Perception Matters!!!

Avatar –

One of the most successful movies of all time!

James Cameroon – Next only to God!

Most amazing movie of the year!

Must see – or Die!!



I must say Prof Solomon Asch's work on social pressure is an exceptional one. His did experiments on the how most people succumb to social pressure and might end up accepting the wrong thing even after being known what is right. Well after all human perception is all important.



It was night 11:25 show – I went for Avatar, with a lot of excitement, not because I am going for Avatar, but I am going for a movie, having a break from my regular routine. Well, it was the 3D version. The movie was everything but a feature film. The visual retreat was the best part that I adored about the movie. I went to the movie theater and realized that nothing much was going fast in the first 40-60 min, and as usually dosed off, with the glasses on, atleast let me dreams be 3D . However it was short nap. I realized that the story was going on with amazing cinematography, loved the hanging mountains, and all the nature which was splendidly shown across. Well, but I wanted to watch a movie and not an artificial creative forest.



The movie tested my patience, and the long screenplay made it a more painful. I did rather watch Deewar, Muttinahaara (one of my all time Kannada movies), or any typical South Indian movie where we see the hero fighting for the poor/ saving someone's life/ losing his family and he takes revenge in an anti-climax. The movie was finally over and I came out with my friends, and saw everybody so ecstatic and told profound comments. As I was about to open my mouth, I realized that I would be spoiling the aura around.



Next day I came to class and everyone were using adjectives which I even didn't know till that time. The perception so worked that I literally didn't tell many that I didn't like, but for my close aides. I was seeing amazing reviews popping up through various net sources and strong one-liners in the chat-messages. I almost made up my mind that I had actually missed out some major part during my nap in the 3D movie and decided that I would watch it again. But my exams started and I got busy with them. The day of the last exam, we had our group going to the movie, and I got going with them. This time I made sure I don't dose off, and frankly the pain was a bit more this time. But thanks to my group, it somehow was memorable, as we were mocking at many of the practices and was relating to many of our experiences.



People who have heard me giving light hearted comments about the movie, would consider me a hypocrite, but putting it in white and black, trust me I didn't like the movie the way I liked some of Cameroon's previous work. He deserves a lot of appreciation for putting across a simple concept of saving nature, in a complicated manner. But most of my heartfelt appreciation would go to the creative technocrats (it is not an oxymoron) who have worked behind the scenes for bringing out such magnificent scenery and its 3D effects.

Now what has Prof Solomon Asch got to do with this..?

It's been almost 2 days that I have seen it the second time, and this time with full conviction, I state my reviews, and surprisingly, considerable (not majority) people backed my opinion. Infact with the group when with whom I went the second time, most of them were pragmatic and enjoyed the movie as more of a comic style, than for what the movie was meant for.



I realized the impact of opinions which had sucked me into watching it for the second time, even though I had clearly realized that I didn't like it the first time. This is social pressure. After watching it for the second time, I realized that many were pulled into the majority opinion, the way I was. This realization did cost me an extra ticket & precious time (off course, I would have slept otherwise).



It is worthwhile to have a glimpse of Solomon Asch's psychological experiment –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Asch