It was nicely planned. We left work early, and I joined a partially-heard conference call in my boss’ car by listening through the speakers that hooked up to his Blackberry via Bluetooth. We arrived at SF around 4:00PM ? not bad considering we had to fight against the traffics. We went inside Metreon, bought some pizza and a pitcher of Sierra Navada; we drunk, we laughed, and we then headed to the theater around 4:30PM.
With another 150ish people ahead of us, we lined up outside the showroom for another half an hour. And finally, the door was opened, and the seats were ready. We had a nice set of seats, and it was show time! By the way, the reason that we had to drive all the way from San Jose to San Francisco for the movie was because Metreon features IMAX 3D. Superman Returns has a total of 20 minutes 3D effects in the movie, and it is suppose to make people “Wah”. So we were given a pair of glasses when entered the showroom, and we even figured out that the glasses were polarized during the spare time before the movies ? geeks, huh?
Finally, the show started with a “Happy Feet” commercial in 3D ? was it nice! Two minutes later, the commercial ended, and the show stopped. An announcement said there was some “technical difficulties”, and we were told to wait for “a few minutes”.
About 10 minutes later, the show re-started with a new commercial. Everyone seemed happed for a bout 2 seconds, until the audience realized that there was not sound. In fact, the sound was out of sync. So, a second announcement was made (without a microphone, and people at the back had to ask “what?”) that there was yet another “technical difficulty”.
We were told to wait for another “10~15 minutes”. After another ~20minutes of sit-and-get-bored waiting, the show was re-started from the beginning with the “Happy Feet” commercial. Fine, as long as it works. And it worked, well, right to the BEGINNING of the movie! We saw the logo of the production company, and that was it. Lights came on again, and yet another announcement (without a microphone) was made ? Get out for a refund, “we will not try again”. The person whoever announced the message was pretty rude. Although I could barely hear him, it was not in the sense of an apology.
And that was the end of the show. We went out the showroom and got the refund plus a free pass. I really didn’t think it was a good deal because it pretty much screwed up the evening ? considering we had to leave work early, took carpool to drive to SF, stood in line for a long time, and wasted a few hours without seeing the movie.
Most importantly, I just don’t understand this “technical difficulty” thing. I mean, isn’t the theater suppose to TEST the projector and the movie before they letting people walk into the showroom?! And if the projector (and/or the film) was too difficult to operate/handle, couldn’t the theater or IMAX just make the damn thing simple enough for stupid people to operate?! Why did they have to make it worked like a prototype, like people were inventing 3D movies in the theater with another 1,200 people waiting to see it?
Anyways, I guess I will be going back again ? probably during the coming long weekend. It was sad that Superman did not come out and save my day. And thank you, IMAX, for ruining my day.
Tags: Superman, Movie, Metreon, IMAX, San Francisco
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