View From the Bushes

I have an $8 movie ticket that says that at 10 pm this evening I'm supposed to be at a movie theater watching the very first public showing of "Matrix Reloaded." Some of the initial reviews have not been pretty. Of particular note is Harry's review on Ain't it Cool. Though in fairness, at the moment it's got a pretty solid "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Harry is the same guy who gushed over "Episode II" and thought "The Two Towers" was better than "The Fellowship of the Ring" (good, but not better).

I have been working pretty hard, so I should probably take this opportunity to recreate. Though I have my doubts that standing in line for several hours will necessarily be very relaxing. I find the whole "fervor" associated with hard-core fandom tiring. Showing up at 5:00 am to watch a 6:00 am showing of Episode II and finding 800 people already there, one would be tempted to think that it would easily be the biggest opening weekend ever, but no, it was SpiderMan which, to the best of my knowledge, didn't even have 6:00 am showings.

But if you're a hard-core Star Wars fan, then you not only have to see it opening day, you have to see it on the biggest screen in town, from the best seats in the theater. Which leads to there being this enormous demand for certain screenings of a movie and very low demand for other screenings just 24 hours later. You think at some point at least one movie theater would try out a sliding scale and start charging $25 for tickets to the very first screening of the latest fan-fueled frenzy.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero,
Ross