So you have a day off. You go to this really nice stadium-seating theatre in the afternoon. You pay your seven bucks, because it's bargain Tuesday. You get a ticket to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Then you spend the next two and a half hours whispering to your friend or periodically checking the phone you were supposed to have turned off for the duration.
WTF is wrong with these people?
I know this is nothing new. At least now, people usually don't take actual phone calls during a movie. But I ask you. How can someone go see a film, especially something like Deathly Hallows, and not get immersed in the experience? Does the movie not affect them? Do they stay detached from it? Are these people actually human?
There is an important death at one point in the film. I won't say who died, because some people only see the movies and haven't read the books, so they don't know the plot in advance. Anyway, Sweetie and I are sniffling away because it's, like, friggin sad. And before the scene is even over, the guy to my right is checking his phone—again.
The actions might be a generational thing, but what was once rude is still rude: talking, whispering loudly, and turning on a light (i.e., a mobile phone screen). I mean, if you don't like the movie, you don't have to stay. I'll let you slide past me. If you want to talk and do distracting shit during the movie, maybe you should wait for the DVD so you can watch it at home.
It seems like an addiction. If somehow they were prevented from talking, would they be able to stand it? If they had to leave their mobiles at the door, would they make it through the movie? Or would they be like cigarette smokers who can't go for too long without a fix?
It's fortunate that Deathly Hallows is a very engrossing movie. But I don't have the ability to focus that Sweetie does. Distractions are distracting to me. I still loved the film, but I would have loved it more if a few people around us were bound and/or gagged. A bit of light bondage, as it were. Just for two and a half hours, of course.
4 comments:
I'd say it's not a generational thing, but I'm much more in your camp. I put my phone on silent and shove it in my purse when I'm at a movie, unless the movie is terrible. My phone stayed in my purse for the duration of Burlesque too, though, and that was pretty terrible.
Damn kids and their phones ;)
Dom and J-M were going to take me yesterday, but the film has already gone from our town.
Would you believe that last week despite being warned that having a phone on their person would be considered fraud, several candidates had their phones confiscated during exams.
We don't answer anything that rings, phones, doorbell - whatever. Unless we feel like it.
@Caitlin: That generational comment haunted me after I'd gone to bed. Sorry! Truth be told, it wasn't just kids.
@Anji: I guess the students were lucky that they were not charged with fraud!
@Halle: It really is hard for me to imagine someone paying money for this film and not being completely immersed in it. Maybe they were OK with wasting two and a half hours.
@Caroline: The shared experience is nice sometimes. I don't think anyone pulled a phone out during Avatar, and the theatre was packed. But a lot of times I would prefer an empty theatre too.
@Stace: So you're addicted but you can wait for the duration of a movie, right? :)
@Amy: They always say at the beginning of the movie to shut off electronic devices, of course, but I guess people consider that just a suggestion.
Agreed - a couple of hours isn't too long to be disconnected
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