Top Movies of 2015: The Year of Fantasy
by EG
A quick glance at the top-grossing films of 2015 makes it clear that Americans are not all that interested in movies that are grounded in reality. In fact, of the top 10 films of the year, only two of them are set in a universe that actually exists, and it's arguable whether or not even those two movies have a very firm grip on reality.
The top three films of the year, although very different, all feature an action-packed adventure story based in a fantasy world. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the biggest movie of the year, is, of course, set in a galaxy far, far away, and although Jurassic World, the year's second-biggest movie, is set in Central America, it's not the Central America that any of us will ever be able to visit. Coming in at number three is Avengers: Age of Ultron, which, fortunately for us, is nothing at all like the real world. Ditto for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, which comes in at number seven.
Two of the top 10 movies - Inside Out and Minions - are animated family films, and we all know that cartoons aren't real. The ninth-biggest movie of the year, perhaps surprisingly, is Disney's reboot of Cinderella, and even if it's live action this time around, it's still a fairy tale.
Those two movies that are set in the real world? They are Spectre and Furious 7. Yes, they conceivably could happen, but there's very little that's believable about James Bond's gadgets or the car crashes in Furious 7.
It's telling that the most realistic movie in the top 10 is The Martian. No, we can't put people on Mars yet, but we may be able to someday, and when we do, it might look a lot like the way Matt Damon does it in this one.