The last movie I saw in an actual theater was the final Harry Potter film. And before that, it was the second to last Harry Potter film. It’s not that I don’t like movies, it’s just that it’s been a good long while since one interested me enough to get me out of the house and to the theater to see it.
In high school and college, it was a rare weekend that I wouldn’t be forking over an unnecessary amount of money to see a movie in an uncomfortable seat with an unnecessarily large bucket of soda in the cupholder beside me. And it was pretty often that the movie I was sitting down to was one I’d seen before. I saw Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers at least a dozen times, and more than half the time I was by myself.
I’m in a very different place in my life now than I was when I toted my copy of the complete compilation of Lord of the Rings with me to East Park to see the second movie by myself yet again in December of 2002. Back then, I could wander out of my parents house whenever I felt like it, my only responsibility being the fact that I needed to shut the door behind me. Now, if I wanted to go see a movie, I’d have to make sure my husband knew I was going, find someone to keep an eye on my children, get something ready for them to eat in case they got hungry while I was gone, and then shut the door behind me.
Movies are for dating. They’re a nice way to spend time with the person you like, and afteward you have plenty to talk about, comparing your thoughts of the movie. It’s also an interesting way to learn about the person you’re attending the movie with: do they let you choose what to see, or do they insist on choosing their favorite thing?
Now that I’m married, I don’t inflict movies that are predominantly concerned with kissing upon my spouse. If I want to watch one, I don’t force him to sit through it with me. And he’s got friends that will take him to the movies that I’m not interested in that are predominantly concerned with explosions.
Another reason I don’t head out to the theater these days is because many of the movie trailers that come out of Hollywood nowadays have all the best parts of the movie in them anyway. Also, they’ve recently all been either remakes or boring. And when a movie’s trailer is boring, how much more boring is the actual movie going to be?
My husband and I don’t have television (no cable, not even a pair of rabbit ears), so our movie news comes from the internet. One movie that has shelled out (I hope) quite a bit to be the only ad that I see recently is Battleship. I need to put it out there right now that I have no idea what the plot of this movie is. The teaser I see about 8 times per day is only about 15 seconds long, but what I’ve got from it is this: tense situations are happening that cause the characters to stare off into the distance in a concerned/astonished fashion. I would imagine that the situations most likely have to do with explosions, since the board game the movie is based off of is also concerned with blowin’ stuff up.
But talk about boring! A board game, Hollywood? Really? I have remarked to my husband more than once after watching this riveting teaser, “What’s next, Connect Four?” “Coming soon, to a theater near you: Backgammon!” “It started as an innocent river rafting trip in Africa. But what those coeds neglected to plan for was the presence of some Hungry. Hungry. Hippos."
Maybe movies were better when I was in high school, or maybe my own world has changed so that my life is interesting enough not to need the escape that movies provide. I’m not saying I’ll never go to another movie again.
After all, the first installment of The Hobbit comes out this December.
No comments:
Post a Comment