This isn’t going to be a coherent, persuasive argument, I’m just voicing this so I don’t forget/to make sense of it all:

I’m going to watch Catching Fire and I’m absolutely making no pre-judgements on it or the people who watch it, but I’m estimating despite itself, I’m going to like it. I found this confusing, I’m not one to deride blockbusters inherently, I think films as myth and as fun are important, conversely they can reek of commercial over all, devoid of heart or purpose, a kind of insidious upholder of ideology, etc. Yet (Thor 2 comes to mind), I figure, why do these films get to intelligent people? What is it that appeals, uniformly, to those who can see past the apparent. Beyond their good points or their potential or certain moments and acting and other idiosyncrasies. What also appeals, with addiction, to the ordinary person? I think humans, due to upbringing and exposure, have a pretty good idea about how stories we work, narratives since time immemorial help us make sense of our place in the world, what we ought to do, repeating truths, they educate, and so on; and there are tried and true methods to best accomplish this. Those stories are the ones that stick with us and so do their techniques, we just need to remember them. But a lot of these movies simply do not grasp or present Storytelling 101. What is it that gets to us beyond the aforementioned factor, beyond boredom and the social aspect, beyond going just to see or to critique. Because there’s something that stays with us after all, something vivid, something that makes us feel favourable after the fact. Here’s my theory:

I think what these films do is a kind of sensory and dramatic overload, creating an artificial catharsis. For the former, they play upon our senses with expertise, loud and colorful to points of either numbness or ecstasy, you can’t help but be captivated or at least affected…and that shit lingers, it’s almost hormonal. But to compliment this, no matter how predictable, even if structure is wonky, characterization skewed, and moments unearned, these films move to a dramatic rhythm. They hit the typical narrative beats and punctuate them with emotion, this goes beyond some Hero’s Journey fuckery too. When I say move, it really is a kind of stream or dance, how it entwines with the sensory pressure to present a feeling to the timeline that flows within you. That sounds uselessly abstract but that’s really what it feels like, like passing of season, it’s a MOVEMENT, it is the feeling of emotion and quest walking within you?? An illusion of meaningful transpiration, that’s it! Exhausting and exciting. It’s like a prolonged song with waves known to absorb us within their cadence. 

Yes/no? Am I full of it?