I love a good superhero movie. Its a very cathartic experience to switch off and watch your classic good guy beat down the villain and everybody ends up happy and safe in the end.
But as time goes on I find myself enjoying the experience less and less and I become a lot more critical of the actions of the characters on screen and the choices that have been made by the director and I thought it would be interesting for me to try and analyse why.
A good proportion of the ‘drama’ and conflict within these movies comes from internal power struggles and arguments between protagonists. Whilst, yes, the big bad is always some outlandish villain or alien or other being that seeks to cause destruction to the world first and foremost, the characters often have to go to war with themselves before anything can actually get resolved.
This is where my problem is presented; a group of individuals that are supposed to be working to together but cannot seem to get around their own problems beforehand. The entire ordeal feels entirely fabricated. After everything that the protagonists go through in order to prepare for their final fight, it seems as though they’re never actually going to be friends at any point.
Conflict is, by nature, a very human thing, but when it comes to these films it feels as though by their very nature, it is destined to always happen in the most convoluted way imaginable. Maybe it’s just the pacifist inside me, but I feel that the heroes would be a lot more likeable and human if instead of fighting for the sake of the plot, they were actually able to grow and develop as friends.
Ramblings of a Film Student 