Theres something dramatic going on with dramas. Most of us dont want to see them any more. During the past decade,and especially since 9/11,outright fantasy films have dominated the movie box office like no other time in history. At first glance,the reasons we prefer hobbits and spaceships to movies about the Middle East and personal turmoil seem apparent. The need to forget the world outside has been especially strong in a decade that has seen terrorist attacks,wars and economic calamity. With fantasy films,Hollywood has made its escape hatch broader. We dont go to the movies in order to confront our situation, says Robert Brink,who teaches script analysis at Columbia Universitys film school. Theres nothing new about that. What is new is the overwhelming use of the fantasy genre of films for escape. Sorcerers,vampires,robots and aliens have overrun a blockbuster landscape that included crusading lawyers,hard-boiled detectives and historical figures. The good fight in a courtroom or even on a playing field has given way to the good fight in another galaxy. The top characters in film in 2008 were a super-spy (Quantum of Solace),a martial arts expert Panda bear (Kung-Fu Panda),a vampire (Twilight) and an assortment of superheroes (Batman,Iron Man,Indiana Jones,Hancock). Normal humans were supporting players at best. And already in 2010 weve seen vampires (Daybreakers),angels (Legion),an apocalypse (The Book of Eli) and a tooth fairy (Tooth Fairy). The trend is undeniable. An informed-but-inevitably-subjective study of the 100 top 10 box-office hits for each year in the 1980s shows 32 movies that might be considered reality-based dramas. Think On Golden Pond,The Color Purple,Out of Africa,even action dramas like The Karate Kid and Top Gun. There were 31 top dramatic hits in the 90s (Titanic,A Few Good Men,Saving Private Ryan,Schindlers List,etc.). Since 2000,however,there has been a grand total of eight dramatic blockbuster hits. And since September 11,2001,there have been only three reality-based,dramatic hitsThe Passion of the Christ,The Pursuit of Happyness and The Blind Side. I dont know many people who can sit through a three-hour drama, says Matt Busch,37,a fantasy illustrator from Macomb Township. Special effects are becoming the driving force behind a movie instead of having a good story and characters. Indeed,part of the fantasy explosion undoubtedly has to do with the technology that drives those special effects,technology that has become both far more sophisticated and far less expensive over the past decade. The current popularity of Avatar shows how far special effects have comeand how much audiences enjoy them,including the rising popularity of 3-D. The rise of fantasy has everything to do with the success of fantasy. The studios are very risk averse, says Jim Burnstein,who teaches screenwriting at the University of Michigan. When youre faced with a marketplace where youve got to create a blockbuster to compete,you want to go with more dependability, says Belleville director Ahlquist. That search for dependability has sent studios in search of mass-appeal cultural touchstones that can be developed into franchises. Studios have found fantasy success with amusement park rides (Pirates of the Caribbean),comic books (Iron Man,X-Men),even outdated cartoon shows and toys (Transformers,G.I. Joe). And so,fantasy begets fantasy.
