1) Of the two other people who were supposed to go with me, one couldn't go and one couldn't get there until the movie was nearly 15 minutes old. It's not funny except that one of them is a millennial and the other is a slightly older millennial, and this is very millennial behavior.
2) There was a 1:45 a.m. showing of this 192-minute movie, meaning it would get out around 5 a.m. I've heard of that sort of thing on opening nights of new Star Wars movies that can't start until after midnight, but not when there are showings at a very reasonable 6 p.m., like the one I went to.
But here's the one I did go with:
I couldn't remember the last time I had worn 3D glasses to a movie.
Yeah we've had the pandemic and all that, but it was way before that. In fact, I doubt I'd have any way of figuring it out for sure. I was going to 3D movies fairly often (at least three to four times a year, anyway), and had no reason to believe that activity was about ready to subside. It's like that extremely melancholy concept that states "The last time you went outside to play with your friends, nobody knew it was the last time." I did nothing to mark the anticipated demise of 3D because I didn't know it was coming.
But then I wondered, is it possible that 3D has continued to be available, only I just haven't been going?
Now granted, I do see most movies in the theater for free with my critics card, which excludes novelties like 3D, IMAX or other oversized screens. (There's a thing here called X-Treme screen and another thing called VMAX, and I believe both are excluded from free passes.)
But if so, then I'm not seeing it advertised on the posters anymore. There used to be something like "See it in 3D!" on the poster and you would actually consider doing that, depending on the movie.
And I think the glasses have had another technological upgrade, as they did this sort of thing where they synched themselves up, plus gave me a momentary panic about going blind. The first 3D trailer (I believe it was for the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie) led directly to something that was decidedly not 3D, and at least the guy next to me and I thought we might have lost vision in our right eye. It was disconcerting to say the least, having a black square of emptiness in that eye.
But I'm glad 3D was back for Avatar, because yes, the thing looked absolutely crazy once again.
I don't know how I would really look at them side by side to tell you what was so different. I guess I'll just say it was more. More immersive, more grandiose, more imaginative -- just more.
Now this is not to say I am giving it my top rating or anything. It's still an Avatar movie, and I firmly believe an Avatar movie has sort of a ceiling on it. But I definitely liked it better than the first. You can read my whole review here.
As for the length? Honestly, it felt like about 2:30. That's a huge compliment. In fact, so little did I need to go to the bathroom, I didn't actually go upon leaving the theater, I didn't actually go after sharing a pitcher of beer with my one friend who did make the screening, and I only finally relieved myself at the train station -- but not the departing side, the arriving side. I was able to hold it on on the whole ride home before deciding not to wait the extra five minutes for the bike ride back to my house.
And it does look like at least the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie is coming out in 3D, so maybe I'll be donning the glasses again at some point in the not-too-distant future.
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