Like I said, only in the strictest literal sense. Otherwise, those aspects have near zero impact on things like story and character development. That is why even if they are good touches by the writer, the writer doesn't really get enough (or any at all) credit for it because it doesn't really contribute to the overall plot or character arcs.
It doesn't matter what it contributes to--it is writing. The conception of the story, world, elements, and justification or explanation of those things in a piece is writing. Nothing else follows; how can conceiving of explanations for elements of a story not be writing?
Similarly, even if the writer does NOT bother with these auxiliary touches and instead, solely focuses on the meat of his job i.e, the story and characters completely right, he doesn't get criticized for overlooking those details.
He does, by me.
That sounds little more than a silly excuse.
I'm not really concerned with you opinion of my position on that matter.
The cowardice of the executives is an irrelevant point
Hardly. You contended that the disproportionate popularity of "realistic" movies indicates they may be inherently better; I said that studio cowardice stifles quality in the sci-fi/fantasy genres more than most others, thus causing said disproportionate popularity. Seems relevant to me.
here because we're talking about films that actually got made,
No, we're talking about the merits of sci-fi/fantasy versus more conventional genres.
there is hardly any lack of "truly great sci-fis". Talented and determined filmmakers have often gotten their way in making whatever kind of film they want regardless of what the suits thought, because they'd either go to another studio, or independently finance it and then sell distribution rights and whatnot. It's not like all hope is lost just because studio bigwigs said no.
I never said great sci-fi films don't get made, I said many are killed or altered by studio interference, in greater numbers than other films. For example, there is a greater chance of a studio greenlighting a small, personal crime drama than there is of them greenlighting a small, personal crime drama starring Batman or some other sci-fi/fantasy element. The reason is because studios have a very narrow view of what can be done with sci-fi and fantasy. They also have a very narrow view of what Batman films should be like, which is depressing.
No, I am also talking about plausibility, and let's not forget that a lot of the "rules" of the world in LOTR are in many ways similar to that of ours.
And most are not.
Otherwise, Jackson didn't need to increase the wingspan of the nazgul's rides and I'm sure he made many such similarly motivated decisions throughout the course of the entire film. It is ridiculous to say LOTR is NOT plausible, believable or even remotely realistic when it has clear and blatant parallels to our own real world, to real world history and actually uses real world as a template for the entire "world of men" section of the film. It's pretty much lifted straight from the early Middle Ages.
Everything is about degrees, and there is a greater
degree of fantasy than realism in the film. Unless you've got a Wizard friend who came back from the dead that I don't know about.
And most importantly, comparing Batman to LOTR is another logical fallacy. LOTR is fantasy that is PARTIALLY based on the real world, but Batman is COMPLETELY based upon our own contemporary reality.
Hardly. The degree of realism in Batman's world may be greater than that or LOTR, but not nearly to the extent you seem to think. Of course, Maybe there's a fountain of youth, clay people, icemen, and plant women in some part of the world I'm not aware of. Oh, and an army a ninja Man-Bat assassins, too. I mean, Ra's Al Ghul just returned from the grave as a disembodied
spirit. Sounds like fantasy to me.
How can anyone can sensibly call Batman "fantasy" like LOTR (particularly his depictions as an urban legend vigilante and detective rather a superhero) is beyond me.
See, you've beaten yourself right there. You might as well have said "Batman isn't fantasy, except for all those stories where he is."
The fantastic, impossible superhero stories where Batman fights monsters and superpeople are as integral to the character as the urban vigilante stories, regardless of how much one might wish otherwise.
It is better if the film itself is trying to be more closely aligned with the real world. Otherwise, having Batman fighting such a character would defeat the very purpose of the film's world trying to replicate it's real world counterpart as much as possible.
That's not what I meant, and you know it. The Clayface example was not made to say that an unrealistic character could be placed in a realistic film with no ill effects, but rather that a film made with rules that rule out characters like Clayface is not better than one that is made to
allow such characters. Being more closely aligned to the real world does not magically make the former film better than the latter.