Aspies, do you like watching movies?

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Both my AS son and I don't like watching movies much. Most of them seem either too intense or too boring. We have a very good home theatre so the sound and effects can be pretty intense. We do watch some kids movies but I refuse to watch movies for adults with my husband.

I feel a little ashamed but I have trouble understanding "normal" movies (not clear and simple ones for little kids). I'm awful at figuring out what the characters meant, wanted and intended, I'm not great at understanding their speech or body language, either. I miss a lot of the jokes. I often sit through half the movie confused and don't start to "get it" until almost the end.

Usually the first thing I do after watching a movie is to go online and find reviews and summaries and discussions about that movie. After reading a bunch of stuff I finally understand what's going on. I can't just leave it, not figuring out the plot or what's going on drive me nuts. So a two hour movie can take me 5 or 6 hours total to just understand it. I told DH watching new movies with him is too stressful and he's very disappointed.

I wonder if other AS people share these problems with movies?

I'd rather listen to my music and go on the Internet, than watch a movie.

Do I LIKE movies? I study film and animation- how's that for liking films?

I have had a lifelong obsession with animation in particular. Cinema was one of my greatest joys when I was wee and still is one of my greatest joys. When I was tiny, my mother used to buy our tickets and go to a seperate shop to buy treats and every time we did this, I misinterpreted this as mum trying to drag my away from the cinema. I would cry until I realised that mum was just going to the corner shop for more affordable snacks.

I've wanted to become an animator for as long as I can remember.

I love watching films, analysing them, making them (though I'm very bad at it), writing them and so on. My life is pretty much about film and animation.

I do like movies, but sometimes I have trouble working up enthusiasm to watch one. Just the last few years I've realized I have trouble paying attention to them...it's pretty easy if I'm in the theater, though. I have trouble working out character intentions too. I get the jokes and I'll enjoy the movie, but I've found myself in discussions about movies realizing I totally missed something that the audience was supposed to figure out on their own.

I don't like movies very much. I think I'm okay at understanding them, but the characters have concerns that don't interest me and that I can't relate to. Action movies just bore me, and I find them manipulative, in the way they try to channel your adrenaline by making you react a certain way to certain scenes.

I do like some arty indie movies because they tend to me more intellectual and less about relationships. The thing I like the most are evocative settings, like old European cities.

I have never understood the need to know what's coming in a story before it gets here. My last ex was one of those people who HAD to know what was coming or it drove her nuts trying to guess how the story was going to turn out. If it was something I'd seen and she hadn't she would pester me to death to tell her what happened next.

I can't enjoy a movie (or a book) that way. I assume the author is telling the story a certain way for a reason and will reveal things as they need to be revealed. There are occasions in which the story ends and I have to go back and reread or rewatch a certain portion to clear up something I missed, but not often. I like to experience the story as a ride, and if I know too much about what's coming, it's just not as much fun somehow. Of course, that's also why a movie has to be damned good for me to watch it multiple times. If I saw everything coming the first time around, once is usually enough.

I do find some action movies a bit overwhelming in the theatre. The screen is so huge and so much sound and color are all flying everywhere at once, sometimes my brain can't sort it all out. At home on a smaller screen, it makes much more sense.

I love watching movies especially old movies on TCM. I have a thing for Greta Garbo. For newer movies, I love action and suspense... lots of explosions, guns and car chases..... SciFi, Scary movies, fantasy creatures and a little magic.... I'll watch movies over again to catch things I missed the first time, sometimes repeatedly. But I am a book and music person most of the time.

I enjoy movies for very different reasons than most. A movie has to have a setting that appeals to me and must be very 'atmospheric', for lack of a better word. I don't understand what's going on many times, but if the movie absorbs me in a certain way, that's all that matters.

I don't really enjoy looking at a screen, for two hours.

I love movies, but don't seem able to fully judge whether I like them until around the third time seeing it. If I like it the third time, I'll like it forever, and then I'll buy the DVD and watch it 20, 40, 60 times (you guys are the only ones I'll confess that to). I love action movies, musicals and mysteries mainly. Gran Torino and Taken are ones that I've recently seen and like very much.

From an intellectual/emotional standpoint, movies are a special interest of mine - specifically the works of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. I've seen all 7 movies they've done together (as of 2010), and the only one I didn't really enjoy was Corpse Bride.

Though I have to say, the act of watching movies is a painfully tedious process for me. I always become uncomfortably restless when I'm watching a movie, so I have to put it on pause every few minutes to go walk around or divert my attention to something else (like the Internet). I noticed I'm this way with books as well. I used to think it was a purely physical thing, and that if I watched movies on a portable device I could pace around with, my problem would be solved. Unfortunately, that didn't work. I've brought it up to counselors and I even made a thread about it on WP a few months ago, but it doesn't appear to be a common thing, and no one knows what could be causing it.

While I prefer video games over movies, I can enjoy movies every now and than, but not as much as the Average Joe. I tend to only go to the movie theater a few times per year because I don't think I would be interested in most of the movies showing. For some reason, I almost always tend to have trouble with remembering character names, especially if there isn't that much to set characters apart. Also what seems to be more of a problem than before (or just realizing it) is that I have trouble keeping my attention for about two hours, especially if I find the movie boring, but I bet many other people feel the same way. Even with Netflix where I have access to almost any movie I would want to see, I find it hard to just go ahead and watch something without it sitting there for weeks and still eating up money. When it comes to most movies, even the ones I enjoy, I feel like I can only stand to watch them once before getting bored the next time because I already know what's gonna happen.

Movie Musicals obviously have my vote. I'll watch them for hours. When I got Into The Woods on video I actually watched it about 3 times a day for the first few weeks. Drove my mother crazy.

Some tv series I don't get. Like 'Friends'.

I like disney cartoon movies too. If I can sing along with it, I'll love it forever.

I don't watch many movies. Often I find all the little things distracting and the emotional build up they involve either misses me entirely, so that I get bored, or is too overwhelming. I don't like that feeling. It's as if I'm being emotionally taken advantage of, and I don't trust it. There are some movies that have sucked me in but usually I have to watch them in little bits. My husband watches lots of them and I'll usually just go about my business, stopping once in a while to see what's going on or just listen as I work.

Often, they make me feel physically trapped, too. I have to get up and move frequently, so I get very antsy when I sit still too long.

I can't pay attention long enough to watch a movie. Heck, I can't even watch a half-hour show all at once. I do better with shows that have short segments. Considering I prefer children's shows, Sesame Street is a great option, or Arthur. I do like to put movies on as background noise, something to listen to, but usually something I've seen 900 times.

I'm okay with movies, but I only like going to see good ones.