Which Macbook would be best for me?

I am currently in the market for a new laptop for university. I have one year left of my undergrad, and then two years postgrad, and it needs to see me through until the end. At the moment I am running a 2012 iMac and iPad Air, but I want to portability of the laptop. I find myself spending increasing time studying on campus and the word processing capabilities of the iPad just isn’t cutting it. My plan is to replace both units with a laptop, selling them to finance the bulk of the new unit.
My biggest dilemma however is whether or not I would be best suited to a 13 inch Macbook Air or the 13 inch Retina Macbook Pro.
I would be using the computer for approximately 5-6 hours on the days I have uni, during which time it would be used for basic note taking, word processing and internet browsing. Doing research my tabs can get intense, but nothing I think an air wouldn’t be able to handle. The 12 hours battery life is a big selling point here. Despite the 9 hour battery claims I am a bit sceptical about leaving the charger behind if I had a rMBP.
What is holding me back from jumping on the air however is my concern about its ability to play large 1080p movie files. I am a big movie nerd, and I don’t have a TV. I watch all of my video content on my computer. I both stream online and watch HD video from the iTunes store. My iMac handles this beautifully, but would the new air cut it when it comes to playing a 2 hour long HD movie? It would be a nightmare if every time I wanted to watch something it resulted in a heated, overworked machine trying to cool itself down with a loud whirring fan.
Whilst a retina display would be wonderful, I just cannot warrant all that the extra money on a machine that I will literally only be word processing and watching video on if an air would be up to it.
Can any Air owners, preferably those with later models, report on their experiences with watching video?
Any help would be appreciated! I’ve probably overthought the whole thing. What can I say? I’m a pieces.

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<hr width="200">
G4 (aka Flat Panel): Intel:
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