The modern blockbuster is built on combat. No matter what emotional depths our heroes may uncover — no matter the melodrama, deconstruction, or social commentary that emerges in their wake — there had damn well better be enough eye-popping fisticuffs to justify tugging on the producers’ purse strings.
But there’s a model, in movies like Back to the Future, Mary Poppins, and E.T., for exciting, special effects-heavy films that don’t rely on high-powered scuffles to create their spectacle and awe. Big problems that must be solved, eye-catching showcases, and great escapes can all provide a means for cinema’s auteurs to wow audiences along a different dimension. In the process, these types of movies provide an alternative to the monotony of the standard third-act action sequence and call for more imagination than the usual collision of fists and firepower.
