SPOILER ALERT: SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE - SEE THE MOVIES FIRST!
When I was a kid I saw SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE. The film was made in 1979 and was the first big budget superhero movie. No movie star wanted to put on a superhero costume as they believed it would make them look silly. How times change. The then relatively unknown Christopher Reeve was cast as Clark Kent/Superman and Margot Kidder played Lois Lane.
The film was a top-shelf production. Marlon Brando was paid a fortune to play Superman's father, Jor-El. The script was written by Mario Puzo (Oscar-winning writer of The Godfather and Godfather Part 2) and Newman & Benton.
At the end of the film, Superman is presented with a dilemma. He must choose between stopping two missiles heading in opposite directions. He's unable to stop both and, as a result, Lois Lane dies from the effects of an Earthquake.
Lois Lane dead? Quite an emotional moment.
But wait! Superman flies super fast around Earth and the planet goes backward and... time goes backward. Superman is then able to save Lois Lane and the film ends.
"What a cheat! Total ripoff ending," I thought as a kid. I'd felt manipulated by the storytellers that they gave Superman a do-over. Did the rest of the universe reverse time or just Earth? How did that cause severe damage to the planet? Wouldn't the other missile he stopped blow up because now that version of events wouldn't have taken place?
None of it made sense. As an audience member, I'd been manipulated and was ticked off.
In the 1930s and 1940s there were superhero serials (cheaply made films shown in theaters before the feature films) with Captain Marvel and Batman. I had some VHS copies of these and occasionally they'd do a complete cheat. They'd show the hero going off the cliff. In the following episode, the hero would jump out of the car. "What a cheat!"
We enjoy tension at the movies. Tension is the feeling generated from hope and fear. We hope that our hero will succeed, defeat the antagonist, and stay alive. We fear that she will not.
There must be REAL STAKES for the story to work. A big problem for Superman was always he was so strong - basically a god on Earth - that he wasn't that interesting of a character. No fear of defeat = no tension. Kryptonite originated on the radio show version of Superman and was a brilliant way to make Superman capable of facing defeat.
When we got the 'reverse time = win' finish it meant nobody ever really dies in Superman. There's no way to defeat him if he gets to try again.
Flashforward to ELEKTRA in 2005. ELEKTRA had died in the film DAREDEVIL. The unfairly maligned 2003 DAREDEVIL had told the story of the romance between the film's hero and Elektra and she'd been killed at the end. The 2005 film opens with Elektra being brought back to life.
"Huh?!" If she can die and not die, why do I care to watch the rest of the film? She could die again and... so what? Could be brought back to life. No stakes = no tension.
Now we have AVENGERS INFINITY WAR.
Yes, the film will make over a billion dollars. Likely the follow up will as well. But it's bad storytelling.
At the end of the film, a number of Marvel characters "die" -- are turned to dust by Thanatos, the antagonist. There's a line setting up the sequel where Dr. Strange says, "Now we enter the endgame." So the next film will involve a reversing of time and bring these characters back to life -- a "do over" if you will.
There was genuine emotion in the audience when I saw the film. Shocked gasps and crying as audience members believed this really was the last ride for their beloved heroes. However, just like Lois Lane and Elektra death won't mean a real death and they'll be back for further adventures. We'll just feel a little cheated as the audience.
Let me know your thoughts on these films.
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