Spider-Man launches to jubilated reception in IMAX

The pandemic saw a fall in the output of art from both the local and global industries, to the point where the largest theatre company in the US, AMC Theatres, was facing bankruptcy during the course of the various lockdowns. Now, in spite of a new variant of the overstaying coronavirus looming on the horizon of various countries, cinemas have started to reopen.

In Pakistan, the latest installment of the Spider-Man franchise from Marvel marked a return to theatres for many. The attendees — dressed like the customer superhero or bedazzled with web-like eyeshadow — were buzzing. While there was some credit due to the return of Marvel’s cinematic universe, but the fanfare was not limited to Spider-Man.

Rather it might be called one of the key moments of a return to luxurious normalcy. While artistic creations can sate the masses and their endless boredom, they are commercial endeavors to the creators; many an artist has stayed away from an album or film release until the people could come to buy tickets. The madding crowd of nostalgia-ridden was just happy to know their easiest escapes were returning to the foray.

Even with the campy and bright colors of the superhero genre, Spider-Man provides the immersion that films bring: the otherworldly visions and rising scores that fill the silences of our monotony. Whilst sitting through the feature film, suspending our disbelief enough to believe in web slingers and multi-dimensional magic, it wasn’t the action that fills us with the feeling of being “something more”. Rather, it is the knowledge that there is someone on the big screen struggling to do the right thing, the sense of triumph and loss being fed to us vicariously. We are not experiencing, but we do feel the tempestuous aspect of the moment all the same.