3 Common Traits Of Interesting Movie Characters
Are you interested in what separates a great movie from a title that is far more mediocre? It all comes down to the characters. Movies that are remembered and that people latch onto or that just earn great rotten tomato scores always have fantastic characters.
By nature, these characters aren’t perfect. Instead, they are often deeply flawed. Flaws are interesting for two reasons. First, they give you something that you hope a character will overcome. Second, and perhaps more importantly, they allow us to recognize that the characters on screen are dealing with the things that impact our lives too. So, let’s look at some of the more common traits that are key to an interesting movie character.
Addiction
First, it’s perhaps worth looking at how addiction can make a character more relatable and thus more interested. Addiction is far more common than most people realize. Millions of people suffer from some form of addiction in their life. Some are addicted to substances while others are addicted to things like video games. Usually, Hollywood focuses on the typical addictions like drug and alcohol addiction.
There are countless Hollywood movies and even Netflix TV Shows like The Haunting Of Hill House that dramatises the AA 12 steps. It’s not enough for us to see someone addicted. We need to see someone recover. We need to see them beat their addiction. It gives us hope we can conquer our own demons and provides something key to root for.
Ego
It’s fun to watch someone with the right level of ego. A character with a big ego makes for a great action star because they are ready for different adventures and challenges. If you’re watching a comedy, it’s fun to have a character with a big ego because you can compare how they see themselves to how others see them in different situations. Peter Quill is perhaps one of the most obvious recent examples of this type of character.
The Guardians of the Galaxy character is arguably quite dumb but his ego and his sense of self importance’s makes for a fun watch on screen. Arguably, the entire team has a massive ego and it’s why the movies are such fun. Director James Gunn is well aware of this. After all, he used a villain in the sequel with the name Ego.
A Witty Sense Of Humor
Finally, more often than not the characters in movies that we love have a fantastic sense of humor. Now this is largely due to the skill of the people writing such movies. But if you look back at some of your favourite movie characters, they know how to make you laugh.
This makes them seem more charismatic and charming. If we take a look at the MCU just once more, Marvel has a tried and true formula where virtually every humor they put on screen is ready to crack a few jokes every twenty minutes to make sure that the stories they tell don’t become too overwhelming. It’s also a massive part of why these characters have become embedded in pop culture.