I know you’re not supposed to like watching movies on airplanes. In-flight movies are really a consolation prize for being cooped up for several hours in a too-small seat inside a crowded tin can.
The screen is small, and the conditions are sub-optimal. And yet, I find that I really love it.
Sometimes I will watch the same movie that I saw on a big screen in a movie theater, one I didn’t particularly like the first time around. Yet when I see it in the little seat-back screen in front of me, the movie seems much better.
I think it has something to do with intimacy and focus. I am tuning out everything else about the uncomfortable experience of flying, so I become completely immersed in the movie, even more than I would in a movie theater.
When I watch an in-flight movie, I feel more connected with the movie watching experience. In this setting, I find that I am better at noticing and appreciating the choices the filmmaker has made, and that makes me like the movie even more.
Am I the only one who has this experience?