Last night, Doug and I attended the opening night of the Watchmen. For those who don't know (and honestly, I probably wouldn't if it wasn't for Doug), the Watchmen is a movie that JUST came out based on the most critically acclaimed Graphic Novel ever written. It is a highly prized piece of literature that was voted one of the top 100 books of all times, and is extremely loved by many fans. But a book that no one was sure would translate to a decent movie. Fans, including my beloved hubby were afraid they would soften up the book's inherent grittiness, dark nature for something more fluffy and commercial appeal friendly.
The good news, they did not, and even a kid who hasn't read the book (moi) left the movie theater satisfied. Satisfied that by far, that was a movie unlike any I had ever seen before. And, it actually made me WANT to read the graphic novel. Normally rare if I see a movie based on a book do I actually want to see, read, digest what it was based on.
However, the movie experience was not without its annoyances. And it really wasn't the movie..and this had me looking back.
When I was a kid, one of the things I took great joy in was catching a flick with my friends. I can remember times when we would hit the candy store at the Tivoli (before the Tivoli turned into a "hip" hang out for the kids at Metro) to snag some pixie sticks and other various sugar delights before seeing some movie whose name I forget. And I remember times sneaking into the big Cooper movie theater down on Colorado blvd, with pops (sodas for you people in other states :D) and sandwiches or something to eat right under our shirts feeling like outlaws not paying for movie popcorn and soft drinks (which by the way are another sore spot of what costs have skyrocketed since I was a kid but I digress).
Last night I just wanted to enjoy a flick with my fan husband. I wanted to see what had him so passionate about his love of the graphic novel, of the story that he has relayed to me regarding the Watchmen and why some said this was such a hard story to translate to film.
But two sets of groups stood in the way of my 100% joy and satisfaction of seeing this film. Lets refer to them as rude kids group A and annoying Fanatic nerds b.
The Rude Kids were sitting directly behind Doug. During the time before the movie began (when they shower us as a captive audience with lame commercials and looks of other tv shows and movies we might be interested in), the rude kids (which is a misnomer since they were probably at LEAST in their late teens) routinely were screaming a convo to each other. Not as if they were sitting right next to each other, but as if I storm was going on around them and the only way they could communicate was if they screamed over the wind. Insane. Doug and I had our attention tested with these yahoos. At various points throughout the night they would kick or knee Doug's chair (which I always find a insanely rude gesture. Don't give me the "I am too tall, sorry" phrase peeps, OK. I am a taller individual as well, but my mom raised me right as a young kid that if there is a chair in front of you, even if you are all legs you DON'T kick it! Grr. I at one point (something I find myself, my passive aggressive little self doing more and more) actually shhhhhh'd them. I don't care if I am just watching a cartoon on the big screen, if you are going to see a movie SHUT your piehole when the trailers come on! PLEASE.
But they weren't the worst. The worst, were the nerdboy and his entourage of fan obsessed "trying to hard to be cool, but just looking like obsessive fans" that were sitting directly behind me. Again, during the trailers we could hear word for word their extremely loud and shouting match display of a conversation. What is SO important, that you wait until the lights are dim around you, when you are surrounded with roughly 100-150 people to need at that moment to shout about how the last few episodes of Monk will air soon? SO freaking what?!
Then, as if almost on queue to annoy all around him, the nerddude (ah, I might have created a new word), begins toe tapping. Every song that came on during the trailers, every song that ushered in a new scene in the movie...nervous tapping from left to right, to left to right of his fake doc marten shoes, which of course are not QUIET since they are heavy shoes. MY GOD, annoy much?!?! It was all I could do to control telling him to shut the F off in anger. The rest of us want to HEAR the movie too numbnuts. Grr. If I wasn't afraid of the scene it would have caused, and if I wasn't concerned about interrupting a movie that I not only cared about but knew my hubby did too, this dude would've been told off in the strictest of ways.
Which brings me back to the Watchmen oddly enough. The movie and novel, very much display on what happens when the human condition is challenged, fought for, and questions if people are worth saving. Honestly I think I found some genes in the gene pool last night that weren't (and I try not to wish evil or bad on ANYONE, that's how fed up I was). The bothersome fellow movie patrons, unfortunately were not the first OR last we've encountered recently, which left me wondering; when did the world change? When did our nice, manner-ific lifestyles change? When did people become more rude, less concerned about what they do affecting others? When did we as a society quit caring? And is the only time I ever going to have an experience of my youth at a movie theater where I can watch the whole movie in peace only be in my dreams?!?!
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