Generally, I hate romantic movies.

I hate them because they’re too good. Too convincing in their fantastical, illustrative, beautiful lie that says, “This is how life should be”. Or “Relationships like this exist”. It’s the same lie I’ve been fed since I was drowning in my older sister’s purple bras while pretending to be Ariel, and believing Disney’s miscellaneous Prince Charmings were the end-goal and finish line for success – a qualification for a happy ending. It’s just that now, the same couple personas are worn by recognizable actors or actresses you like ‘cause you saw them in that one thing that one time with that one guy.

That said, I’m a sucker for the specific genre of Sci-Fi romances.

And Blake Lively (yes – right down to that weird mouth twisty thing she does).

Thus, I caved recently and watched “Age of Adaline”.


(Plot: Getting struck by lightning after being technically dead from a car crash made her stay 30 forever)

And, aside from the fact that she did not disappoint me in the least, it also made me realize why I’m a sucker for Sci-Fi romances like these. First, as mentioned above, I think is because it draws on those same nostalgic qualities of the aforementioned Disney narratives. It’s a perfect adult parallel. I mean, when you think about it, pretty much all of our fairy tales relied on magic of some sort. And what is “sci-fi”, really, aside from “magic that could be fact at some point in time but isn’t ATM”? For that reason, the whole fun of science-fiction becomes that it feels possible on some level. For example, in “Adaline”, the reason she ends up staying young forever (which hopefully you’ve gleaned is the crux from the provided gif), is some scientific (fiction) theory about how electron compression in the DNA (in this case from the lightning strike) does something to your telomeres to stop aging. I don’t think they say this, but telomeres are the (and this bit’s actual science) things that get filleted a lil bit everytime DNA replicates and-… Wait, are you falling asleep? Ugh. NVM. Here’s the Cliffs Notes version: shortening telomeres = aging process. And Adaline’s stopped doing that natch thing. So she stayed young. Anyway, all’a that bio-meets-Disney shiz gives my inner be-goggled geek a great big wettie. And mayhaps I just need that spoonful of hope dressed up in a lab coat to believe an adjacent narrative I can’t otherwise ‘cause I’ve yet to see happen in real life. Like love. (Far less believable, somehow, than getting granted eternal youth via thunder bolt).

And that’s my self-awareness moment for the day.

Wasted on long-windedly answering why I likely like these ridiculous films.

Or, ya know, maybe it’s just ‘cause they do things like offer me a new reasons to keep jogging in thunderstorms:

So I can split my soul into a buncha horcruxes after attaining immortality and command a dark army.

Just like Blake Lively does at the end of the movi-… Ah, crap.

I forgot to say “spoiler alert”.