Screenwriting: What Great Movies do More Successfully than Good Movies

Why create a simple clear goal with a simple clear motivation for your hero?  Because this is a great way to move on to the most important point or goal of your story.  And what is that you ask?  Nope it's not theme.

What great movies do, and in fact great screenwriters do, is they make you fall in love with their hero's.

They don't simply try to have their hero "save the cat" and then rest on those likable laurels for the rest of the story.  They know that the plot is just a foil for their true intent: To make you want to spend 90 to 120 minutes with your eyes and hearts focused on their hero.  Think about your favorite movies and write down what it is your love about the character or characters in the story.  Pick one, put it on, and write down everything they do during the story that makes you really interested in them.  They are doing something in every scene that just makes you attracted to their presence.  Maybe their charming.  Maybe they're absolutely vile.  Maybe they're incredibly foolish.  It's something about them that just makes you want to watch!

How to create a character everyone will love?

One way is to think of cliches and stereotypes and mix them.  For example:

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Imagine Santa as a gang member.  Or imagine this gang member with the personality of Santa.