This just leaves me thinking about all those times that I go to see a movie and criticisms fly everywhere about how this was too predictable, and this was cliche, and that was uninteresting, and I just find myself wondering if people are creating so much expectation in their minds of the "proper" way to do x, y, and z that they lose the ability to simply just enjoy something.
So there was a happy ending. Ok, does that make it bad? Is happy ending bad? The villain twirled his mustache. Ok. Is that bad? I remember my conversation with Karukaa bout a hook having to be in the first two sentences because some author once said so, right? Ok. How impatient are readers if they can't get through a chapter or two before making their decision?
Are we as writers using all these "tools" so to speak because they are expected? If I do this one thing correctly, is that going to make my writing a CGI Blockbuster? If I use bullet-time sequences and blood and gore for a movie, and find the equivalent thereof in writing, am I successful?