Fun Stuff > ENJOY
I just watched [movie x here]
BeoPuppy:
Yeah, Freeman is in it ... though not a lot. Shame. Other than that ... good flick.
Lupercal:
Get it on Blu-Ray if you're going to spend some dolla, it's visually pretty amazing.
Going to the cinema is a weird experience. It seems like there is a large problem with modern cinema, in that ticket prices are over-priced and the movies you're going to see are not worth a £10 ticket. In an age where you can buy the DVD for about £5 if you wait about 6 months after the thematic release, or torrent the thing for free, or rent from Apple Store/Google Play, or from various streaming services, it seems that the lure of the silver screen is decreasing for many.
I believe some of modern cinema is ingenious in its marketing - I'm developing an interest in that side of the film-making process - such as The Avengers and Marvel's original 5-year-plan to culminate several films into what could've been an awful crossover throwaway thing. Only recently however did I realise that of the Avengers films, I only saw The Avengers and Iron Man 3 in the cinema. Why? Because my cynicism became less and less of a controlling influence over that time when I realised, after watching the films I'd missed in the comfort of my own home, that 2/3 were good (nobody is lamenting Ed Norton's absence from Avengers) and word of mouth about how good [film x] is is enough to gouge my wallet open - no wonder as a series it has made billions. Is the lesson that if you pump out enough mediocrity you'll eventually hit gold?
There is also the double-edged sword of retaining franchise rights. Suddenly you're not going to see a film any more, you're experiencing a franchise. I believe the Star Wars prequels were made partially out of Lucas's love for the story - is it a coincidence that it sold a huge amount of toys? The next three seem to be an Avengers style marketing ploy (in no small part to the success of Pixar and Marvel Studios). The latest Oz film reminds us that any kind of trickery can get a prequel made if you dodge a few licensed references (e.g. the ruby slippers). The latest Fast & Furious entry does one thing to modernise the series - set most of it in London (but it still plays on the audience's nostalgia for the first two instalments). Prequels are now big-budget mystery-ruining disappointments that add nothing to the legacy they attempt to revive. Any decent novels or stories that gain attention appear to immediately coagulate with the highest bidder to form cold, hard cash. If they're feeling particularly lazy, a studio will green light a popular movie from 20-30 years ago that will be remade and retain none of the original magic or any semblance of interesting cast. A lot of the magic of 'cult classics' and films from the 70s and 80s tends to stem from directors who had a crazy, zany vision and maybe one guy at a big studio would have enough leeway to make sure the thing got produced. Nowadays studios seem to take way fewer risks, ultimately culminating in a bland experience for the consumer.
Essentially my point is that the multiplex should be lowering audience expectation - but when the price increases, we think we should be getting what we pay for. The experience of seeing a film in the cinema is suffering from a lack of originality, the on-going battle between studios to obtain the rights to money-making franchises and waking up to find ourselves swamped in movies that are just clones of each other.
tl;dr - multiplexes are kind of crap, support your local independent cinema and delve into some arthouse films or something
BeoPuppy:
The experience of a movie is something too, though. Going to a large building, where things are dark and there is an air of mystique and there are hushed tones and things draped in red drapes and stuff ... the lowering of the lights, hushed silence and stuff ... wonderful.
Plus, my favourite cinema has large 'love seats' for me and the lady upstairs which are so comfortable. And the upstairs has basically a private bar with several scotches and some cognacs for sale.
Lupercal:
Oh definitely, and that's what keeps me and others coming back - you can't really replicate the experience of the multiplex at home. The space, the seats, the screen size, the surround sound. I love that about cinemas. The industry surrounding it however is another matter.
The love-seats thing sounds pretty cool! I've seen some things online about having what are essentially sofas instead of single chairs and it seems like an interesting and comfy idea.
mtmerrick:
I've never been to a theater like that. Sounds neat though.
When I go the cinemas I don't feel any "mistique" or anything. I just go because the massive 21:9 movie screen and the 3D audio makes it so immersive, it's a completely different experience. Case in point, when I went to see the hobbit at the cinema it was amazing. When I saw it on DVD it was..... nowhere as good as I remembered.
Of course my asshole of a mother refusing to let blurays/HDMI cables into the house probably plays a large part in that, but w/e..... >_>
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