Research On The Narrative Strategy Of Marvel Films From The Perspective Of The Hero’s Journey

“There are only two or three human stories,” said Willa Cather,an American writer“and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before”.“Hero’s Journey” is the research achievement of Joseph Campbell,who have analyzed a huge amount of fairytales and concluded from meta-narrative models and mythological theories this result.In film studies,the “Hero’s Journey” is structured as a complete set of play-making models,which not only provides theatrical help for films,but also carries substantial weight in the narrative strategy of film.Superhero movies are the most mythological genre,which,in people’s fixed pattern of thinking,tells boring stories of heroes saving the world.But from the unique viable birth of Iron Man(2008)to Spider-Man: Far from Home(2019),the global ticket sales of twenty-three Marvel Cinematic Universe films produced by Marvel Studios,LLC,has grossed more than 22 billion dollars,a box-office myth.Of the twenty-three films,Avengers:Endgame become the most successful films at the box-office ever,with 2.8 billion dollars at the box office worldwide.Superhero movies have repeatedly achieved box office huge success,triggering a cascade of commercial actions boosting film industry.Then here arises the question : What is so fascinating about superhero movies? In these days characterized by new movie genre,the core of which is high concept film,repeatedly refreshing the box office performance,how can Marvel movies get a lion’s share of the market? Whether meta-story mode and mythological narrative,such as“ Hero’s Journey” and “prototype theory”,have directly decided the deployment of Marvel film narrative strategy and indirectly made the commercial success of Marvel movies?From the perspective of Hero’s Journey,this paper analyzes the text of movies,attempting to explore the reason why Marvel film has achieved huge success from the angle of narrative strategy.Besides,It extends stories of heroes into ordinary lives,discussing the influence of Hero’s Journey on the narrative tactic of “ ordinary story”.Structurally,the first chapter reviews the origin of the hero’s journey and the marvel cinematic universe and their relevance.The second Chapter,based on the theory of “ Hero’s Journey”,analyzes the structure,image-building and character growth in films of Marvel Cinematic Universe.The third chapter compares the narrative strategy of Marvel Cinematic Universe with that of its counterpart,DC Extended Universe,to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Marvel movies.The final chapter analyzes non-superhero movies from the view of “ Hero’s Journey” to discuss narratives of ordinary story and super hero story,and to reflect on the results obtained from previous chapters.