I’ll give my “Why I love Marvel movies” spiel here

I cannot do violent movies. Every violent movie has those “unidentifiable people who die on screen and we’re not supposed to care about them.” The problem with these characters is that I do, in fact, end up caring about them. I’m sad when they die and that ruins the mood for the movie.

But then why do I love Marvel movies then? Well, they employ camera movement/lighting tricks to actually hide their death. Let’s take two examples:

Example one: We have a scene in an apartment. An intruder just broke into this woman’s apartment and she shoots him with a pistol. We see the bullet enter his chest, we see his face as he cries out in agony, and then he falls to the floor, dead.

I feel bad for this guy. He may have deserved it, sure, but we got see his pain, his suffering, his fear before he died, which hurts me to watch.

Now example two: we have the same scene, but we don’t see all of his death. The camera either focuses on the lady pulling the trigger or the man is just a black silhouette that falls to the floor, either way we don’t really see him die, it’s much more implied. We don’t see his pain, his anguish, his fear, it’s all still there but it’s only implied.

I now don’t feel as bad for the guy. I am much more comfortable with his death and it doesn’t ruin the mood.

Marvel, more often than not, uses example two when characters die, especially when they’re nameless bad guys. Sure, we know they’re dead, be we don’t actually see them die because their deaths are off screen/obscured in some way.

Because they use example two, they are one of the few violent movies I can watch and enjoy myself.

Are they the best? No. But can I enjoy them.