3. Escalation
One of the biggest problems many large-budget Hollywood blockbusters have is that they don't escalate the barrage of obstacles and raise the stakes for the characters. Many films these days tend to show all their cards with an explosive first act, and then track their characters as they gradually vanquish the same enemies that have been set up from the start. In fact, even Christopher Nolan's own Dark Knight Rises suffered from this problem. The film seems to be building up to an epic, large-scale battle between the police and Bane's army - except we barely see any of that, instead focusing on a fistfight between Batman and Bane, something we had already seen earlier in the film and that doesn't raise the stakes or change the dynamic between the characters in any way. The Avengers, on the other hand, features a textbook example of perfect escalation. At first, we think the film is just about Loki, though we know he intends to bring an alien army to Earth. After the heroes fail to defeat Loki, they are left to fight off the army -
alone, no less, after severing their ties with S.H.I.E.L.D and, on paper, being disbanded. Even the invasion is escalated. At first, the Chitauri fly out of the portal on speeders, and the Avengers seem to have a fairly easy time disposing of them - that is until the first worm emerges. We see our heroes banding together, struggling, and finally vanquishing the worm - only for three more of the giant monstrosities to emerge from the portal. Hopefully, Nolan will take another page out of Whedon's book in this instance, and ensure that the Justice League movie builds up and escalates to a grand, epic climax worthy of the pedigree of the group of heroes assembled for the film.