Were not talking about film here; film is one of the most versatile mediums there is. Were talking about The Movies - that shiny, tempting world on the other side of the silver screen, where men are Real Men, women are Real Women, heroes never need to reload, and explosions blossom in glorious Technicolor. Its safe to assume that some time or another, most movie-goers have cheekily wished that the larger-than-life worlds they see on screen would replace frumpy old reality. Showbusiness is designed to get that reaction, to draw back eager punters time after time for their next fantasy fix. But its relatively less often that people actually attempt to dissect just how the movies try to seduce us
1. Narrative Structure
One of the most annoying aspects of real life is how it goes on and on, interminably, with no sense of rhythm or narrative structure. There can be long stretches where nothing happens, and when things do happen, theyre never quite as dramatically satisfying as youd like. The pacing is off, the timing is off, intriguing story arcs are picked up and then discarded or just sputter out anti-climacticallyits a muddle, its hard to keep track of, and its massively irritating.
2. Everything Really Does Happen For A Reason
If youre a character in a movie, you can rest easy knowing that whatever terrible things might happen to you during the next two hours or so, they will, at the very least, be happening for a reason. Even if that reason isnt necessarily plot advancement, there will at least be some sort of thematic point to it all. There are no superfluous people in movies; even if youre just there to be a face in a crowd, youre still needed, still a part of the world. Nothing is pointless (assuming the editing is up to snuff), and no-one is dead weight (assuming the writers and casting directors were up to snuff). Even the victims in the first act of a horror movie can go to their final reward knowing that they fell prey to a truly nightmarish force of evil, rather than the sort of bleakly random mishaps that cut down countless people every day in reality.