6. The Secondary Characters
The best films develop the secondary characters around the titular one. The Dark Knight Trilogy was filled with an extremely impressive cast, and each of these characters was crucial. At the same, time, we also cared for them almost as much as the titular character. Michael Caines portrayal of loyal butler Alfred brought sly, humanised examples of humour, and at other times would break our hearts with his sterling performance in the situation Alfred was placed in. Morgan Freeman was another character who we watched and cheered for, and each of these characters, as well as the others, were given personalities. We knew these characters, but we never needed to be told who they were. Lucius Fox was intelligent, and he
had to have known Bruce Wayne was Batman. But he never said so. Man of Steel tried the same thing, though a little less effectively. The military soldiers and the journalists were given screen time that suggested we need to care about them. However, it simply wasnt interesting to watch two nameless men try and free a nameless woman from a trap. Lois Lane, however, was developed well in an age where the strong, female character is a joy to behold on the screen. The old superhero films had much fewer characters given time to grow on screen. 1989's Batman was all about Batman and included a Joker origin story. There were other characters, but none that we grew to particularly care about. The Dark Knight trilogy gives us a Jim Gordon to barrack for, an Alfred to sympathise with and a Lucius Fox to simply enjoy on the screen. And, notably, the characters had flaws. A character that makes mistakes is one that an audience can immediately feel more attached to, because the most realistic thing a film can portray is the human ability to make errors. For instance, Alfred burning the letter from Rachel in 'Dark Knight' had severe ramifications in the sequel, and can be seen as a questionable act that instigates a chain of events crossing over the two films. A strong secondary character list propelled the Dark Knight trilogy and if 'Man of Steel' can improve on it's own use of secondary characters and set the standard for future DC films, then they may just go from good films to great films.