Final Expectations
Ah, so the epic moment arrives: midnight showing of Dark Knight. Batman, my favorite all time hero, we finally meet again. We arrived at the theater at approximately ten pm, meeting friends that had already arrived and were standing in line. We joined the same line and proceeded to look around dumbfounded for about ten minutes until Ryan said to me "these tickets say theater eleven, that's on the other side". Sure enough, Lauren had neglected to check the theater number, and simply joined the first line she noticed. The only other line looked as if it were to theater twelve, so Lauren and friends joined that line while Ryan (oh dear, smart Ryan) asked and discovered that they were already seating our theater. Meanwhile, I had put on my sweater because, of course, movie theaters are cold, right? The theater was already packed, but we managed to find semi-good seats in the very back row on the right side. Good for the ones on the left end, bad for the ones stuck in the back corner. Lauren, Jeff, Aaron, Ryan, and I were there, saving seats for Bill, Craig, Caitlyn, and Alex. As soon as we sat down, I felt a little warm, thinking "huh, they're probably waiting to start the AC until the movie starts". For the next hour, I listened to Lauren complaining about what a pain it is to save seats for other people, and how she was so mad that people didn't get there at ten. Apparently holding your leg out on a bunch of seats and telling people they were taken is a little too much to ask (her argument was that the manager was sure to come in and tell people they can't save seats - my thought was that if that were to happen, it wouldn't happen until five minutes before the movie started...and it was still only ten thirty. As soon as Bill and Craig arrived, Aaron and Jeff disappeared to the arcade. Now wait a minute, how is it that they get to go down and play games while the rest of us guard the seats...and they still get to keep the best seats in the row. Lauren didn't seem too bothered by that, no. Not to mention the fact that Craig was sitting there saving the seats longer than Jeff and Aaron, and as soon as they came back, Lauren started rearranging pepole until she was in the middle, her beloved boyfriend (who actually looks disturbingly like the joker) and his delightful friend were right next to her, and Bill and Craig were shafted to the corner seats. And of course, Aaron is one of the most annoying people in the world with which to watch a movie (golf clapping when you can hear a needle drop in the theater).
Anyway, I'm just complaining about nothing, the real nuissance was the temperature in the theater. It wasn't so bad, until the manager came in and said "Oh yeah, the AC is broken in this room, and they can't come fix it tonight". This may not have been a huge deal in say...Chicago, but it's a big deal in Arizona when it's still 100 degrees after the sun has been down for five hours. Towards the end of the movie, after we had been sitting there for four and a half hours (ten to two thirty) I could barely breathe (as it was so humid, and full of hot, smelly, sweaty people) and beads of sweat were tickling my brow. At this point, you can imagine, I pretty much stopped paying attention to the movie.
As for the movie itself - amazing. The experience was ruined, so I'm going to pretend it didn't happen and go see it again this weekend.
Anyway, I'm just complaining about nothing, the real nuissance was the temperature in the theater. It wasn't so bad, until the manager came in and said "Oh yeah, the AC is broken in this room, and they can't come fix it tonight". This may not have been a huge deal in say...Chicago, but it's a big deal in Arizona when it's still 100 degrees after the sun has been down for five hours. Towards the end of the movie, after we had been sitting there for four and a half hours (ten to two thirty) I could barely breathe (as it was so humid, and full of hot, smelly, sweaty people) and beads of sweat were tickling my brow. At this point, you can imagine, I pretty much stopped paying attention to the movie.
As for the movie itself - amazing. The experience was ruined, so I'm going to pretend it didn't happen and go see it again this weekend.