The One Thing We Love More Than Heroes

On Wednesday I bumped into a beautiful friend at Genesis Deluxe Cinema, The Palms, Lekki. She was surprised. But I wasn't; I'm always bumping into people. So she had the Captain America 2 movie ticket and it was showing in about 30 mins time. The last time I had gone to the movies with a friend was in 2011. Friends. Two lovely Kenyans. And I sat in the middle. So I bought the Captain America ticket too. And also sat in the middle, just this time it was in the middle seat in the middle row, beside her.

Captain America is a movie about heroes. And I really didn't enjoy it too well; the other folks around us kept clapping and shouting whenever the good guys beat the bad guys, and half through all of Fury's talk. You would think it was a comedy we were watching. I'm sure most of the people in the cinema box with us that day didn't grow up watching a lot of good cartoons. 'Cos I don't think anyone who has watched over 40 hours of Tom and Jerry as a kid will find death cheating stunts that new or amazing. And obviously no one who has watched Igor, Treasure Planet, Sinbad, Antz, Anastasia, The Incredibles, UP, Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Chicken Little, Toy Story, Shrek, Mulan, Frozen, Tangled, Aladdin, The Lego Movie, Wall-E, Ratatouille, How to train your dragon, Monsters Inc, Monsters University, Wallace & Gromit, The Little Mermaid, Coraline, A Bug's Life, Despicable Me, Arthur Christmas, Bolt, Mega Mind, Rango, Kung Fu Panda, Hercules, Madagascar, Cars and Ice Age, will be blown away by such a movie. It was too predictable, except the Fury faking his death part (but that's now the trending thing, and almost everyone in Stolen and Red 2 faked their death). 

Sincerely, I think it is a great movie and you should go see it if you haven't already. Just that I'm not so much into hero movies. And today I'll be sharing the major reason I don't fancy them so much. I'll be sharing the one thing we all love more than heroes.

image: screenrant.com

So let me ask you this deep question. Think of all the remarkable events in your life, the good ones and the sad ones. The events you'll never forget, events that shaped your life, events that shook you and events that brought tears of joy to your eyes. And here's the question. What pattern best describes your experiences?

• They were all experiences in which there was a hero, you or someone else, who did the almost impossible
• Most involved a hero (you or someone else, again) who did the almost impossible
• Most are events that shook your life to the core and you benefited more from people who shared their own experiences with you than those who were trying to play hero.

I'm hoping you pick the last option. The truth is, in real life, no one likes a hero that much. We only adore them, then get used to them and then find out that they've got feet of clay. And we only talk about them, not with them. 

The one thing we like more than heroes is a good company. Either in form of cool caring friends, or a strongly bonded family or funny colleagues. And that's what I love to watch in movies. Ordinary people putting extra-ordinary efforts into building the life they want. Not extra-ordinary people in extra-ordinary situations doing extra-ordinary things.

When I'm down and need a movie to boost my moral, I don't watch Superman or Batman, I watch The Intouchables, Nobody's Fool, Amelie and films like that, patterned after reality. Ones I can find a company in, and most especially, someone who took simple steps to become better.

No one hangs out with heroes. They only inspire from behind the screen. In real life, they make you feel less, incapable and unhappy.