Cav's Place

I’ve been planning this for a while and thought I’d go all out and see what the whole IMAX 3D business is all about as well. This is something you obviously mainly go to see for the effects, so why cut yourself short? Besides, it’s the first time I’ve been to the movies in five or six years, and this is the first movie I thought was worth seeing in a theater in probably even longer. That said and since the theater allows people to make on-line reservations, I went outside the range the site normally allows you to select and made them some ten days ahead, for yesterday. That and the fact that I picked the noon showing meant I could pick a seat right in the middle. Middle row, center seat. In hindsight, I probably should have picked a seat a couple of rows more towards the front, because at first I had the tendency to want to look up and kept needing to correct myself and look straight ahead or even a little down at times.
Of course, since this actually involved me going to a theater by myself and interacting with someone in order to get the actual ticket, I didn’t exactly think I’d manage. With a card on my hands I could have bought the ticket on-line as well and spare myself all the trouble, but as it was I took advantage of the opportunity to reduce the amount of interaction and thought I’d give it a shot. Then again, on-line reservations seem to be more like a necessity than an opportunity for this one. I mean, it’s the only IMAX in Romania and last month it was saying that no more seats were available even a week ahead for three of the four daily showings of Avatar, only the noon one talking longer to fill. Now you can still find a few on shorter notice, but good seats still go very quickly.

Either way, I got there about one hour and 20 minutes ahead of the time of the showing and gave it a try. It was obviously much easier than it’d have been to actually buy the ticket directly from there, because instead of needing to walk up and say I want a ticket for this and that and pick the seat out of what’s available I just asked what should I do if I made an on-line reservation, was told to give the code and did just that. The guy did ask what movie and what time was the reservation for, probably just to check, but saying something already settled was far less taxing than actually asking myself, if that makes sense… Still, I really felt crushed by that brief exchange and when the guy, probably realizing I was there for the first time, told me how to get to the IMAX hall and that I could get in 15 minutes before the starting time, I felt the need to explain myself, despite my showing up early being obviously explained by the fact that they require on-line reservations to be picked up at least 30 minutes before the starting time and strongly suggest picking them up even earlier to avoid queues. Because of that, I muttered “I have something else to do anyway”. Thinking about it later and since the difference is only a single letter in Romanian, I realize that it could have sounded more like “I don’t have anything else to do anyway”, so that made me feel even worse…

I did actually have something else planned to do that day, because at first I meant to get there some two hours early, giving me enough time to reach a park that’s in that area and where I’ve never been before, take a brief walk through it and then come back by the starting time. But that didn’t work out, because I changed my mind too many times and ended up setting the alarm a bit too late. On top of that, to put it bluntly, I was too tense to be able to take a dump before leaving but also too worried I’ll end up needing to go while there if I don’t to give up too quickly. Still had to give up, so it only delayed me even further and made the idea of going to that park pointless because, as things stood, I would have had probably just enough time to get there and back, adjusting for walking on icy sidewalks…
So I just went out of the mall and walked aimlessly around for a while, getting back 30 minutes before the starting time and getting myself briefly lost on purpose, to make it a little interesting. (As an added note, I think about half the women I saw there, not including employees, were wearing something made of fur. Now of course I can’t know how many were wearing real fur, but it bothered me anyway.) Made my way inside just a little less than 15 minutes before the starting time and, seeing as I wanted to avoid as many potential problems as possible and knowing that I failed to avoid a related one before leaving, I made for the bathroom. Had been out in the cold too, so was feeling a bit of a pressing need anyway.
The problem with that was that I managed to make a fool of myself. At first I accidentally walked into the women’s bathroom, said “woops, sorry” in English, since I was too surprised myself to translate the thought in time, and obviously caused some startled faces… Then went to the men’s, did my business and meant to wash my hands… Only to be unable to figure out how to turn the water on! Just noticed one thing I could press on the sink, pressed it and nothing happened. Moved to the other sink, pressed it there too, but that only turned on the hand dryer. Tried again, which obviously only generated the same result. At that point I meant to give up while I still had a shred of dignity and walked out, but heard water running behind me just as I was going out the door, so I turned around and saw the next person washing their hands well enough. That made me go back in to try again, at first by pressing that thing yet again, which obviously didn’t cause anything new to happen, and then attempting to push and rotate various things that were obviously fixed in place. In the end I had to give up yet again, feeling awfully stupid…

Once the movie started, not having any need for subtitles proved to be extremely useful, seeing as you can’t add anything to an IMAX film and therefore they’re projected over it, without 3D effects, meaning that you see them through the 3D glasses pretty much like you’d see a 3D movie without the glasses, obviously. That explains the people complaining of sickness while watching it and splitting headaches afterwards. There even was a warning before the movie, to remove your glasses and close your eyes for a few seconds if you feel sick.
As for the movie itself… Hell, absolutely impressive. Of course, not much of a story, but you don’t go to see it expecting a brilliant story. The underlying message’s very appropriate though. And, of course, the battle scenes were making me cry again, as such scenes usually do when they’re filmed properly, but I felt too exposed due to being there by myself and kept swallowing back my tears. Some of the others didn’t stop themselves, because I heard some sobbing around me, but I felt too unsafe as it was. Really hated that. I’m normally struggling, and failing, to find something that’d allow me to cry because I need that release but can’t cry when alone, and now when I found something I stopped myself…

As a final note, when walking out, just as I was getting to the place where the trash cans were, I heard someone say “truth is that we are a race that generates a whole lot of trash” behind me. Someone else replied with “species, not race, but that we are”. I glanced around and saw that the exchange took place between two men looking to be past 50. Well, if the mix of the movie and those trash cans could make two men in their fifties think of that, it’s a good step…