8. Thinking We Care About Supporting Characters
The Movies: Hercules, Dracula Untold, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Ensemble casts are in vogue. And not just because Marvel are
really good at them (both their 2014 releases were built on a rag-tag group having to come together). They're an easy way to give a film variety while still keeping a consistent tone and tight focus. Having a large supporting cast work, however, does require a bit of leg-work. You can't just have a team turn up cold and expect the audience to get on side with them. This is something that a few 2014 movies failed to do, most notably Hercules and Dracula Untold. Both were essentially built on the same central idea - take a classic story, keep the setting, but make inexplicably modern - and both misread part of that as "throw in a cast of supporting characters and pretend they're important without giving any inclination why they are". The titular heroes came with a Fellowship ensemble of supporting characters that get no introduction beyond their cliché being highlighted (the best friend, the fighter, the woman), making all of their subsequent appearances rather flat. Maybe it's a little premature to include The Battle Of The Five Armies in this entry, but what are the odds that the thirteen dwarves are suddenly going to get recognisably distinct personalities in the final part of The Hobbit Trilogy?