r/comicbookmovies • u/Jackfruit-Brave • 15d ago

4th wall breaking is not a good concept.

4th wall breaking in superhero films and/or comics is the worst concept to be introduced. It completely breaks the immersion in the film and takes you out of the narrative. So much effort is put into making these stories engaging and somewhat believable, but all of this is completely undone when a character breaks the 4th wall. The fact that the person knows that it's fake just means that that none of what you're witnessing matters at all. Sacrificing the plausibility of a world just for a two second joke is not worth it.

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3

u/Equivalent-Hyena-605 15d ago

The only time I've seen it done is when it's been done in comics first.

You can see it as breaking plausibility, but if done well, it brings the viewer into a more personal relationship with the character, like you share a secret that no one else on screen knows.

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u/klafterus 15d ago

I guess this is a movie sub, but there are lots of examples of this being done beautifully in the comics. Grant Morrison's Animal Man run comes to mind, or the original Jessica Jones / Alias comics by Brian Michael Bendis, in that arc with the Purple Man. I was a little disappointed when the Jessica Jones TV show took the Purple Man in a different direction, though that show turned out awesome in its own way.

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u/Asparagus9000 15d ago

It doesn't mean they know it's fake, (at least for most versions) it's still a real world, they can just see into our world as well. 

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u/NiklausMikhail 15d ago

I usually don't put Downvotes, but yeah, this definitely deserves it, if a 4th wall "takes you out" you're too deep in the fantasy world, a movie is a movie, a 4th wall just a for a joke is dumb, but when a character breaks it as Deadpool does is different, because you can just say the guy is crazy and delusional, and don't take too much on it, referring to the characters surrounding him, but if he would believe entirely that the out world is influencing his fortune, then he wouldn't care about saving his people as he knows delusional would work fine at the end

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u/FourSes 14d ago

Immersion is not the only goal of storytelling.

The fact that the person knows that it's fake just means that that none of what you're witnessing matters at all.

No, the fact that it is fake means none of it matters. Why should no story ever acknowledge that?