Realism In Movies

Is it just me, or that ever since the critical success of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, companies have been trying to make other comic book movies, as well as other sci-fi franchises, after it to be more realistic by removing any elements related to the supernatural (aliens, deities, etc.). I've also noticed how some people are getting annoyed by the realism in these movies, which was given the term "Nolanfied", thus hating Nolan's works no matter how good they are or whatever film he's not involved in. James Rolfe, for example, criticized the 2014 Godzilla movie for being too realistic and needed more time-travel and aliens from the previous films. Game Theory's Mat also requests movie producers to embrace the weird side of the comics and add them to the silver screen in his LEGO Batman episode. Are you guys bothered by the realism approach of these film adaptions to your favorite series, or do you just flat-out don't care?

literally I don't care about whether or not a movie is realistic or not. as far as I'm concerned there hasn't been an increase in realism per se in superhero movies -- they've just gotten darker in tone and more serious and less goofy and whimsical. and even then, not all of them: take Guardians of the Galaxy or The Flash for instance.

as far as realism in thrillers and dramas and stuff I think people need to take a deep breath and remember they're watching fiction. obviously if the details that are blatantly unrealistic severely contrast the tone of the rest of the movie it's less excusable, but one of the worst and least productive criticisms ever is "IT'S TOO UNREALISTIC!!!! WTF!!!!!!" two movies in particular I've heard my friends criticize for this are Black Swan and American Psycho. okay, they're not realistic, but you need to understand the reason for that. if Black Swan didn't have all the weird fantasies then we wouldn't understand what Natalie Portman's psyche is going through, or we would, but just not as pronounced. same with American Psycho really. if he didn't kill people in absurd ways then the movie itself wouldn't be absurd, which makes the satire a hell of a lot less scathing.

I rambled oops!

Pinkie-Dawn said:

James Rolfe, for example, criticized the 2014 Godzilla movie for being too realistic and needed more time-travel and aliens from the previous films.

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Lolwat? He never said those. He said that it was a good movie, that needed better aliens monsters for Godzilla to fight instead of the Super 8/Cloverfield monster.

But in my case, I really don't care if they're too 'realistic' or not. People complain about some movies being not realistic enough but yet, expecting realism from a Superman movie. If realism can be done and is done in a good way, then good. If they don't wanna be realistic and be more fantasy based, then go ahead. I seriously don't care as long as at the credit roll, I enjoyed the movie.

Hm. They tried going for a more realistic Godzilla in 2000 and see how that one worked out. Any film that cuts out the main attraction (i.e. a la Transformers) and replaces it with characters that you don't give a flying hoot about is the main fall of the Holly Wood. We don't want to see Shia LeBouf or Megan Fox, we don't particularly wish to watch Brian Cranston or Aaron Johnston run around trying to balance their familial relationships. We. Don't. Care. At all. It's not called: Humans .feat Godzilla, or Humans and (sometimes) the Transformers. People ruin films with their touchy feely 'this will be a great addition to this movie' ideas. When will they learn? These (Holly Wood) movies will always be overshadowed by films with just people and no monsters/aliens; but the giant genre has been pretty much mastered by Japan.

I hadn't really thought about it until now. It's a tricky one to explain. My enjoyment of some films are probably hindered by "realism" (I didn't particularly enjoy Nolan's Batman Trilogy and I was disappointed with Godzilla). But in the case of Godzilla, human drama =/= realism. It only hindered my disbelief because they tried to imitate a real-world scenario which only made it harder to accept that because it isn't physically or biologically possible for a creature to be that size. If they went further towards the sci-fi element like Pacific Rim, (although I personally felt the film dragged on a little) it was much easier to be sold on the existence of Giant Creatures.

However, in the Marvel films, there is an explanation for most things. Even if there is no explanation for The Hulk's ability to gain size (and presumably mass), everything else (such as Asgard's "magic") allows me to accept that if they question Thor's existence but not The Hulk's then there must be either:
- An explanation that the audience isn't aware of but the film's characters are
- No physical limitations for this in the film's universe.

I think for me it's more about accepting the film as a separate universe and how easily I can immerse myself into this universe.

Apologies if this has ended up as a rant ;)

Why not replicate Christopher Nolan's idea? His movies were very successful and has seem to set a precedent in Superhero movies today. I don't mind the movies being most realistic, hell maybe it allows viewers to wonder what it would be like if the events really did happen in their city. Furthermore, Batman is a more realistic comic series than Guardians of the Galaxy. I always pictured an Gotham to be like a New York city type of place even before I saw The Dark Knight ( I watched the movies out of order). I don't find anything agitating about the growing realism in the films, Green Arrow, a show with more realism, does just as well as the Flash does imo.