In 2003, USA went to war against Iraq because they thought that dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussain had possession of weapon of mass destruction. Optimism was at all time high when Saddam Hussain was captured in December 2003.
However in 2005, USA would find out that there was no evidence of weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. People started wondering why USA went to Iraq in first place. There was a bit of self-doubt in people ‘s mind.People in USA were asking are we the good guys ?
In such atmosphere, typical simplistic good-guy-vs-bad-guy movie many not go well with audience ‘s mood. Audience now needed complexities.
In 2005 , Warner Bros. released reboot of Batman series named Batman Begins which was directed by Memento director Christopher Nolan. It would be something that people might have never seen before. Before Batman Begins their were serious superhero movies like X-Men but they had fantasy element. Batman Begins stripped genre of any fantasy element and made it as logical as possible. One could think that Batman could be real.
Now Batman Begins did not comment on current political situation just like previous superhero movies, but it captured the mood of audience who were not as optimistic as they were before founding out weapons of mass destruction did not exist.
Success of Batman Begins forced producers to make blockbuster more serious and realistic.
One of the examples would 21st movie of James Bond series ,Casino Royale . Before Casino Royale , character of James Bond would be flamboyant, villain would try to rule the world and movie would feature unrealistic gadgets like invisible car. In Casino Royale , this trend would change as the new actor, Daniel Craig would portray James Bond as a serious professional , villain would not have grand ambition and movie would be realistic.
Superhero movies would however manage to be apolitical until 2008.
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