A deep analysis of the conventions of fictional movies.

1. Chaz Zalesinski
Fictional Movie Conventions
I have been commissioned to analyze a selection of fictional films in preparation for a series of programmes
on the topic. I will be analyzing purpose, format, narrative structure, visual storytelling, genre and audience
of the movies that I have chosen, looking at what they do and how they do it to dissect each instance of
their use of these techniques.
Action
One popular movie genre that most (if not all) peoplearefamiliar with is the action genre. This genre has
become a bigpart of modern pop-culture, with people gaining interestin ityear after year, and is a fantastic
opportunity to take a look atsome of the stylisticcodes and conventions of this particular genre. By lookingat
the two films Deadpool (2016) and Spectre (2015) we can see how these movies usecertain techniques to
draw their audience into the events of the movie and help them identify its genre.
Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and difference suggests that every genre has its own bundleof codes and
conventions,differingdepending on the genre that they are a part of. This sortof repetition is said to give
psychological and emotional comfort when they are faced with a new movie that is also a part of the genre
that they take interest in, thus making them more likely to enjoy the show and come back to the movie as a
whole on separate occasions.However, alongwith this repetition there must also bepresented some
difference, so to put things simply, each movie of a specific genre follows a certain pattern or mould, but
changes things around so that audiences still feel likethey are seeingsomething fresh, even though in reality
they have likely seen itbefore in a different light. Both Deadpool and Spectre are good examples of repetition
and difference in the action genre.
Possibly the most iconic scenefrom Deadpool, referred to by fans as the ‘car fight’ scene, does very well to
show us that Deadpool both follows and strays fromthe codes of the action genre.
The scene depicts Deadpool himself fightinga largegroup of people that he refers to as ‘bad guys’(already
directly referencing one of the major codes of the action genre – the villains) in a mix of both choreographed
fight scenes, witty dialogue,CGI created shots and an oddly relaxed overall tone of the scene which ends up
makingit even more unique. The continuous useof a dolly camthroughout the scene (mainly when insidethe
cars themselves) creates a senseof tension and uneasiness to the audience as they areplaced in a shaky
viewpoint, which makes it harder for them to try to figure out what could happen next and thus justcauses
them to continue watching. This is a rather important code of the action genre as the tension of a given scene
is often increased by the use of a dolly camin fast-paced scenes. The lightingthroughout the scene is
appropriately natural,as itappears to be standard daylight,although ithas a grey tint to it to add to the darker
aspectof the scene, which is also a major codeof action movies. Even within the very firstfew seconds of the
scene we get a feel of the familiarity of action mixed with the freshness of its newly introduced comedic aspect
(ref 1) as we see Deadpool sittingon the sideof a highway road,waitingcasually for the rightmoment to
strike.This is when the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound can firstbe seen, with the non-diegetic
music servingas a fuel for the action parts of the scene, often increasingin volumeand/or speed when
Deadpool hits somebody or gets hit himself,and the diegetic music servingas comic relief duringthe scene,
i.e. when Deadpool is singingalongto a happy rap whilewaitingfor a fight, or when his faceis being
constantly bashed againsta car radio by oneof the goons causingitto change stations and play some
seemingly out-of-placemusic.Although itseems out of place,it actually does well to keep up the fastpace of
the scene, and in the end justadds to its uniquestyle. To put it simply,Deadpool closely followsthe main
codes of the action genre, but also steps away from them to ultimately become more unique.
Ref 1

2. Chaz Zalesinski
This sortof mixture of action and comedy is exactly what supports Neale’s theory of repetition and difference.
In this case,the audienceis dosed accordingly with a certain amount of action that they expected to see when
they came to see this particular film,butalso gives them a relatively balanced doseof humour, which is not
what people usually havecome to expect from action movies such as Deadpool.This was something that was
done throughout the entirety of the movie, which kept the audience on their toes as not only were they
constantly anticipatingmoreaction from one scene to another, but they were also faced with the task of
keeping an eye out for each pop-culture reference or fourth wall break,which is what made this movie unique,
alongwith its unusual Rrating,which was a risky move by the studio as most action movies stuck to their PG-
13 ratings and held back from some humour and certain amounts of violence. This movie however did not do
this,and itis believed that this is whatmade the filmsuch a success,with its unique blend of action and
comedy, mixed with self-awareness and an Rrating.
Spectre is another filmthat evidently choseto followthe codes and conventions of the action genre, but that
does not mean that itdoesn’t have its fair shareof unique techniques that caused the movie to be rather
successful.Oneparticular scenein the movie strongly uses “mise en scene” as a means of introducingthe
audienceto what they believe is the main villain of the movie, which is a technique used so often in action
movies that it has actually become a major code of the genre. I this scene a secret meeting is takingplace,with
different people givingtheir personal opinionsaboutmatters that the audienceis completely obliviousof at
this pointin the movie. This meeting is then interrupted by a gentle creak of the largedoor in the centre of the
room, which again shows the use of diegetic sound to create a senseof mystery and some amount of
discomfortfor the audience,as they are not shown who has entered the room and all they hear is the gentle
sound of a large,ominous door being opened in the background.What the audienceis shown however, is that
as soon as this door opens the meeting stops.The room goes completely silentand everyone stands up. This
tells the audiencethat whoever has justentered the room must be some sortof respected power figure as
everyone in the room appears to fear him. The complete lack of diegetic sound at this pointincreases the
discomfortfor the audience,who anticipatesome form of sudden burst of sound,but they instead receive a
non-diegetic low stringpieceof music,highlightingboth the mystery and senseof power that this new
character creates. This again shows the coded strong use of both non-diegetic and diegetic sound to create a
certain feeling within the audience. The audienceare finally shown who has entered the room, although not
entirely as the low key lightingcauses their faceto stay in the shadow(ref 2). This introduces another
important stylistic codeof the action genre: lighting.In this case,the lightingis setto a rather minimal amount
to achievea certain effect of mystery and fear in the audience’s minds.
Ref 2
Here we see a particularly interestinguseof mise en scene, as not only does the low key lightinghidethe
character’s face,but also creates a suitablesettingfor him to reside in.The use of symmetry in this particular
shot is also noteworthy, as the audiencecan see how organised and well -presented this new being is,which
possibly hintsto them that he is some sortof mastermind and creates even more mystery around this
character.The idea that this character also appears to havesecurity guards placed around himsuggests to the
audiencethat this person is of some sortof value to the people around,again showingthe movie’s use of mise
en scene to give the audience hints about certain characters.
As we can see, both Deadpool and Spectre followa specific setof codes and conventions to achieve certain
effects in their scenes.These codes allowthe audience to identify these movies as action movies,as they are

3. Chaz Zalesinski
once again seeingfamiliar characteristicsof the movies they have watched before, but presented in an
augmented sense. Accordingto Neale’s theory of repetition and difference, this causes the audienceto feel a
form of pleasurefrom watchingthese movies, as the audienceboth know and don’t know what to expect from
what they arewatching, but for the most partthey areplaced within a certain reach of a familiar field,which
eases them into comfort and causes them to most likely havea positivereaction to the movie. This is exactly
what makes Deadpool and Spectre to be such successful movies,with Deadpool mixingthe well -known
violenceand fast-paced scenes with unusual additionsof humour to create something new and familiar,and
Spectre heavily relyingon mise en scene to deliver info to the audience, whilealso featuringthe adrenaline
filled scenes typical of an action movie, once again stickingto most but not all typical action genrecodes and
conventions.
Aside from the stylisticcodes and conventions of Deadpool and Spectre, it is also possibleto view them from a
narrativecode pointof view, as both these movies followthis sortof code rather closely.Tsetzvan Todorov’s
theory suggests that most narratives will havea beginning,middle and end, presented by fivema jor
transformations throughoutthe movie: the equilibrium,an event that disrupts this equilibrium,the characters’
recognition of the disturbanceof the equilibrium,and attempt to repair the disruptiveevent and/or its causes,
and an eventual return to the original equilibrium.
It can be seen that both Deadpool and Spectre followthis generic narrativepattern, with both of the movies
featuring a disruption to their original equilibrium.In Deadpool,the main character’s cancer diagnosisserves
as the disturbanceto the equilibriumas hethen proceeds to make things right, although there appear to be
multipledisturbances to the character’s equilibriumin this particularexample.In Spectre we can clearly see
that the equilibriumis disrupted when James Bond discovers a certain secretbody of criminal minds, which he
then proceeds to track down and attempt to stop for the rest of the movie. Both tragic illnesses and uprisings
of criminalscan beconsidered a classicpartof the action genre, again showingthat both of these movies
followthe generic story pattern to some degree.
Both of the films clearly demonstratethe disruption of the equilibrium,but they both also do well to identify
the attempt to repair itand the eventual return to the equilibrium.In Deadpool,the main character spends
the final battletryingto savehis loveinterest Vanessa,and is then reunited with her at the end of the movie.
In Spectre, James Bond successfully manages to track down his arch nemesis and attempts to stop himfor the
majority of the movie, and finally succeeds in doingso towards the end of the film,again showinga return to
the equilibriumas hesafely drives away,havingsaved the damsel in distress and finally completed the mission
he was faced with.
In Deadpool however, we see an example of an abnormal kind of ending to the character’s journey.After
being experimented on by Francis,the main villain of the story, Deadpool’s cancer is cured,however in the
process his facebecomes disfigured and he spends the rest of the movie trying to track down Francis and get
him to undo what he had done to him. However, once he finally wins thefinal battleand “saves the day”, we
find out that his whole quest was mainly pointless as Francisrevealsthatthere is no cure for Deadpool’s
disfigurement (ref 3), which is notwhat Deadpool or the audience was expecting, makingthis movie’s ending
more memorable
Ref 3
However, the filmdoes not completely ignore the reparation of the original equilibriumas partof the final
battle was also an effort to saveVanessa,which is revealed to be the successful partof the finale.While

4. Chaz Zalesinski
Deadpool doesn’t manage to fix his disfigured face,he does manage to savethe love of his lifewhich provides
the audience with a “happy ending” (which Deadpool directly refers to in the final narration of the movie,
which wraps up all of the events of the movie and allows Deadpool to attempt to derive some sort of life
lesson from (which he comically failsto do).
Despite seemingly followingthe classicnarrativepattern, Deadpool actually somewhatstrays from the usual
order of events. The movie starts mid-way through the main character’s story,and the equilibriumand
disruption of the equilibriumareshowcased usingflashbacksto prior events. This again makes Deadpool a
unique example of both followingand strayingfromthe codes of both the stylisticand narrativea spects of the
movie. It is also noteworthy that the movie contains multipleequilibriumdisruptions,as firstly heis diagnosed
with cancer,which then gets cured but ultimately creates another disruption as hisfacebecome disfigured,
which does not get resolved, and the final disruption arrives when Deadpool’s love interest is kidnapped and
he must face off with the villain to try to resolvetwo disruptions atonce, givingthe film’s final sequencemore
weight and appearingmore important to the audience.
UnlikeDeadpool, the main character of Spectre succeeds in the final outcome of the movie’s final battlescene.
When he is confronted by his arch nemesis one lasttime, Bond’s love interest is put in harm’s way and the
mission becomes much more personal than it already was before, which causes himto put maximum effort
into stoppingthe villain and completinghis mission.After he gets to the damsel and takes her from the
danger, Bond directly assault’s thevillain’s getaway helicopter,causingitto crash which results in a dra matic
explosion.The villain isleftliterally on his knees before Bond as he crawls outof the burningwreckage, and
our main character is faced with one lastchoice:to kill his nemesis or to let them live.Stayingtrue to the
nobility of his character, he decides to let them liveas he walks away from the fight (ref 4) leavingthe villain
on the floor to be arrested by the other agents.
WhileDeadpool partially breaks thenatural chain of events of the narrativepattern, Spectre closely follows
this arc as the events of the filmfollowit closely.At the beginningof the film,James is presented with his
mission,which serves both as a disruption to the equilibriumand as recognition of the disruption,and then
the rest of the film’s events areBond tryingto resolvethe issueand return to the original equilibrium,in which
he succeeds.The success of both of these movies proves that followingthe classic narrativepattern serves as a
sortof cushion for the movie, as once again the audience see something they are familiar with and therefore
enjoy the movie. Whether the filmfollows the narrativeloosely likeDeadpool,or closely likeSpectre, some
form of link to this narrativestructurealmostensures the film’s success.
Ref 4
Another theoristwe can link in to help explore the narrativeaspects of these two movies is Vladmir Propp,
who in his work “The Morphology of the Folk tale” suggested that every narrativeoperates with a l imited
selection of characters and around a certain selection of actions.The characters thatPropp referred to in his
work are:
 The Villain – the character that directly opposes the hero throughout the entirety of the story, often
trying to harm the princess.
 The Donor – the character that gives the hero a specific itemor piece of information that prepares
them for the events that are to come.
 The Helper – typically referred to as the hero’s ‘sidekick’,who helps them on their journey.

5. Chaz Zalesinski
 The Princess – often described as the ‘victim’ of the story, this character requires assistanceor even
savingfromthe hero.
 The Dispatcher – this is the character that originally sends the hero on their journey.
 The Hero – usually themain character of the narrative,the hero responds to the donor and attempts
to savethe day.
 The False Hero – this character may atfirstappear to have good intentions,but ultimately proves to
be opposingthe hero, or falsely claims creditfor the hero’s actions.
The characters in Deadpool arefairly easy to identify usingthis way of lookingata narrative.The clear villain
of the movie is Francis,who not only disfigures Deadpool’s facebutalso kidnaps hisloveinterestVanessa.
Thus, Vanessa can be seen as the ‘princess’of the filmas sherequires savingatthe end of the movie. The film
features two helpers: Colossus and Negasonic,who both assistDeadpool in the final fightof the movie, despite
not helpinghimthroughout the entire story. Deadpool’s friend,Weasel, can be seen as the donor as he
originally informs Deadpool thathis cancer can be cured, which then sets off the rest of the movie’s events in a
chain reaction.Interestingly,this movie does not feature a dispatcher,as Deadpool himself follows hisown
path toward defeating Francis.Deadpool himself isa very unique case – itwould be most obvious that he
would be seen as the hero as he is the main character of the movie. However, he does not followthe nobility
and bravery tropes that are often associated with the hero, and often even highlights throughout the entirety
of the movie that he is not a hero (Deadpool has a tendency to reference these character types directly in the
film,referring to Francis as the“British villain”and to his loveinterest as the “damsel in distress”).It is also
noteworthy that Deadpool killsoff the villain in cold blood atthe end of the movie, which could potentially
causehim to be the falsehero, or more accurately an anti-hero,which is how such characters arereferred to
in modern culture.
Spectre’s characters area bitmore basic and easy to identify: James Bond is clearly thehero of the story as he
tries to complete his mission (or quest). M, the leader of MI5 is the dispatcher,as he is the one that gives Bond
the mission thathe must complete, and Q is the donor as he equips Bond with helpful gadgets and intel to
complete the task. The princess of the story is Madeleine, who is kidnaped near the end of the story by the
villain and therefore requires savingby Bond. Ernstis the main villain of the movie, directly attackingand
opposingBond throughout the entire story,and often standingin his way no matter what he was doing. Unlike
Deadpool, Spectre actually containsan easily identifiablefalsehero:C. C is shown to be a revolutionistthat
hopes to change the world around James as he improves surveillanceand deems MI5 no longer necessary.
However, later in the story he is revealed to have been working for Ernst the whole time, which would prove
to be a rather shockingtwist to the audience.
As we can see, both Deadpool and Spectre can be linked to both of the aspects of the narrativecodes and
conventions,whether it be with regards to the story itself and how it unravels,or to the character tropes and
how they arepresented in each film.They both demonstrate Todorov’s theory of a set narrativepattern for
each story,and Propp’s theory of a set amount of characters takingpartin the story, even if they approach the
codes differently, they both still makeuse of them.
Fantasy
Another genre that many people have comfortably familiarised themselves with is the fantasy genre, known
widely for its extravagantstories and breath-taking special effects.This genre has also become a big partof
modern pop-culture over the pastfew years. By takinga closer look attwo movies of this genre we can
identify some of its generic codes and conventions that help audiences identify the genre and enjoy itto the
full.The two movies I have chosen as example are Thor (2011) and Doctor Strange (2016) as they both fitthe
criteria of a typical fantasy movie.
In one of the early scenes of Thor shows us that this filmfollows many of the well-known codes and
conventions of the fantasy genre. In this scene, a royal celebration is takingplacein the mythical realmknown
as “Asghard”, which is a trivial partof the story of this movie. In one particularshotwe can clearly seethe
movie’s use of the stylisticcodes of the fantasy genre (ref 5). In this shot we see a particular codethat
everyone immediately thinks of when they generally think of the fantasy genre as a whole: the use of props
and costumes to create a senseof realness in the scene. Here the use of outlandish costumes can clearly be
seen, especially in thecentral piece of the shot where Thor himself is standing,wieldinghis trusty hammer
“Mjolnir”which shows a good use of props.This combination of the use of props and costumes makes the
fictional world of Asghard feel very real to the audienceas there is nothingthat doesn’t fit the fictional styleof

6. Chaz Zalesinski
dress or architecture of Asghard,meaning that the audienceis fully immersed in this fictional realmthathas
only justbeen introduced to them.
Ref 5
The use of diegetic sound is also noteworthy in this scene, as itis the only type of sound featured in this scene.
We hear crowds cheering for Thor and hear joyful,celebratory music being played by the Asghardian band as
he descends pastthe numerous crowds toward the throne, which is also seen in this shotin the distance.The
use of this particular celebratory atmosphereand mise e scene created by the setting around the characters
immediately tells the audience that they are not on Earth. The use of such stylisticcodes as props and
costumes is something that has become a major partof the fantasy genre, with movies such as the Harry
Potter franchisealso usingprops to showoutlandish characters and settings,which causes the audience to
become more intrigued as they arealways seeingsomething that they have supposedly never seen before on-
screen.
This is when we can once again refer to Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and difference. With regards to the
fantasy genre, an importantstylistic codethatis almostalways repeated in this genre is the use of props,
costumes, odd music and specific sounds to create worlds that are fictional,butatthe same time seem very
real to the audience. Another example of when these codes is the Lord of the Rings series,wherein every
character is dressed likethey jumped straightout of the book that the filmis an adaptation of,and the magical
settings around them work well with the props and costumes used to once again bringthe fantastical worlds
to life.
Doctor Strange also shows us thatthese codes arevery importantin the fantasy genre. In the scene in which
Strange firstmeets the character known as the ‘ancientone’ (ref 6) we again seea very unique use of props
and costumes to bringthe fictional settingof “Kamar Taj”to lifefor the audience.In this case,the setting plays
a larger roleon-screen than in the previous shotfrom Thor, and in this casethe surroundingatmosphere is not
as fantastical and magical astheone displayed in Thor,but itis rather more abnormal than anythingthe
audiencehave seen before, and we can see that the atmosphere takes influencefrom Asian architecture,
whileThor’s setting appear to Norse. Again, in this particularshotwe see a clever use of natural lightingto
create a warm tone in the scene, which is fittingfor the evets that take place in itas this scene is not terribly
dramatic but rather calmingto the audience. Costumes arealso onceagain used in this scene, with the
characters thatare portrayed to livein Kamar Taj wear long, kimono-likerobes, which causes Strange himself
to appear somewhat out-of-place,but in this casefor good effect as we see his transformation throughoutthe
movie in which he begins to fit the mystical dress code.
Ref 6

7. Chaz Zalesinski
Another importantpart of the fantasy franchisethatDoctor Strange so greatly displays isthe use of CGI. This
movie was very well-known for its mind-bogglingspecial effects, and rightly so as they truly make the movie
unique. We can see a good use of such effects in this shot(ref 7). With this movie’s heavy focus on the study
and practiceof “magic” it was obvious to many that this movie would rely heavily on its CGI to make this magic
feel real (as magic cannotactually beperformed live).Another example of such useof CGI is again in the Harry
Potter series,especially when creatingabnormal-lookingcharacters such as elves and creatingthe magic itself
on-screen. This use of CGI has also become a major code of the fantasy genre, as many of the fantastical
events of the mystic stories cannotbe created in live-action,and so special effects arerelied on to make them
feel as real as possible.
Ref 7
As we can so clearly see, both Thor and Doctor Strange followthe stylistic path to creatinga successful fantasy
movie, as they both heavily rely on the use of props,costumes and setting to create real worlds for the
audience, which is something that many remember was firstdone on a larger scaleby the filmAvatar (2009),
which revolutionised the way people view special effects and world buildingin fantasy movies.Both of these
films also heavily rely on the use of CGI to create effects of lightning,magic,and even particularcharacters
that cannot be portrayed through practical costumes.
Besides takinga look at these two movies from a stylistic pointof view, we can take a closer look atthem both
from a narrativepointof view. When we do this,we can see that both of these movies appear to follow
Todorov’s suggested narrativepattern, which I discussed in detail earlier.This narrativepattern consistsof 5
main stages to the story: the equilibrium,the disruption of the equilibrium,the realisation of the disruption,
and attempt atrepair and an eventual return to the equilibrium.
We can see this narrativepattern takingplacein Thor in a fairly clearlight.The attack of the frost giants that
interrupts the ceremony can be seen as the disturbanceto the equilibrium,which was established earlier
when Asghard is said to be “at peace” by the beginning narration.This disruption isalmostimmediately
acknowledged by the characters when they raceto rescue the relic that the giants were attempting to steal
from the Asghardian vault.
However, the narrativeorder of Thor does not completely fitthe order proposed by Todorov, as itis not this
disruption thatthe characters try to fix for the rest of the movie. In theory, the real disruption to the main
equilibriumof the movie can be seen as the banishmentof Thor to Earth by his father Odin,which is what
drives Thor for the rest of the movie as he spends time on Earth, trying to once again prove himself worthy to
his father to return to Asghard.
However, when things start to go wrong back on Asghard as Thor’s brother Loki takes control and attempts to
kill Thor.This presents us with the final battleof the movie: Thor vs. The Destroyer, a being of immense
strength sent by Loki to kill Thor (ref 8). This presents us with the actual attempt to fix the disruption,and
Thor’s success in defeatingthe Destroyer presents the long-awaited return to the original equilibrium.Thus it
can actually besaid thatThor does followTodorov’s narrativepattern, which once again shows thatthe film
follows all of the codes and conventions of fantasy movies almostto the full.

8. Chaz Zalesinski
Ref 8
Doctor Strange also followsthis generic narrativestructure, noticeably more closely than Thor. The equilibrium
is presented atthe beginningof the movie, when Strange is portrayed as the successful and rich neurosurgeon
that has saved and continues to save multiplelives on a daily basis.Thedisruption can clearly beseen as the
crash thattakes placein the early moments of the film,in which Strange becomes critically injured,and the
realisation thatthe equilibriumis disturbed can be seen as the moment when Strange is told he can no longer
perform his work as his hands havesustained too much damage duringthe crash.
This disturbanceis whatdrives the majority of the rest of the movie’s events as Strange attempts desperately
to fix his hands,which eventually leads himto Kamar Taj where he learns of the mystic arts,which he believes
can fix his hands.However, about halfway through the filmthe equilibriumsuffers a second disturbanceas
Keacelius directly begins to confront Strange directly,forcingthe fixingof his hands to become a secondary
motive and savingthe Earth to become his main focus.This presents the main attempt to fix the equilibriumas
Strange confronts Dormammu, the being controllingKaecelius.OnceDormammu has been dealt with (as he is
not technically defeated or killed) things go back to normal.However, the real return to the equilibriumis
presented when Strange is seen standingatthe window of the Sanctum Sanctorum (ref 9), as he takes a look
at his hands,which have miraculously been healed. This truly presents the audiencewith a l iteral repairto the
disturbed equilibrium.
Ref 9
Another aspectof the narrativetheory that these movies can be analysed by is the character selection.As I
mentioned earlier,Vladmir Propp suggests that every narrativerevolves around a specific choiceof characters,
locked in a set amount of actions.We can once again usethis particularsetof characters and their
descriptions to identify them in these two movies.
In Thor, the villain isslightly harder to identify as there appear to be multiple villains based in the story. While
Loki acts as the villain for the majority of the movie’s second and third acts,Laufey is clearly depicted as the
movie’s villain ashedirectly opposes and even plans to wage war againstAsghard.Whilethis filmdoes not
feature a dispatcher or a donor, Thor does have a group of helpers in the story: Lady Sif and the Warriors
three, who help him throughout the narrative,includingthe final battlewith the Destroyer. Thor does not
actually featurea ‘princess’,however it does feature Thor’s love interest, Jane Foster, which he ultimately
ends up saving,even if she is notfeatured in the filmas a largepartof the main narrative.The falsehero of the
story can actually beidentified as Loki, as atthe beginningof the movie he appears to be on Thor’s side,but

9. Chaz Zalesinski
ultimately ends up opposinghimfor most of the movie. From this selection of the characters of this movie we
can see that Thor follows Propp’s theory quite closely.
Doctor Strange also has its particular setof character types, followingPropp’s theory pretty much as closely as
Thor. Kaecelius isclearly identified as the villain of the film,although this rolecan also be assigned to the
character of Dormammu, who is supposedly themain villain of the movie, even if Kaecelius gets more screen-
time. The Ancient One can be seen as the film’s donor, as itis shethat teaches Strange in the mystic arts and
helps him to embark on the path that will help himheal his hands. Like Thor, Doctor Strange does not feature
a princess character,butonce again features Strange’s love interest Christine,who in this casehas less screen-
time than Jane in Thor, and doesn’t requireany rescuingin any part of the narrative.The dispatcher in this film
could be Wong, as itis he that informs Strange of the imminent comingof Dormammu and the danger they
are about to face, and also ends up assistinghimin the final battle.The helper is likely the easiestto identify in
this movie. Itis of courseBaron Mordo, who assistsStrangein both his trainingand in the final battle.
However, at the very end of the movie Mordo is set up to be the villain in an after-creditopen ending, which
shows him killinganother sorcerer and statingthat there are “too many sorcerers”on Earth, revealing that his
plan is to eliminatethe many. This would mean that Mordo fulfilsthecriteria for both the helper and the false
hero, which makes him uniquein this set of characters.Strangeis clearly identified as thehero of the story as
it is he that ends up savingthe Earth at the climax of the film.This once again shows that Doctor Strange
follows the generic narrativecriteria of a fantasy movie.
As we can see, both Thor and Doctor Strange followboth Todorov’s narrativetheory and Propp’s character
narrativetheory, as they both display a rather commonly played out storyline,and a set of generic characters.
What makes these two movies unique is their mixingof character tropes to form unique, multidimensional
characters likeMordo or Loki, which sometimes causes them to “steal the show” and add to the success of the
movies themselves.
To sumthings up, each movie genre has its set amount of generic codes and conventions that allowaudiences
to identify and derive pleasurefrom the movies that they areexperiencing. Whilethe action genre relies
heavily on choreography, non-diegetic and diegetic sound, camera techniques, lightingand mise en scene, the
fantasy genre appears to rely more heavily on costume design, props,special effects and world buildingto
achievea sense of reality in the viewer’s mind. These genres also havetheir personal narrativetropes,with the
action genre often playingaboutwith the natural narrativeorder and its assigned set of characters,and the
fantasy genre playingit safeand stickingmore closely to what has come before it, acknowledgingTodorov’s
narrativetheory and Propp’s suggested character tropes, and thus achievinga fairy talelikestory,which is
quite fitting for the fantasy genre as a whole. This sortof choicebetween risk and safety is whatdefines each
genre of filmin the modern industry.The action genre appears to often take risks,with films likeDeadpool and
Spectre provingexactly that itis not always necessary to stick to the familiar to create something special,
which is a fact supported by Neale’s theory of repetition and difference. The fantasy genre appears to stick
more to the repetition partof this theory, and yet still manages to create something uniquewith their use of
imagination and other aspects of design that are heavily implemented into movies such as Thor and Doctor
Strange. The previously covered points definitely suggest that each genre has something relatingto the
audience’s familiarities and a senseof difference, which is exactly what makes each genre of movie, classical
and contemporary, something unique.