Going to the movies in 2022. It's just gotten really weird.

[Baitball Blogger]

Went to see Avatar in 3D. Wowed by it, but we really need hazard pay when we go to see movies today. It wasn't the movie that was the issue. It was the people around us. In front of us was a family where the two young girls on one end were coughing a bit too frequently for my taste. Yes, they were eating popcorn, which could have been the cause, but we came prepared and donned face masks, just in case. Then the movie started and the mother at the other end began to do this weird deep throated cough. Not sure what that was about. But we were regaled with this nasal rhino sound at least a half dozen times in the movie, which just kept snapping the joy of watching the movie. Sadly, she wasn't the only one. A woman behind me coughed several times during the movie. None of them, of course, wore a mask.

And then, in the same row, next to the father was a man who was obviously not related to any of them. He was strange only because he wore what I thought were sound cancelers, like the kind the sports stars put on their children to protect their ears from excessive stadium cheering. I really was pissed that I even found myself having to wonder what that was all about. I figured he was okay when I noticed he was stuffing his mouth with a large size popcorn, M&Ms and a large size tumbler of something. Pretty remarkable, actually.

I mostly dismissed him, until we got to the most exciting part of the movie and the guy gets up and leaves. What? Who does that. I got so paranoid that I got up and checked his seat. Sure enough there was something he left behind. Damn it. I could tell it was his bag of popcorn, which still had something inside it.

Then I debated whether it was time to change seats, but I knew that the people I was with were too into the movie to listen to any such suggestion. I mostly relaxed when I saw the guy, still wearing his cancelers, come back into the theater, but he didn't come back to his original seat. He sat closer to the exit. Only after the fact that it occurred to me that he probably decided it was best to flee the hacking rhino, which was only two seats away from them.

I ended up with a headache, not from the 3D effect, which I am happy to report has really made incredible advances and was a pleasure to watch, but from the stress of everything that can go wrong these days, by simply watching a movie in a public theater.

[MLAA]

1. Here are my movie going tips:

Look at the theater(s) on line a day or few days before you want to go. Select top couple of choices. Proceed as if you are purchasing tix on line to see how full the theater is. I only go to shows that have reserved seating. Then between then and show day, keep an eye on how the theater is filling up or not. If possible go to matinees. An hour before you want to go do a final look and pick the theater/movie with the fewest seats filled. Pick seats away from anyone else and purchase tix on line. Rarely get to see a movie the week it is released, but there are usually 2-5 people plus myself and husband spread out across a large theater of the movies when we do go to about once every other week 🙂

[Baitball Blogger]

10. My husband and I usually do something similar and end up going

to movies where there are only one of two people in the theater with us. But this was Christmas day and the people we went to see the movie with are leaving soon after, so we didn't have any other option if we wanted to see it together.

[1WorldHope]

2. We paid Amazon $3.99 to watch

It's a mad mad mad mad world. And I laughed my ass off.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Also a good option.

[edbermac]

3. I saw the first Avatar in 3-D

What was good about it was the visuals were so spectacular. The bad thing was the visuals were so spectacular that I was scanning the image all over the place trying to absorb all the visual data being presented that I stopped paying attention to what the characters were doing and lost track of the story.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. That's because it was the first of its kind at that level of technology and art.

The more of them you see, the more you get sucked into the adventure.

And, another thing. We purchased a new fangled wide screen t.v. a few months ago and didn't realize that we weren't using it at full capacity until my son came home and set the right settings. And, wow! We just saw a few seconds of the original Avatar and I know I'll go back to see it again because I felt like I was really seeing it for the first time as it was intended to be seen.

And then we saw Knives Out-Glass Onion and I was shocked to see even the natural blemishes on people's faces, which I don't even see in the movies!

It's a different world.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. We waited four weeks to see Wakanda Forever and checked to get less crowded theater

[Baitball Blogger]

13. We got lucky with that one.

We were in Atlanta and did the online reserved seating and by pure luck, got the large aisle that is usually reserved for wheelchairs. So there as a huge aisle and maybe more people walking back and forth during the movie than you would have sitting anywhere else, but the aisle must have been ten or 12 feet wide and we hardly noticed.

[Abolishinist]

5. Being seme-retired, we have the 'luxury' of going to the movies

in the middle of the week, in the afternoon, several weeks after the initial opening. Hardly anyone there, and the prices are less to boot.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. That's our usual system for any other movie.

[Iggo]

6. Not a fucking chance.

Sittin’ at home, with my own bathroom, and a big tv with a pause button. Yep yep.

[LPBBEAR]

7. Never again...

The last time we went was a miserable experience. It was pre-pandemic so at least that wasn't an issue. Over priced tickets, over priced snacks, pushy people, lousy seats, shitty sound. With the pandemic still going we'll just watch it on the big screen at home from now on. Foods cheaper and better, sounds great, comfortable seats, and the only cell phone I need to worry about is mine.....and its off.

Never going to a movie theater again.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. If you have a theater style movie room in your home, I can see your point.

For Glass Onion we had the opportunity to stop and rewind to listen carefully to the spots that we weren't sure about.

[PJMcK]

8. Why bother?

Movies are too expensive, the crowds are rude and behave in an unsafe manner and the popcorn is lousy and over-priced.

We watch at home. It’s just our personal choice.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. I have found, that when it comes to Covid precautions, definitely

the rudest people are white. So, that Republican push to get people to ignore safety health precautions is working for them.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Nothing strange about "noise cancelers".

Movie theaters seem to crank the volume to eleven. Way too loud, even for my old ears. Same with music events at sports arenas.

Maybe the gentleman was just trying to avoid tinnitus, or avoid making it worse.

Like a mask for the ears.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. And at another time I wouldn't have even noticed or cared.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. Last time I went to a theater was the premier of Star Wars. That was bad enough.

You had a better movie, but even worse crowd.