Back to the Future

The excuse for "bad physics becoming a pivotal plot point" is always story. If it serves the story, do it. I'd much rather watch a hugely entertaining film like Gravity with a few inaccuracies than one that gets the physics absolutely correct but suffers because of it. Whenever I watch a film that is not a pure documentary and set on/above Earth, I just imagine it's in a universe similar to ours, but has differences that just happen to help the plot. It is just entertainment, after all.

You can always disable that key, or as at least one of my friends has done, remove the physical key from they keyboard.

He just verified the statement with the NSA.

Because they can charge $4 for the 32 oz. "Small" soda. The actual soda costs pennies, so it doesn't matter much if they serve you 20 oz or 32 oz, they just want you to pay $4 for a soda. It's the same reason restaurants charge $20 for a meal that no average person could finish. They have a minimum they want you to spend, and as long as people keep paying for it, you end up with more soda/popcorn/food than is consumable.

Like it or not, studios are out to make money, not great movies. For all they're concerned, every movie could be a Chipmunks sequel.

That's my point. The movie is attempting to tackle a societal issue using futuristic technology - the premise at least is not "explosion porn". Whether or not is succeeds at tackling that is irrelevant to my statement.

I think the promotion is a side effect of legitimate questions being asked about its premise. Aren't you curious if this is possible in the foreseeable future? At least it's more "real" science-fiction than something like Transformers.

I'd prefer a system in which every other year - let's say even years - are for passing laws and odd years are only for repealing laws.

So it "certainly wasn't the blockbuster it was supposed to be" is now a flop? Flop implies disaster - an immediate loss with no hope of ever seeing a profit. Most of the movies people think of as flops just didn't meet expectations, and may make a profit or come close with foreign sales, merchandising, DVD/TV rights, etc... If you want to know what a flop is, look up Town and Country or Cutthroat Island.

Superman Returns made $200M+ domestically, was the 6th highest grossing film of 2006, and made more than Wolverine did 3 years earlier, which means it sold many more tickets. Just because it's budget was high doesn't mean a decent gross makes it a flop. I'm sure they wanted it to make a billion dollars, but close to $400M in 2006 was pretty good.

I explained Green Lantern in a post above. Still, it did gross over $100M. The poster's point was that flops of superhero movies happen, but they are rare.

Lone Ranger was a bad idea from the start - no name recognition with most of the movie-going audience, and your only star is unrecognizable? Plus, it's not a superhero movie.

I'd hardly call the first two movies "recent". X-Men Origins: Wolverine Worldwide gross - $373,062,864; Domestic $179,883,157. How is that a flop?

The top two movies from last year were superhero movies. None of the X-Men movies or Avengers movies have flopped (arguably The Hulk was disappointing, but flop might be strong). The Spider-man reboot from last year made over $200M domestically, and that was a reboot of a franchise that was only 10 years old. The flops have been movies like Green Lantern, where any 12 year old could have told you it would flop before the script was written. And the real reason that was a flop is because they budgeted it like it was an Avengers movie and they expected those box-office numbers. If they had done a $50M Green Lantern movie with a decent script, it might have made a profit.

Stars don't have very much to do with how a movie does any longer. Look at After Earth, The Lone Ranger, or any of the last three Tom Hanks movies (total gross of all three $100M). Tom Cruise hasn't had a $100M movie that wasn't a Mission: Impossible sequel in eight years (maybe that's making your argument - is he really a star anymore?)

Re #3: The superhero movies/sequels haven't flopped. Look at Box Office Mojo. Those movies are doing very well. The movies listed for this article are neither superhero movies or sequels. The thing is, people usually want familiarity, and Hollywood movies that know that usually make money. That's unfortunate for those of us that like original movies, but it's not going to change anytime soon. If you really want great original writing, just look at the newer TV shows that critics love - most are better than any movie of the last five years.