12 Major Problems With Today's Blockbuster Movies
8. If A Character Dies, Keep Them Dead
The 'fake-out death' is an incredibly irritating, and regularly occurring, narrative trope found in far too many of today's studio blockbusters. Killing off a major character can be a positive in many ways; it creates narrative uncertainty, engages the audience with the story and provides motivation for the protagonists.
If you 'kill' a character and then bring them back without consequence? That's an insult to the audience's intelligence.
Over at Marvel, Quicksilver may have met his demise but neither Loki nor Nick Fury could stay dead for an entire movie and while Phil Coulson may be presumed dead on the big screen, the TV show in which he is the main character has just been renewed for a fifth season.
Did anybody really think Batman had sacrificed himself at the end of The Dark Knight Rises? Who thinks that Superman isn't going to appear at some point during Justice League? Even Optimus Prime got a fake-out death and he's made of metal.
The 'fake death' has become so commonplace in studio movies that its more of a surprise when the demised doesn't return at some point in the future, with the end result being that the stakes are drastically lowered for both the characters and the audience.