Earlier this week I watched three new-release movies on a long haul flight.

The first was a musical and a fantasy. I am not a big fan of musicals, but that was not my problem with this movie: it was the Plot, the Acting, the appalling Dialogue and generally the poor Direction. I skipped through many scenes and songs and barely managed to get to the happy ending … definitely a C-rate, and I thought that Emma Thompson deserved better …

The second was a new episode of the age-old Star Wars franchise. It still has a pull, that theme: the familiar all-creature, all-robot, tinny space flying machines look … And, of course, the evil against goodies story line. Except that in today’s world the roles have been reversed!  When the first Star Wars film came out you would not have had any doubt as to who in the real world the film depicted as the good guys and who were depicted as the evil empire baddies. But today? In the real world today an empire dominates like no empire before it. The goodies of forty years ago today man an empire. An empire is an empire because it dominates, and it dominates because of its power, and power corrupts. Always. So while watching the tinny space flying machines I knew well who the empire pilots of today were. But it wasn’t quite as easy to tell who the goodies of today were …

The third movie was the best. It was another Si-fi film, of the ‘upper class’ variety, you know, the kind that comes up with an outrageously futuristic concept and makes it look totally ‘ordinary’ while at the same time staying clear of guns and violence and body count shootouts .. This one was about a space ship cruising at the speed of light with 5000 passengers and some 250 crew, all in a state of hibernation, to be awakened at the end of its 120-year journey to a star colony in space! It was well put together, the plot, acting, photography, dialogue, direction ..etc. It followed a well scripted model, the genre of Si-fi that is half future and half today. And every time I watch one of those movies I wonder about that. I mean in a far future, when humanity can send 5000 people 120 light years away to colonise a star on the other side of the universe, you’d think that those people might look a little different, might think and act differently, and generally need, feel and want different things. After all, technology is changing not only machines and the physical world, but also changing us humans: our brains are being more and more digitised, our bodies getting more and more simultaneously atrophied and overweight, and we think and act more and more like robots!

But no: the people in that magnificent space ship were just like you and me. And this seems to work! Because we want to see the future in our own eyes. It is easier to ‘believe’ the movie if it’s filled with people like us- it’s us in that space ship, it’s our ship and our future! It was an enjoyable movie while it lasted: the problem was that I started the movie late in the flight and we arrived long before the end, so I never found out how it ended, or how much it might have veered into the kind of ‘action’ that sometimes spoil an otherwise excellent movie …

“The main reason is the new Safety Video. As a Brit, I rather enjoyed it and thought it was a brilliant idea to make me watch. However … This was a flight to Tokyo and, presumably, with a high percentage of Japanese on board. With the language barrier(no translation or subtitles) and the utter ‘Britishness’, especially the British sense of humour, the video would have gone over the heads of your Japanese customers: not one would have looked or understood a word! There goes ‘your safety is our priority’ up in the air(no pun intended). So is it the old British colonial arrogance rearing its head, incompetence, or another misplaced cost cutting measure? (or a combination of all, none of which says much for BA ..). The tragedy is that in 30 years of flying the route that was the first time BA displayed such disrespect-verging on disdain- towards its Japanese customers … what a retro step!!

And then there was the mediocre food: BA always had its ups and downs with food, and it is definitely a down cycle now!

And the not-entirely-friendly or responsive attitude of cabin staff: the pocket seat did not have a shopping catalogue and I spent half the flight trying to attract somebody’s attention. By the time a catalogue was provided I was told they had closed shop … with this kind of service you lose much more than the sale, you know!

So now you tell me: what would I recommend BA for to my Japanese friends??”