Both The Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark are great movies, and The Batman is bound to reach the status that the 1981 classic has, but some have noted that the superhero movie repeats Indiana Jones' oldest movie complaint. Both films have been criticized for how the heroes do not affect the narrative, but the adventure movie was far from the first to have that problem.
However, it isn't a "problem" every time, and in some cases, it was intentional and the entire point of the movie. Between an iconic detective film, an over-the-top action blockbuster, and an epic war drama, some heroes get a free ride.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
While Raiders of the Lost Ark is a classic adventure movie, the one popular criticism about the film is that Indiana Jones did nothing in the movie. Not only did he fail to prevent anything from happening, but he also failed to make anything happen.
Every plot development in the movie would have been the same with or without Indy, and while he's the hero, he's tied up at the end of the film and the Nazis inadvertently kill themselves by opening the Ark of the Covenant. Indy is just along for the ride and the charlatan is unjustly regarded as a hero.
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003)
Though Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines generally gets a bad reputation and is considered the first of many bad sequels in the franchise, it has an incredibly dramatic and haunting ending. After attempting to stop nuclear destruction, John Connor learns that there's no way of preventing it, and he just has to let it happen.
But while it's a great ending to a bad movie, it makes John's whole role in the movie completely trivial, and it's a far cry from the narrative of the first two movies. In The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Sarah Connor's role in preventing a future war is imperative, and every choice she makes could be the greatest choice in history or detrimental to the human race.
The Batman (2022)
A dark and gritty Batman movie is nothing new, but more than anything, the best thing about The Batman is that it's a detective drama, finally showing the Caped Crusader earn the moniker, "the World's Greatest Detective." That aspect of Batman hadn't been thoroughly explored in a movie until The Batman, but though he solves most of the Riddler's clues pretty quickly, his detective skills have little effect on the events.
Batman solved that Riddler's next bomb was going to be in Wayne Towers, but he couldn't stop it. He helped Gil Colson when he was trapped in a combination lock, but he couldn't save him. And he didn't stop the city from flooding. On top of that, the Riddler even turned himself in. The only thing Batman ultimately achieved in its three hours was saving a couple of people from being shot by Riddler's followers in the stadium.
Con Air (1997)
In the classic blockbuster movie Con Air, a group of prisoners is being transported from one penitentiary to another via plane. On that plane is Poe Cameron, who was wrongly convicted for a crime he didn't commit and doesn't fit in with the other criminals in the movie.
Poe is the moral compass of the film, and all he wants to do is be reunited with his family, but in the grand scheme of the narrative, he's quite literally along for the ride. The prisoners hijack the plane, and Poe simply watches as chaos unfolds. In fact, most of Poe's few actions in the film have terrible consequences, as he gets an undercover cop killed and he lets a serial killer escape.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Some Redditors think the Basterds are underdeveloped, and at the very least, they don't have as much screentime as they should considering they're the titular characters. Some of the gang don't even get any dialogue, and other members seem fascinating but don't ever appear again. And while they're great to watch, whether it's because of their brilliant one-liners or meticulous scheming, it all, unfortunately, amounts to nothing.
In Inglourious Basterds, they put together a huge plot to kill Adolf Hitler in the movie theatre, but Shosanna had already plotted the same thing, as the Nazis all burn alive. And while Donny mercilessly shoots Hitler with a machine gun, the dictator is already dead, and as it was a suicide mission, Donny and Omar end up killing themselves for nothing.
War Of The Worlds (2005)
In fairness, War of the Worlds is a decades-old story that has always had the same plot with the same mind-blowing twist, but Steven Spielberg's 2005 take on the source material still stands. As is the case with many Spielberg movies, the director turns the alien invasion movie into a schmaltzy drama about a father and daughter, with Ray heroically protecting Rachel throughout the whole film.
But whether the two would have survived or been turned into alien food in the opening seconds, the whole two hours would have played out exactly the same. And it would have ended in the same way the War of the Worlds adaptations always do, with the aliens getting a cold and dying.
Chinatown (1974)
The Batman owes much of its success to Chinatown, as the 2022 superhero movie is all about fighting something so much bigger than anybody could fathom that it's impossible to stop. That's exactly what the incredible 1974 movie Chinatown is about, and there are so many parallels between the two movies.
Detective Jake Gittes is hired to follow a man who is accused of having an affair, and like all great detective movies, it leads Gittes down a much deeper rabbit hole. But Gittes is always one step behind, and it's revealed that it was always impossible for him to stop something that was already so much bigger than what he could handle before the movie even started.
Watchmen (2009)
Watchmen is one of the longest ever superhero movies, but in its 2.5-hour runtime, there's not much happening, let alone the heroes having any impact on the outcome of the story. While the movie has a huge ensemble cast with a multi-stranded narrative that spans decades, most time is spent with Nite Owl and Rorschach, and the latter even narrates the movie, making them the protagonists of the 2009 release.
Throughout Watchmen, the two superheroes attempt to demystify a huge terrorist plot but end up failing. And when they do finally come face to face with Ozymandias, the villain reveals that his plan is already complete and that he was simply toying with his former partners.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Joel Barish isn't exactly a hero, but despite being the protagonist of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he and his ambitions have no effect on the overall outcome of the movie. After going through a crushing breakup, Joel visits a specialist doctor who can erase any memory of his former partner from his mind. As the whole movie depicts the procedure and takes place in Joel's mind as he tries to cling to the memories before they're erased, it ends up being pointless. It turns out that his partner, Clementine, ended up getting the same procedure, so, having no memory of each other, they meet and fall for each other all over again.
Another great dramatic Jim Carrey-starring movie that is often mentioned in the same breath as Eternal Sunshine, The Truman Show, also features a protagonist with no effect on the movie's narrative — unless ending the show he was unknowingly the star of for 30 years and inadvertently making it more entertaining for its viewers is progressing the plot, that is.
Kick-Ass (2010)
Kick-Ass follows a teenager who decides to become a crime fighter and protect the streets of Staten Island. But though the titular hero saved a couple of kids from getting jumped and influenced a ton of everymen to defend themselves, when it comes to the movie's main narrative, Kick-Ass is utterly useless.
The hero does not affect the plot as the main conflict is between Big Daddy and the mafia, and when Big Daddy is killed, it becomes Hit-Girl's revenge tale. In fact, the one effect that Kick-Ass has on the plot is the very worst thing that happens, as he inadvertently has Big Daddy captured and killed.