So last weekend, I decided to stretch my Indie credibility by watching a little film called The Batman – I doubt you’ve heard of it.

I sat down in the semi-comfy cinema for the second time in two years, ready to experience the three-hour spectacle I’d heard whispers of for a while. As the two hours of advertising was playing before our eyes, the theatre was chattering in… I couldn’t tell. You would think excitement but I’m sure it was more mundane than that. Maybe they rented a new car recently. Who knows?

When the film finally began, something stuck out immediately. And no, it was not the creepiness of Paul Dano, or the beautiful cinematography, or even the Nirvana song. It was the sound of chattering that I’d heard during the advertisements. For whatever reason, it hadn’t stopped. A group of 20 something-year-old men sitting directly behind me had continued their level of noise as if the ads were still going. What made these guys even more killable was the fact that they felt the need to comment on what was happening before our eyes.

For three hours, this never stopped – preventing me from fully engaging with Matt Reeves’ vision of Batman. It was only after hours of reflection when I found myself fully appreciating what I had watched, time extended due solely to the distraction occurring directly behind me throughout the entirety of the film’s runtime.

Believe it or not, this experience was echoed during my viewing of another underrated independent film – one some refer to as Spider-Man: No Way Home. My ability to enjoy the sound of Willem Dafoe referring to himself as something of a scientist again was foiled by the sight of glaring lights protruding from phones put at maximum brightness (an epidemic worthy of a blog of its own). It was to the point where I could hardly see a thing.

So, after a mere two experiences at the cinema in the last two years, I can safely claim that Covid has ruined us. The extended time we’ve all spent streaming at home has transformed us into intolerable creatures; also known as Americans. What was once a hilarious Seinfeld scene has become reality. 

Or maybe I was just lucky pre-COVID?

Probably.

Maybe everything I just wrote is completely meaningless.

All I know is that I would much rather stay within the confines of a dark, demented back room with nothing but a TV than leave and have to experience people at the same time. Being able to take in every word of what I’m watching is a beautiful thing to behold. I’m able to fully escape and reflect on what’s occurring as it happens. And maybe I have discussions afterward, but I’m pretty introverted, so probably not.

So in a way, I’m both an active and passive audience member at the same time: I’m actively paying attention, but not openly commenting on the media I consume. It wasn’t until I came across M M Kobiruzzaman’s thoughts on the topic when that notion began to make sense to me.

It is mainly thanks to those two horrible experiences I recounted that I’ve now come to this meandering conclusion. All I truly know is that I now plan on keeping my cinema experiences to a minimum from now on (until Doctor Strange).

References

Kobiruzzaman, 2019. “Active and Passive Audience Theory, Example, Definition, & Difference”, Newsmoor, 6 Dec  https://newsmoor.com/active-passive-audience-differences-example-active-audience-theory/