Watched: Did not
Format: Regal Westgate
Viewing: Didn't happen
Director: Doesn't matter
We'd had pretty good luck the past 2 of 2 times we'd gone to a nearby cinema to go see movies with first Project Hail Mary and then Sheep Detectives. I was looking forward to getting back to the cinema this summer with what looks like a good line-up of summer silliness and fun.
I purchased tickets to see The Mandalorian and Grogu this week for a Sunday afternoon matinee, figuring we'd avoid evening crowds and whatnot.
We had learned not to bother to show up at this theater til showtime as they have at least twenty minutes of commercials and trailers. So five minutes after start time we sat down - and, I will be honest, for some reason they'd inserted some Minions thing into the commercials and trailers, and assuming everyone loves the Minions is assuming *a lot*. They just make me weirdly sad. Like this is what is passing for funny now.
Anyway, all I saw of The Mandalorian and Grogu was the part up til the title sequence. So - like, the James Bond-like cold open that isn't exactly related but tells us what's going on these days with our heroes.
I kind of knew we were in trouble when, before the movie:
(a) a literal school bus of high school boys was in our theater - I think a sports team between baseball games or something
(b) and Jamie confirmed this - a different teenager behind us was commenting that they show things before the movie. As in - he had never been to the movies before and found this surprising.
Even as the movie started, he and his mother (and this kid was at least fifteen) were just having a full blown conversation. Like, okay, so the kid doesn't have any audience skills... but the mom?
Anyway, I shushed them. I looked back icily over and over. I finally said in a loud voice "can you not talk please?" and the mom and kid looked at me and kept going without missing a beat.
Knowing this movie was two hours, we walked out. I talked to a manager who - rather than thinking "hey, I should probably tell the people talking in the movie to shut up, they're driving away business and maybe wrecking things for other people" refunded us and gave us two passes. But I don't know why I'd expect anything different from the theater or the patrons.
Jamie did remind me how, pre-Alamo (we've been together that long) I was openly belligerent with people in movie theaters who talked and I yelled at them early and often. I'd kind of forgotten.
And I'll be honest - I don't really know what to do at this point. I don't care what's going on in other people's lives if I just dropped $32 to see a movie. If you teenager can't handle being in a a theater without discussing everything on screen - maybe movie theaters aren't in the cards for them. At some point you kind of have to consider others in crowds. Especially if they paid money to be there.
But I do think people have absolutely lost their fucking minds when it comes to basic etiquette. And the lack of shame when it comes to getting called out is mind-boggling. I've more or less lost all interest in going to anything where I pay money for a seat. Even live theater has been miserable a few times of late (I know the ushers are volunteers, but if you can't hear the full, loud conversations happening ten feet away, are you even capable of doing your job?).
On the way home, neither Jamie nor I could recall the theater providing any on-screen messages about "hey, shut up when the movie starts" as part of the lengthy pre-show, but it's possible that my brain had frozen to protect itself from Minions. And everyone was talking over the endless ads, anyway.
I'm tired of being told I'm expecting too much out of both movie theaters and their patrons, like I'm the problem for expecting a theater to have functioning facilities, to not have to watch 20 minutes of commercials after paying $32 for two seats to a movie. Or expecting theater chains to encourage civility in a shared space.
I am glad to get the refund - that was impossible at AMC and they chose to be hostile about it when asked. But I'm not sure what to do about two movie passes when I feel like...
I'm just done with it. I know I'm one ticket and don't matter, so I'm going to use my money elsewhere that isn't a 50% chance of making me miserable.
So, anyway, guess I'm not going to the theater anymore. 49 years was a pretty good run. Aside from Supergirl and Man of Tomorrow, I'll just be sticking to streaming and whatnot now.
