Popcorn Movies- Why they are important.

With the release of the Avengers at midnight tonight, I find myself considering why sometimes a simple escapist fantasy is all we really need from the movies. I like movies like the Avengers and Transformers that have no pre-tense regarding their artistic value. They have not been made with the intention of carving a new path for contemporary cinema, nor are they going to creating a series of cathartic revelations amongst cinema goers.... No they are designed to be entertaining... and in my not-so-humble opinion that is a pretty damn awesome thing. If you flick on your television to any major station you will be surrounded with bleak world news and a series of melancholic onslaughts.


Since I was young I loved being able to adventure into new realms, to use cinema to escape my troubles for ninety minutes at a time. Back then it was movies like Star Wars or Willow- now I can chill out with Ironman or a slice of American Pie. These are the sort of movies that critics so often overlook or instantly disregard as mindless drivel and I truly believe them to be the most important. Yes- cinema is an art form and I absolutely adore and admire films of high artistic integrity that shape the way we think and that function as cultural texts, informing us of how the world is shaped. That said, I think that cinema, at least to the masses, is an extension of simple escapist theatre, like theatre it can mean so much more then just a simple show- but if not anything else it needs to offer audiences a way to slide out of their lives- even if just for a while.

 I leave you with a quotation from Mark Twain's "My Platonic Sweetheart" where he talks on the important of dreams. I truly believe that this glimpse into dreams summarises how I feel about popcorn cinema. "That is where those strange mountains are which slide from under our feet while we walk, and where those vast caverns are whose bewildering avenues close behind us and in front when we are lost, and shut us in. We know this because there are no such things here, and they must be there, because there is no other place."