Another nail in the coffin

Last week, Shauna and I went to see X-Men 3 in the theatres.

Ok, calm down and let me explain. First of all the main intent of the outing was to meet some friends of hers from work and just have a good time. Second of all, the film does have Hugh Jackman in it, so it would have been pointless to resist. And third, since we hadn’t been to the movies since Star Wars Episode III it seemed like a good opportunity to finally compare the home theatre experience with the big screen.

Having said that I think I am officially done with the theatres. I just can’t justify the cost.

In my mind, here are the cons of going to the theatre, as compared to just watching a DVD:

It costs a LOT

I guess when a movie costs 8 gazillion dollars to make the studios need to make their money back somehow. Thus the ticket price of $10.75. I guess that’s not too bad for 2 hours of entertainment. But $4.86 for a medium iced tea? We even had a coupon for a free popcorn and our total for the evening came in over $35.00! I can buy the DVD cheaper than that and watch it whenever I want, as often as I want, with whoever I want.

Commercials

I feel like I’ve been taken complete advantage of when I’m forced to sit through 5 minutes or so of advertising after I’ve already paid a fair chunk of change to see the movie. And I’m not talking about previews for other films but rather the actual commercials we’re used to seeing on TV at home. Again, I can only assume that the exorbitant costs associated with making a blockbuster film force the studios to sell advertising time at the beginning of those films. But do they really think I can afford to buy a new car after spending $17 on a chocolate bar?

Picture Quality

This was a big one for me (no pun intended). After getting our big screen TV I was told by several people that the picture quality in the theatre is still better. I could believe this since film is about as high quality as you can get, where DVD is still a digital image and is limited by the resolution of the disc itself. I won’t go into all the technical details but I was expecting a high definition picture in the theatre. Well apparently I’ve been spoiled. Not only was the picture not crystal clear but there were scratches and lines and specks of dust throughout. Not to mention those pesky ‘cigarette burns’ that appear during every reel change (watch Fight Club for an explanation). I probably wouldn’t notice it as much if I wasn’t looking for all the defects but the fact remains that if I go searching for defects on a DVD at home I wouldn’t find a tenth as many as I did in the theatre.

Other People

We planned our trip pretty well and managed to avoid the crowds. The film had already been out for several weeks and it was a Monday night. So the theatre itself was virtually empty. And yet we still had people sitting directly in front of us, behind us and on one side. The guy on my immediate left must have had a nervous condition because he felt it necessary to rapidly tap his fingers on his knee throughout the entire movie. Tappity-tappity-tappity-tap… I would have thrown my drink at him if I didn't have to take out a loan to afford another one.

I’ll admit that I was fairly certain that my trip to the theatre wasn’t going to convince me that that DVDs aren’t the way to go. I had already decided that a while back. But I certainly didn’t plan on an experience that made me hate the theatres even more! Ultimately it’s not really the theatre’s fault; I used to love going to the movies and it didn’t seem to bother me much at all back then. But then I got a home theatre set up and I’ve seen the light. The movie theatre just can’t compare to the home theatre experience. They can’t compare to the cost, the comfort or the convenience. And it would appear that they can no longer compare to the quality either.

As far as I can tell, there are really only two good reasons for going to the theatre:

1) You get to see the movie earlier than if you wait for it on DVD. Though I guess that’s only a good reason if time is that important to you. Personally, I have no problem waiting a mere 5 or 6 months. When I finally do see the movie, it will look better and I’ll enjoy it more in the comfort of my own home. And I won’t have to sell my kidneys to afford it.

2) It’s a chance to get out of the house and have a date. It’s hard to argue with this one. It definitely is nice to get out once in a while, but I think I can come up with some alternatives to the movie theatre that are more reasonable when it comes to money and time.

Anyway, there’s my rant about the theatres. If you’ve got some opinions or thoughts, please feel free to add your comments. I’d love to hear what you have to say, especially if you’ve got some arguments for the theatre. Maybe I’m missing the big picture (pun intended).

Oh, and the movie itself was pretty good. Something about mutants I think.