Sin #5: The Experience

I remember the taste of buttered popcorn, melting nachos and cold coca cola as I sat on an uncomfortable seat on a small, air conditioned theater. My dad and I used to watch every single release. Without the benefit of the internet it was hard to read reviews beforehand and most of the times we had to sit through real duds (like “Street Fighter” or the Power-Rangers movie). But it was a magical time.

There are movie-going experiences everybody remembers. I remember many, from a beautiful curtain laced theater showing the movie “Dragonheart” to the fantastic experience of going to a film festival to gaze at the stunning perfection of digital projection with “Tetro”, Francis Ford Coppola’s latest work.

The most fun comes with the expectations of event- movies, like “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings”; the fandom simply explodes in endless hyperbole about their favorite characters and expectations are really high (so high most of them end disappointing us).

For the art-house crowd there are endless pleasures in attending film festivals. In Mexico every year the “Cineteca Nacional” delivers some of the most interesting international releases, movies that attract far less attention than the latest Transformer flick, but far more emotional resonance.

The movie experience has changed through the years; theaters have become larger, with stadium-like seating, there are IMAX size screen and recently 3D made a comeback (even though the image is darker and the glasses are uncomfortable). Even the movies themselves have changed. Special Effects have overthrown characters and stories and the summer blockbusters have become loud CGI extravaganzas (of course there are exceptions, but most fill these descriptions).

I still like going to the cinema, there’s something communal about sharing an experience and staring at a giant screen. Depressingly so, audiences aren’t as respectful to the experience (some are loud and rude and cellular phones have been such a burden that sometimes I’d rather stay home). But I would never exchange the actual experience. It still feels like a magical time.