Not long after "The Avengers" was released, it topped a billion dollars in world-wide box office receipts. Now, it is one thing for a movie to open with a big weekend, it is entirely another for it to sustain that success. Nearly a month after its release "The Avengers" continues to chug along and while it hasn't been the #1 movie every weekend since it has been in theaters, it continues to do well, not showing any signs of being replace anytime soon. With all that success in mind I figured I should see what all the fuss was about and finally took in a showing this afternoon. After watching it I see that all the hype was well-deserved, because this was a great movie. Even though it was a touch long it moved pretty well, had great action sequences, lots of snappy one-liners and was more than the normal plot-less superhero movie, as it included a good story about all these massive egos having to work together. (Almost made the debacle which was "Thor" worth the two hours of my life I will never get back.) Again, the trick to success with these kinds of films is to make a good movie which just happened to be about superheroes and this was a really good movie. I would definitely go see it if you were on the fence and thinking about it.
There was a funny thing which happened after the movie ended, when an usher felt compelled to announce to the theater that there were more scenes after the credits. This is not uncommon, as all these superhero movies put scenes after the credits these days, usually as a way of letting fans know which movie will be released next. When studios first started doing this it was only there for the nerds to know about, but now everyone is aware the scenes are coming and the people who are interested know to wait around to see them. Still, this guy usher wanted to make sure it was a well-established fact. (Seriously, he wandered in with about 20 minutes left in the movie and then waited around, making the announcement the second the credits started rolling.) Not only did he announce it to the theater, when we were leaving without watching them he seemed to take it as a personal slight. I don't know if he is just a big fan of the movie or this was part of his duties, but he clearly took it seriously, which I was not ready for. However, there was one thing which happened on my trip to the theater which was even more surprising.
Prior to the movie starting I was sitting in the back row, silently judging the people filing in after the previews had started when two parents showed up with a baby. Actually, baby is probably the wrong term, because newborn might be a better description. Now, I typically get annoyed when people show up with kids to movies which are really not kid-appropriate. However, this kid was so young that I actually got concerned. For some reason the previews seemed to be abnormally loud and I was worried the movie was going to freak this kid out. The parents appeared to immediately recognized the error of their ways, because as the last preview got going the father started to walk around various parts of the the theaters, apparently looking for a quiet pocket to stash the kid. (I guess he was unaware that the phrase "theater-quality surround-sound" always applies when you are in an actual theater.) Not surprisingly the kid didn't make it through the first explosion before she was crying and as her mom took her out of the theater I thought that was going to be the end of it, but once she calmed down the mom brought her right back in for the rest of the movie. Honestly, what's a little permanent hearing damage when you already bought the ticket?
Look, I don't have kids of my own and I have never been responsible for raising a human being, so I have a hard time criticising parents. One of the things I hate most in life is unsolicited advice from unqualified sources and I recognize that I am as qualified to offer parenting advice as I am to design a skyscraper. Still, "don't bring your newborn to the super-loud and explosion-filled movie" seems like a basic concept to me. These were young parents, but they weren't that young. There are literally thousands of baby books which are available to expectant parents, so you would think that these people would have picked a couple up along the way and that one of them would have mentioned that newborns are really sensitive to loud noises. I know experts say kids have to learn to sleep with some noise, otherwise they will be impossible to get to sleep later, but it is one thing to force your kids to sleep while the normal white-noise of the world is going on, but forcing her to learn to sleep through an invasion seems like over-kill. Babysitters may be expensive, but so are a lifetime of hearing aids. In other words, I recommend seeing "The Avengers" but I would leave the kids at home when you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment