whoa
Yesterday theoret and I went to the Royal Albert Hall to watch a HD screening of The Matrix accompanied by a live orchestra playing the score. IT. WAS. AMAZING. We bought the tickets almost a year ago and splurged on what turned out to be practically the best seats in the entire Hall (two boxes to the right and we would have been dead centre), in this wee little box that only seated four people and our seats were the two at the front so we were just looking out over this velvet-lined ledge into the ROYAL ALBERT ABYSS.
We arrived over an hour early, as the doors were open and it was getting cold/dark, and just sitting there was so fun: spying on people in the lower levels and playing 'count the number of smartphones we can see below us' and accidentally shipping the pair of guys who had got that box two to the right of us and basically joygasmed in excitement as they took in their might mighty view. AND, right, the boxes had coat hooks and a dressing table and a mirror and the chairs weren't attached to the ground so we could move them around and we secretly took our shoes off. IT WAS PROBABLY THE CLASSIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER SAT.
The giant fucking screen and the giant fucking orchestra pit. (Apparently the orchestra was 85-strong? I can't load the RAH website to fact check this but I read it on a trusty kind of website.)
Also, the giant fucking acoustic diffusing discs that were incredibly precisely placed and engineered to muffle the echo, because the Royal Albert Hall actually had really really shitty acoustics for over 100 years. Awkward.
WE WERE HIGH UP AND IT WAS AWESOME.
I am the master of all I survey.
And then they played The Matrix, which I haven't watched since I was around ten? i.e. the last time I saw it, it was on tape. It was probably the first proper action film I ever saw and it totally blew my mind and twelve years later it TOTALLY LIVED UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS. I LOVE KEANU REEVES. I LOVE EXCESSIVE LEATHER COATS. I LOVE THE NOW HILARIOUSLY OUTDATED MOBILE PHONES. I LOVE 'I KNOW KUNG FU' AND GLITCHES IN THE MATRIX AND DODGING BULLETS IN SLOW-MO AND THE QUESTIONABLE REALITY OF SPOONS *_*
There was so much shit I had forgotten about, like the entire beginning and that awful belly-button mechamonster and basically all of the characters that weren't Neo, Trinity, Morpheus or Agent Smith, and the whole massive shoot out with the pillars and the bullet time and the giant bags of guns was even better than I'd remember, especially when watched in a venue with such epic audio the music made my seat rumble. HEAVEN. Also, now I am old enough to truly appreciate the majestic hotness of Keanu Reeves shooting the shit out of shit in a tight black t-shirt and a long black coat. FURTHER HEAVEN.
Also also, watching a film with that many people is just an amazing experience. Thousands-strong chuckles! I like to think that this was the first time a screening of The Matrix has received a standing ovation from about 5000 people.
We arrived over an hour early, as the doors were open and it was getting cold/dark, and just sitting there was so fun: spying on people in the lower levels and playing 'count the number of smartphones we can see below us' and accidentally shipping the pair of guys who had got that box two to the right of us and basically joygasmed in excitement as they took in their might mighty view. AND, right, the boxes had coat hooks and a dressing table and a mirror and the chairs weren't attached to the ground so we could move them around and we secretly took our shoes off. IT WAS PROBABLY THE CLASSIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER SAT.
The giant fucking screen and the giant fucking orchestra pit. (Apparently the orchestra was 85-strong? I can't load the RAH website to fact check this but I read it on a trusty kind of website.)
Also, the giant fucking acoustic diffusing discs that were incredibly precisely placed and engineered to muffle the echo, because the Royal Albert Hall actually had really really shitty acoustics for over 100 years. Awkward.
WE WERE HIGH UP AND IT WAS AWESOME.
I am the master of all I survey.
And then they played The Matrix, which I haven't watched since I was around ten? i.e. the last time I saw it, it was on tape. It was probably the first proper action film I ever saw and it totally blew my mind and twelve years later it TOTALLY LIVED UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS. I LOVE KEANU REEVES. I LOVE EXCESSIVE LEATHER COATS. I LOVE THE NOW HILARIOUSLY OUTDATED MOBILE PHONES. I LOVE 'I KNOW KUNG FU' AND GLITCHES IN THE MATRIX AND DODGING BULLETS IN SLOW-MO AND THE QUESTIONABLE REALITY OF SPOONS *_*
There was so much shit I had forgotten about, like the entire beginning and that awful belly-button mechamonster and basically all of the characters that weren't Neo, Trinity, Morpheus or Agent Smith, and the whole massive shoot out with the pillars and the bullet time and the giant bags of guns was even better than I'd remember, especially when watched in a venue with such epic audio the music made my seat rumble. HEAVEN. Also, now I am old enough to truly appreciate the majestic hotness of Keanu Reeves shooting the shit out of shit in a tight black t-shirt and a long black coat. FURTHER HEAVEN.
Also also, watching a film with that many people is just an amazing experience. Thousands-strong chuckles! I like to think that this was the first time a screening of The Matrix has received a standing ovation from about 5000 people.