I am God.

What is it about cinema? Why do we keep watching films?

Yes, we can argue for entertainment and for escapism (any spiv who took a media studies course at college could tell you that), but come on – think past the obvious…

Why do we watch films? Anyone? Bueller…? Bueller…?

Well I have an idea.

Take a look at some of the films that get made and that go on to be some of the most popular – what do they give us?

Spectacle! Extraordinary, and remarkable spectacle!

They give us the chance to explore space, to traverse deserts and scale the ocean depths; to see love bloom, wars rage, witness the White House being blown up (not that we wanted to!) or watch the world end…

Put simply; cinema gives us a chance to see things we would NEVER get the chance to see in our everyday lives. But this isn’t just escapism. This is the viewpoint of God!

We see cities ruined, skyscrapers razed, tsunamis hit, tornados land and we even see people brought back from the dead – we get to see everything that’s going on in an entire universe and we can even slow the most heart-racing sequences down to a crawl so that we can take it all in…

We watch films because they make us feel important and influential, as though we were the ones who created the world we’re watching.

In those 2 hours, people are born and then die, worlds are formed and then destroyed and stars come and go into the deepening night, but through it all, we remain. We stand strong and witness it all.

For those 2 hours, we are gods.

And that, ladies and germs, is one of the main (subconscious) reasons I can see for why we devote so much of our time (and money) to cinema. To experience omnipotence.

Then again, it could just be the sex appeal of the stars who swagger about on our silver screens!

Hard to tell really…