The Dialectic of "Hero's Movies": The Failure of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight Rises"

Spoiler warning: Plot and ending of the movies "Spider-Man," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "The Dark Knight," and "The Dark Knight Rises" follow.

I watched "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight Rises." "The Amazing Spider-Man" wasn't amazing at all, and I was disappointed with "The Dark Knight Rises."

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and "The Dark Knight" were the great masterpieces in "hero's movies," so I couldn't help but compare "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight Rises" with their previous movies.

One of the biggest points about "hero's movies" is how the hero overcomes the contradiction. The contradiction is more serious, and the story is deeper.

In "Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight," the biggest contradiction is about the heroes and their real identity.

Peter Parker was just a geek. Although he was in unrequited love with Mary Jane Watson, he also knew that she would never love just a geek like Peter.

Peter became the Spider-Man. He wasn't just a geek anymore, when he was the Spider-Man. But he as Peter hid that he was Spider-Man, so nobody including Mary knew that he wasn't just a geek.

And she loved Spider-Man. Peter was happy about that, but at the same time he truly didn't want to be loved by Mary as the Spider-Man but as Peter. And yet he couldn't reveal the fact that he was Spider-Man.

This contradiction made the kissing scene between Mary and Spider-Man in a heavy rain sweet and pensive. This is one of the most impressive scenes in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

But in "The Amazing Spider-Man," Peter easily revealed to his girl friend, Gwen Stacy, that he was the Spider-Man. Her father forbade their relationship, but Peter almost didn't care about it at all. The relationship between Peter and Gwen couldn't be romantic.

At the end of "the Dark Knight," Batman took the rap for Harvey Dent. Harvey became the icon of justice, the white knight, after his death, and this bought peace to Gotham City. On the other hand Batman was disgraced as the dark knight. Gotham City became peaceful, but this peace was based on the great lie.

If I were a scriptwriter of "The Dark Knight Rises," I would put this contradiction as the main theme of this movie.

Joker, the enemy of Batman in "The Dark Knight," made a psychological attack. If he appeared on "The Dark Knight Rises", he would make best use of this lie. But Bane, the enemy in "the Dark Knight Rises" was too physically violent to be interested in this lie. He literary knocked Batman out.

Heath Ledger, who played the role of Joker, has gone just after the completion of "The Dark Knight", so Joker didn't appear in "The Dark Knight Rises". Most audience might like physical violence more than psychological battle.

The epilogue of "The Dark Knight Rises" was worst. I hate a Hollywood-style happy ending.

RIP Heath Ledger.