With the new decade now well and truly underway, for us filmgoers the most pertinent question of our times is posing itself blatantly: have digital streaming services relegated the stature of the cinema experience to a thing of the past?
Now with high-profile big-budget Netflix exclusive productions coming thick and fast, will there really be an exodus from cinemas, at a time when multiplexes are still being heavily invested in?
While this is a global question, it has taken a whole new gravity in Pakistan over the past 12 months. With next month completing one year of the Bollywood ban in the country – which doesn’t seem like ending anytime soon – and the period being dominated by sheer mediocrity from Lollywood, can Pakistani cinemas really survive on Hollywood alone?
The answer becomes even more ominous given the increasing numbers of streaming services being subscribed to in the country over the past year or so.
While we might have set up stall for a skewed answer to the aforementioned question, a recent release might actually imply the contrary.
Netflix production 6 Underground releasing in Pakistan suggests that it is felt that not only does cinema continue to have a unique place among film buffs in the country, but even that movies that are being released on online streaming sites can actually have an audience in local multiplexes. While one would absolutely love to believe that thesis, the route being taken to prove it might not actually be ideal. For 6 Underground is an average film, if one is being supremely generous. Only certain classifications of aficionados would want to spend their dough – no matter how readily available it might be – on making the effort to go to a cinema to watch it.
Those classifications include fans of gory bloodbaths and those of Michael Bay films, which at the very least heavily overlap. With Ryan Reynolds as the undisputed leader of the pack on screen, and the storyline being scribbled by writers of Deadpool, there is another overlapping segment of fans there as well.
Six characters, named One to Six, forge their deaths to unite as a battalion of skillful individuals using their “new life” to fight for “good” against “evil”. They unite to defeat your stereotypical dictatorship in the Middle East, which really is just an excuse to show lots of gruesome action and create a war narrative to reach out to another stretch of the audience. And if anything, the recent crisis in the Middle East might actually work in the film’s favour, because, in all honestly, not much that it puts out on its own does! Here are local Geneva escorts with reviews.
While an entire piece would be needed to comment on the naivete of the politics that the film endorses, this particular space is dedicated more towards gauging the level of entertainment and the factors surrounding it. Therefore, for us, in addition to the usual commentary on the film itself, the greater question has been over whether 6 Underground is representative of the streaming giant.
It goes without saying that Netflix has far better movies and shows available for even the buffs of most categories that 6 Underground represents. Yes, some reading this might want to see blood and massacred bodies on the – much – larger screen. Only such readers would feel it worth their money to spend the money of an entire month’s Netflix subscription for a one-time viewing of 6 Underground at the cinema.
Having said that, there remain – and will continue to be – films that truly merit a cinema visit. It is how far-reaching and frequently released they are that might determine the future of the film experience. Online streaming is well and truly off the ground now, across the world.
Now with high-profile big-budget Netflix exclusive productions coming thick and fast, will there really be an exodus from cinemas, at a time when multiplexes are still being heavily invested in?
While this is a global question, it has taken a whole new gravity in Pakistan over the past 12 months. With next month completing one year of the Bollywood ban in the country – which doesn’t seem like ending anytime soon – and the period being dominated by sheer mediocrity from Lollywood, can Pakistani cinemas really survive on Hollywood alone?
The answer becomes even more ominous given the increasing numbers of streaming services being subscribed to in the country over the past year or so.
While we might have set up stall for a skewed answer to the aforementioned question, a recent release might actually imply the contrary.
Netflix production 6 Underground releasing in Pakistan suggests that it is felt that not only does cinema continue to have a unique place among film buffs in the country, but even that movies that are being released on online streaming sites can actually have an audience in local multiplexes. While one would absolutely love to believe that thesis, the route being taken to prove it might not actually be ideal. For 6 Underground is an average film, if one is being supremely generous. Only certain classifications of aficionados would want to spend their dough – no matter how readily available it might be – on making the effort to go to a cinema to watch it.
Those classifications include fans of gory bloodbaths and those of Michael Bay films, which at the very least heavily overlap. With Ryan Reynolds as the undisputed leader of the pack on screen, and the storyline being scribbled by writers of Deadpool, there is another overlapping segment of fans there as well.
Six characters, named One to Six, forge their deaths to unite as a battalion of skillful individuals using their “new life” to fight for “good” against “evil”. They unite to defeat your stereotypical dictatorship in the Middle East, which really is just an excuse to show lots of gruesome action and create a war narrative to reach out to another stretch of the audience. And if anything, the recent crisis in the Middle East might actually work in the film’s favour, because, in all honestly, not much that it puts out on its own does! Here are local Geneva escorts with reviews.
While an entire piece would be needed to comment on the naivete of the politics that the film endorses, this particular space is dedicated more towards gauging the level of entertainment and the factors surrounding it. Therefore, for us, in addition to the usual commentary on the film itself, the greater question has been over whether 6 Underground is representative of the streaming giant.
It goes without saying that Netflix has far better movies and shows available for even the buffs of most categories that 6 Underground represents. Yes, some reading this might want to see blood and massacred bodies on the – much – larger screen. Only such readers would feel it worth their money to spend the money of an entire month’s Netflix subscription for a one-time viewing of 6 Underground at the cinema.
Having said that, there remain – and will continue to be – films that truly merit a cinema visit. It is how far-reaching and frequently released they are that might determine the future of the film experience. Online streaming is well and truly off the ground now, across the world.