Quick Reaction to Aby's "Going to watch a film"

Image by Bru-nO from Pixabay

Read Aby's original post here.

While I'm working on being more proactive, I am, by nature, a reactive person. I listen to others' opinions before talking about my own, I prefer to block/dodge and counter in a real-life fight to deal heavy damage with a single attack, and I like to do things slowly but surely.

As such, I greatly enjoy talking about my reactions to the media I see. It's why I often reference my favorite content creators in my original content.

Aby, in particular, is still going strong with his blog. I'm happy that he's enjoying doing what I indirectly inspired him to do. (Mwahahahaha!)

To start off: Bro, you subverted my expectations. "Now, the reader might have been expecting a poignant account of film history and how it has affected us culturally and as human beings... Nope, you're just going to get a rant from me about how I hate going to the movies."

You got a trend going with your posts about Doom and Thomas Edison. I was starting to think you were sticking with the theme of mages being historians.

Anyway, time to react individually to Aby's list.

1. Not Watching Lots of Movies

Lame paraphrase, I know.

But let me take a guess 'cause, as a lunatic tactician, I enjoy guessing my enemies' next moves.

Movies, at least for the sake of our posts, are very long stretches of audio and video. In my mind, assuming a movie that can be paused like in Netflix, movies aren't "chunking-friendly". You have no idea when a particular scene in a movie will end, so you gotta stick around to swallow the story. In contrast, you know when a book chapter or TV episode will end, so you can comfortably stop at the end of those. In the case of video games, just finish the boss fight.

Good luck in theaters, though. They're basically the movie version of the video game trope Bladder of Steel.

2. They're Also Watching You...

A more original heading, but it's exaggerated. Eh, I like being dramatic.

I think there were times when I wanted to make weird noises as reactions in theaters, but I didn't do so. I wanted to respect the other movie-goers. It's like being in a library.

I can understand though that not everyone enjoys the occasional laughter in theaters. I often stay stoic and stone-faced in funny scenes, even if I understand the humor.

This is where viewing on Netflix is an advantage. You can laugh like crazy all you want with your friends. You can pause the movie and exchange comments. I like to act like an Insufferable Genius and criticize the dumb things characters do.

As for taking that armrest, I don't know how crowded the theaters Aby goes to are, but from my experience, I often get seats with plenty of adjacent empty spaces.

3. The allied ADABRA was deafened!

This is a reference to our Dragon of Icespire Peak playthrough where YoSquid shouted at Adabra's ear. I imagined Adabra as a ~50-year-old woman.

Not gonna lie, I actually enjoy those booming sound effects in theaters, especially if they sound as low-pitched as bass drums. I rarely get those sounds when viewing at home. They feel more immersive.

For horror movies specifically, I rarely watch horror movies, but I'm resistant to jumpscares, such as in The Mummy.

Five Nights at Freddy's, I admit, is my weakness. Video games amplify horror thanks to unpredictability, while movies often foreshadow horror scenes.

To be fair, I frequently listen to loud sounds, considering most of my family members have Hair-Trigger Tempers.

4. Stuff That'll Probably Get You In Trouble

I often dislike seeing kisses or being kissed. I find long romantic kisses disgusting. Also, I only kiss my mom and my niece.

As for NSFW scenes, they're difficult to avoid in theaters, even if you close your eyes and cover your ears. You'll still hear the...weird noises that probably remind you of Genshin Impact Lisa's Japanese voice.

Just to be safe, read the film rating details before you watch. Also, bring headphones and maybe put 'em on full blast.

5. In Terms Of Mora, I Have No Mora

Oh, look. A Genshin Impact meme reference.

If I'm not mistaken, movie tickets cost around P150-200, while a Netflix Premium subscription costs P500. I can watch a lot more for just P500 a month.

Watching at lower quality is actually a good thing 'cause it saves bandwidth, even if you have an unlimited Internet plan. (Thanks to my game dev instructor for advising us to save bandwidth.) It minimizes server "clog", allowing Internet users with more important tasks like career and school work to use the Internet with less hassle.

Personally, if I only need to listen to the audio of a YouTube video, I set the quality to the lowest: 144p. For casual viewing, I watch at 480p. I go 720p when I need eye candy or when I need to look at the tiny details.

Wait, what do you mean you watch movies with Doritos...and Pepsi? SCREW THAT! I know Pepsi and Mountain Dew are owned and manufactured by the same company, but Doritos and Mountain Dew must ALWAYS go together!

...Just kidding. Eat and drink what you want. I remember drinking Doritos and Mountain Dew as a pre-WrestleMania ritual.

As for watching a movie alone to criticize it...

I don't know for sure if Aby insists on watching movies alone even in a hypothetical situation where he knows for sure that a friend watching with him will agree with his opinions on a movie, but the power of freedom of speech is the ability to collectively construct knowledge, so I like to take advantage of that when watching with a few other people. Gotta stick to the LunaticTactician brand, after all; lunatic because I'm brave enough to express my edgy opinions, tactician because I make detailed analyses.