I would have enjoyed Superman Returns more but…
By S Simmons. Filed in Editing |
Rant – begin:
Last night I saw Superman Returns. It was quite entertaining and very well done. It had that same semi-camp feel of the first two “original†Superman movies and I enjoyed it. I blog more about the cool fx or Brandon Routh’s Christopher Reeve channeling performance or the first bad digital DLP projection that I have seen at that theatre, but the one thing that sticks with me more than anything about last night’s screening is the RUDE MOVIEGOER.
They’ve been around many times before with their cell phones, constant comments to the spouse, even the Spanish translations, but Saturday’s display takes the cake. Now I understand that people with kids want to go to the movies and even kids themselves want to see a Superman movie… but a 3-year-old? In a two and a half hour movie? To be fair it was a matinee as the movie began at 3:15. But the theatre was very full so matter what time of the day it is, the unruly kid is disturbing everyone. It began with the kid just talking and making noise. Next he started walking up and down the steps as the mother was on an aisle seat. As if this wasn’t distracting enough the child was wearing sneakers with flashing lights in the soles. And this is IN A DARKENED MOVIE THEATRE. A number of patrons began to shush the child so the mother then began nursing the boy with a baby bottle. After that the kid continued making more noise and sitting on different steps in the asile. There were a number of other shhhhhs! including a loud one from me after which the mother took the boy out. But then they returned.
This time the kid decides he should begin playing on the empty seats in front of the family. So along with his flashing red tennis shoes he now climbs around the seats in addition to running up and down the steps of the stadium seating, all the while talking and laughing. After a number of dirty looks from me, my wife and I’m sure many sitting around us all, I went out to tell an usher. Just as I finished describing the kid’s annoying behavior the theatre doors open with the mother, (I’m just guessing mother but it was definitely and adult guardian) the kid and another adult. She looked right at me and said “Don’t worry we’re leaving.†I said, “Good, you shouldn’t have brought him in the first place.†Of course it wasn’t the kids fault. He is a kid after all. So that lays the blame squarely at the feet of the parent or whoever brought him to the movie. To bring young kids into a movie, theatres should make the parents sign an agreement that if the kid acts up enough to get 1 complaint then they would be responsible for repaying all of the patrons who were disturbed during the screening. Or how about having kid friendly screenings and the rest of us can start away. Again, I understand the desire to go to a movie with a child as a couple of my very good friends who love movies more than anyone now have a kid, but at what point are people so inconsiderate of everyone else around them that they think that a loud child running around a dark movie theatre with lights on their shoes is perfectly fine? Everyone one around has paid good money and should be able to sit through a reasonable quite movie. Let’s be honest, as society becomes more and more rude the totally quiet movie is probably a thing of the past as certain people’s cell phone calls are more important than everyone else’s enjoyment of the movie… but the line has to be drawn somewhere. So until those cell phone jammers are legalized, let’s just tell the ushers to try and keep the theatre quiet!
Rant: end.
