Quote Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark View Post
You're right that a large part of the reason that Nolan's Batman films worked is because he stuck to Bruce Wayne's character - broody, morose, self martyring. Nolan didn't try and make him the average MCU hero.
It's not just that. Man of Steel made Superman into a broody, morose and self-martyring character too, and a lot of fans disliked it. What works for Batman doesn't necessarily work for Superman. I think what worked more in Nolan's Batman films was that he never allowed the stories to have more than one protagonist. I read somewhere that he was asked early on to tie in Batman with other DC franchises in hopes of building a Justice League movie but Nolan refused. And from a story-telling POV you can understand why. He only wanted the story to just focus on Batman and Batman alone as its central protagonist. Making Batman share the limelight with other heroes and heroines means splitting that focus due to the inclusion of an ensemble cast.

Having said that, I personally think that the MCU movies do well considering that they are doing stories with large ensemble casts. Certainly a lot better than what Michael Bay does with Transformers where so many of the Autobots and Decepticons are barely distinguishable from each other and become terribly forgettable as people. And Avengers Infinity War is the mother of them as it basically stars everyone! But the film still gives enough spotlight on each hero and heroine - none of them feel like set pieces unlike say Jolt. Ask your average non-Transformers fan who've seen ROTF and see if they remember who Jolt is and describe anything about him.

Nolan created Batman movies which were great as pieces of film literature, no doubt. But the MCU has given fans what they've wanted, and while these movies are by no means story-telling masterpieces they are just fun and entertaining movies to watch.

Sorry, were we talking about Star Wars?

In regards to The Last Jedi, aside from the Casino Planet scene, I think the rest of the movie is fine. When The Force Awakens came out people accused it of copying the basic plot of A New Hope - fans complain. The Last Jedi has given us something that's really different from other Star Wars movies - fans complain. And as bold as TLJ is, the Sequels are still in the same spirit as the Original Trilogy so far.
Act 1: emerging out of a period of darkness there is a rebellion/resistance and a new hero/heroine arises to give the galaxy a new hope.
Act 2: the Empire/First Order Strikes Back. The goodies are pushed to the brink. The story ends on a downer with a glimpse of hope for the future.
Act 3: Yub nub? Time will tell if Episode IX will mirror the spirit of Episode VI.

I can appreciate that these filmmakers have the unenviable task of making movies that are similar enough to the Original Trilogy to make fans happy, but at the same time different enough to make fans happy. Only that fans are never happy, cos each new Star Wars movie that comes out is the worst ever. Brace yourself for the fan-hate for Solo -- worst Star Wars... ever!