Your not being very clear. I get what you're trying to say, that the movie wouldn't sell as well (in 2007? yeah, I know I'm respoding to a post that was made SIX years ago lol but it probably still wouldn't sell as well in 2013 either compared to say a superhero movie). But you're kind of wording it poorly. You're saying the movie story itself is "unrealistic" when what I think you mean to say is that it simply wouldn't be realisitc for the movie to sell well in more recent times (fyi, it didn't sell well then either, and John Wayne movies and other action/western/war/musical movies at the time would have still outsold movies like this though that was starting to change).
And I also have a bone to pick with your penchant for wanting to see escapist action fare and how everyone else apparently wants to too. Imo, it's very lame that, just because there are bad things like you mentioned (terrorism, aids, blah blah blah), doesn't mean you should be so weak in the knees to see a movie that tries to deal honestly and serouisly with the darker side of life. I think that's pretty weak actually, these people that say they want to see these big dumb, fake action movies to escape from all that, becasue I don't think you're escaping form anything. In fact, your escapism, that kind of putting your head in the sand behaviour, is only part and parcel of all the bad things going down. It's just another part of it, think about that. Besides, during the New Hollywood era when for a time more serious, honest, gritty, realistic movies were the norm and doing good at the box office, there was still all kinds of bad things going on in society and in the world like there is now. It didn't stop people from seeing these movies, that's because there was a wave of great directors and writers that were making very interesting and quality movies that people wanted to see, until Star Wars came out and people went back to the ligher, funner, more fluffy fare once that stuff started to take on a new quality and interest with a new breed of directors/writers.
The whole superhero/action movie thing is getting tired and played out now. More people are realizing that their escpaism is not escapism at all, and that there's no where to escape. I find that the shooting in that theatre last year when the new Batman movie was playing to be symbolic of this development: you can't escape away from it anymore, because where you thought you were safe to escape, you are not. Besides, like I said, escapism itself and the fact that people hide away like that is just another one of the horrors out there, right up with terrorism (which they had in the 70s too btw) or whatever else. And now that that horror has been made literal, vicereal, I think things will start to, slowly but surely, change. We're not just going to have big, loud, blockbuster movies dominating forever (they've been dominating now for 35 years as it is). People being people, they're going to eventually crave and NEED something more, something else, something better, someting different, more evolved maybe. A lot of the new action/superhero movies are getting lacklustre reviews and often the ticket sales are down from what they were (even if the movie is still making big money, and don't forget this is especially helped by use of outside contracts with merchandisers, retailers, fast-food outlets, etc, and consider inflation too of course). For instance, a lot of sequels aren't doing as well as their predecessors.
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