2. A Single Protagonist Driven Plot and Gripping Character Arc
The Spider-Man films, and most superhero movies for that matter, work so well because we follow one character- a superhero, and we watch him or her (but very rarely "her" unfortunately) go through a character arc which is usually full of emotion and action. Watching one character,especially if they are relatable, gives a film focus, and someone for the audience to root for. If we are not rooting for a character, then really, why sit and watch a 2 hour film. Spider-Man 2 is so clear and so focused on watching Peter Parkers journey as he becomes a man basically. We watch him as he tries to balance university life, working life and a love life, and as he tries to understand his place in the world, and what it means to be Spider-Man. Except for the "what it means to be Spider-man" bit, these are all things everyone more or less deals with on a daily basis. We can certainly root for this character. The reason Spider-Man 3 failed was because there were too many new characters with so many new back-stories that a lot of the focus was taken away from Peter Parker, and given to characters the film didn't really have enough time to make us care about. OK, OK. So maybe it is unfair for me to include this point as a criticism for the Avengers, because the whole point of The Avengers was watching a team assemble, so had they had a single protagonist, a lot of fan-boys would have been angry. This said, the amount of characters all competing for screen time was an obvious weakness of the film. For those of us that were looking forward to seeing a back-story and character development for Hawkeye, we were sadly disappointed. Perhaps also if they has selected one of the characters to essentially be the leader, or to have more of an individual story that we followed that wasn't simply "save the world" this would have benefited this movie greatly. Captain America would have been a good choice, however, because his individual film was one of the least successful, how about Iron Man or Thor? I think the biggest criticism, forgetting that this film arguably had to be a complete ensemble piece, was that none of the characters had interesting arcs unrelated to stopping Loki. Other than to save the world, what were the characters really all fighting for? How did Captain America feel about being in a new time period?- This was touched on, but hardly a big focus for the film. The characters all needed much greater character development than they received. This is the main reason why The Avengers really is just great entertainment instead of a truly gripping and beautiful film. I think Joss Whedon himself agrees with this point, and from what I hear about The Avengers 2, he seems to be trying to rectify this somewhat. My main criticism with Nolan's Batman character is that, except for maybe the opening hour of Batman Begins, Nolan's Batman isn't exactly the most interesting character in the world. He is kind of cold and unemotional for the most part, and never really lets the audience in. I guess the fact that he actually physically wears a mask, as well as emotionally can't help, but Spider-man also wears a mask, and I find him to be very interesting. The Dark Knight was a great film that critics loved, but the best thing about that movie was The Joker (that portrayal won an Oscar after-all). The reason Christian Bale has never been nominated for an Oscar in the role of Batman is simply because Nolan's Batman character is kind of dull. He doesn't really have a compelling arc, and has very little motives. He wants to make Gotham a great city again... but that it pretty much it. Let us into your head Bruce... you'd be much more interesting for it.