Avatar, Before the Movie Began

Originally this post was going to be broken into two parts. The first part was just to have some general thoughts on the experience. The second part was to have  thoughts on the film, and will as such contain spoilers. Unfortunately, while I was typing my battery died. And, while I was walking to the power adapter died the backup battery died. I lost my train of thought, so I am just going to post the first part so you have something to read now. And, I’ll probably finish the second part later.

Part 1: Before the Movie Began

Midnight showings are the best time to see a film generally speaking. For the most part, you avoid crowds this way, unless the film is expected to be really big, like Transformers, or Batman. So, I first did a drive by the other theater at 11:45 to make sure that it wasn’t packed to the brim. No movie is worth sitting in a packed theater. Luckily there were not to many people there. They filled about half the capacity.

Normally, I do not get concessions at the theater because they are so expensive, but tonight I made an exception. If figured if the movie was boring I might need the caffeine to stay awake through it (wish I would have done that for King Kong). Goodrich theaters gives out coupons if you subscribe to their spam, so I printed one out before I left. Unfortunately, you have to use it on a combo (soft drink and popcorn), but it is cheaper than just buying a soft drink at full price.

So, I walked into the theater with my concessions. I normally sit towards the front at the far side directly behind the rail. Its a good spot, because few people sit that far from the center, and I can just climb directly over the rail. Typically, this isn’t a problem because my hands are empty. Getting over the rail was a little more difficult with my hands full. I stepped up to the base of the rails (the seating is elevated about 18″ off the ground), and when I leaned over to set down my stuff my feet slipped. Apparently, they were still wet from walking in on the snow.

My fall was brief, but a bit embarrassing. I went down and slammed my chest into the rail, which in turn caused me to loose my cup and popcorn. The soft drink exploded into a fountain in the air covering me while popcorn rained down on me. So, before the movie even started I got to sit in my seat wet, sticky and covered in popcorn. I got a few stares, but no one said anything.