I finally got round to watching the last installment of Harry Potter at the weekend; a beautiful mix of new age CGI wizardry and the kind of dark fantasy I remember from films like Labyrinth and The Never Ending Story. I love watching films that propel me into the sort of world where science, religion or historical relevance bear no significance in shaping the storyline and all you have is the writer's outlandish vision and a studio's attempts at taking you as far out of reality as humanly possible through the medium of cinema.
I suppose it comes down to what sort of imagination you have but for me, when I'm watching a Sci-Fi or fantasy flick, I completely absorb myself into that world and for those two hours at least, my mind is cast afar even if I am seated on row H at the VUE in Clacton-on-Sea!
This type of escapism is sublime but can be dangerous! Not dangerous in a physical sense of course, but dangerous in a sociologically one. Once the film has finished, a post-fantasy state of awakening occurs where you suddenly realize that you're no longer riding through the fields of Middle Earth with your stupidly named comrades, you in fact leaving that VUE in rainy Clacton and the real world beckons!
I equate this feeling to the one we all had growing up when commonsense or that horrible older sibling broke the news to you that Father Christmas was in fact a fictional character!
The real world is rubbish compared to the one you just left. War, famine, poverty and the ills of humanity make sure of that. But as harsh as it sounds, that's not what depresses me the most. In a cinematic world dreamt up and acted out in Hollywood, that wooden stick you just picked up isn't just a prop, it's a weapon, a weapon that casts spells and defends you as you dual with a mythical creature from the underworld. Bear with me...
How many of us left the cinema after watching Superman and thought how amazing it would feel to fly unaided and blast through the sound barrier or during a quiet moment away from prying eyes tried to move an object with our minds like Obi-One in Star Wars. If you haven't then this article isn't for you and I'd suggest growing an imagination. If you have then you know exactly how depressing it is when that teacup doesn't in fact fly across the table and into your hand.
In reality, we are bound by the rules of logic and the depressing realism that our bodies are in fact fatty deposits of skin with no amazing features other than thought and the ability to work machines that make things for us. We can't fly through the air with a cape flapping about behind us or cast a love spell that makes that stunning beautiful women sitting next to you on the train suddenly realize that you're the man for her. Instead, we buy an economy class ticket, peer out of the window and make do with a partner who's agreeable at best.
I suppose this is why I envy children and pity them at the same time. While their innocently playing around, oblivious to the rules of adulthood, the clock is also ticking on the dreamlike state of illusion that sees the world offer more than what the eye can see.
I read recently that there are growing numbers of people getting bouts of depressing because they left the cinema after watching Avatar and realised that in the world they live in, indigenous peoples are unlikely to defeat the sound of chainsaws slicing through their remaining rainforests at a rate that's unsustainable. In our world it seems that people only unite and conquer evils once sufficient and irreversible damage has already be done.
That is why escapism, even if it does lead to those tortuous feelings of insignificance, is a beautiful thing because even if we are restrained by of our bodies, our minds and more importantly our imaginations will never be!