Superhero Genre Study

The Dark Knight Genre Analysis

How is The Dark Knight similar to a generic superhero film?

• The film contains a lot of generic fight scenes, which include some cheesy one-liners from Batman.
• The setting of Gotham is very similar to the other city settings seen in other Superhero films, such as Superman’s Metropolis or Spider-Man’s New York.
• Batman continues to wear his signature Batsuit, with his emblem on it. This is one of the main defining features of a superhero.

How is The Dark Knight different to a generic superhero film?

• The film does not follow the generic story structure and doesn’t end with a happy ending.
• The Dark Knight blurs the lines between hero and villain with the characters of both Batman and Harvey Dent.
• We focus on the personal issues of the character of Bruce Wayne / Batman a lot more than other superhero films. Rather than a simple object or villain being his “weakness”, it turns out to be his own moral code that stops him from resolving the problems he faces.

Class Analysis of How Pan’s Fits the Fantasy Genre

Reflection on the Genre Analysis

Similarities:

• Pan’s Labyrinth has some very generic locations including long corridors, mysterious forests, etc.
• Pan’s has a particularly generic archetypal villain – Vidal.
• The story has the generic struggle between good and evil.
• Ofelia sacrifices herself to save her brother instead.
• Pan’s includes a generic chase scene of the main character being chased by some evil.

Differences:

• The Faun doesn’t fit in with generic conventions – he expects Ofelia to follow him blindly and it makes the audience unsettled and untrusting of the Faun.
• Ofelia’s death defies generic fantasy conventions – based on the genre, we do not expect Ofelia to die.
• Pan’s does not include a large battle scene as per other fantasy films, but instead multiple smaller, more tense scenes.
• Ofelia does not prevail over the evil, other characters kill Vidal at the end.
• The use of war tropes and props such as Carmen’s wheelchair contrasts the fantasy tropes – this creates the more serious elements of the film as well as putting forward some of the overarching themes (i.e. the impact of war on children).