenders: Iron Man 3 and The Wolverine: Iron Man 3, more so than others, suffered the worst from overstuffing itself with needless side characters and plots. The villains included The Mandarin, Aldrich Killian and A.I.M., Maya Hansen, Extremis soldiers, and the Vice-President. Two of these characters could have been completely cut. Maya Hansen had no affect on the plot and her story could have easily been transferred to an already existing character. She barely appears and shows no growth before dying at the hands of Killian. The Vice-President and his motivations were useless to the over-all story also. The film is stuffed with multiple plots, both major and minor, like the Mandarin's terrorist attacks, Killian's Extremis virus, Tony's panic attacks, Harley the kid, Christmas, Tony's relationship with Pepper, the Vice-President's betrayal, and a malfunctioning Mark 42 prototype. The Mandarin, Killian, and the Mark 42 were important and interesting enough while the rest are rarely expanded on. Tony's panic attacks could have been a high point in his character's story, but this side-plot is glossed over and only affects him at unimportant times. It makes little sense when he is perfectly fine during battle, but freaks out over a small word or memory. His panic attacks are cut halfway through the movie when deemed insignificant to the story. The Wolverine is just as guilty. Originally thought to be a stand-alone film, The Wolverine was set after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. As a result, Logan dealt with visions of a deceased Jean Grey while facing new enemies and old acquaintances in Japan. The Jean Grey side-story was irrelevant and only detracted from Logan's time in Japan. Her only appearances involved her lying next to Wolvie in a night gown and torturing him (along with the audience). She was meant to invoke human emotion from him, but was useless in an otherwise fine film. A few side-characters were disappointing in comparison to their comic-book counterparts. Shingen Yashida, in the comics, poisoned Wolverine, destroyed him, and dumped his body in the streets of Japan. The film treats him as an inferior fighter to Wolverine. In their only fight scene, Wolverine disappointingly dominates him before ending his life. But perhaps the most disappointing character was Viper. Her character only raises more questions like, "Why is she doing all of this?" and "Why was this character even included?" Best Example: Kick-Ass 2: All three main characters story-lines made sense and fit in perfect together. Kick-Ass is struggling to keep his real life and secret identity away from each other. His arrival inspired a huge wave of costumed vigilantes. Hit-Girl must deal with maturing physically and mentally into a teenage girl. Also, she faces her biggest adversaries ever, high school teenage girls. Chris D'Amico is thirsty for vengeance against the two for killing his father. With his money and comic-book knowledge, he sets out to become the world's first super villain. The side-plots and characters did not hurt the film instead improved it with the inclusion of new characters like Colonel Stars and Stripes, Doctor Gravity, Javier, and Mother Russia.
