Cruddy copies of the film at Cinemark Theaters

bropous · 01-01-2002, 02:16 PM

I saw the film three times at a Cinemark muliplex here in Colorado Springs, you know, those huge temples to the mass-release filmmaker's craft, huge wrap-around screens, "every seat the best in the house", blah blah blah. What I saw was in poor focus, fine details misty and lost, battle scenes blurring as the camera sweeps across the field of vision, overcrowded with husbands dragged there by their wives, noisy punk kids who screeched with laughter over the new "Austin Powers" previews but who groused at the end of the film, "I just didn't get that movie", jammed elbow-to-elbow in sold-out conditions. And still I thought it the best film I had ever seen.

Then, last night, New Year's Eve, I saw it at a small theater, with a small, standard screen, a small and lightly-populated audience, with a bar serving wine and beer, and it increased my love for the film a thousand fold. The bass was not blasting so hard that voices were difficult to understand, I wasable to stretch out for the three hour and twenty minute epic, and enjoyed, finally, the immense detail in sharp focus. There was no comparison.

Enjoying a nice India Pale Ale during Bilbo's Birthday Party brought me right under the Party Tree, and toasting his health on his eleventy-first birthday was a delight! Except for an exceedingly rude who, parents and children alike, talked with loud voices throughout, without pause and ignoring the ushers and fellow patrons' "ssshhh'es" [except during the death of Boromir], the fourth time for me was the best.

Too bad the Cinemark theaters got a terrible print of the film, in poor focus and meant for a smaller, flatter screen. Even repeated attempts by the projectionist to correct this left at least a third of the curved screen out of focus. Really annoying, especially during the battles of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

I ended the old year just right, in my humble, Entingish opinion...Now come on, December 2002!!!

01-01-2002, 02:16 PM	#1
bropous EIDRIORCQWSDAKLMED DCWWTIWOATTOPWFIO Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Littleton, CO Posts: 1,176	Cruddy copies of the film at Cinemark Theaters I saw the film three times at a Cinemark muliplex here in Colorado Springs, you know, those huge temples to the mass-release filmmaker's craft, huge wrap-around screens, "every seat the best in the house", blah blah blah. What I saw was in poor focus, fine details misty and lost, battle scenes blurring as the camera sweeps across the field of vision, overcrowded with husbands dragged there by their wives, noisy punk kids who screeched with laughter over the new "Austin Powers" previews but who groused at the end of the film, "I just didn't get that movie", jammed elbow-to-elbow in sold-out conditions. And still I thought it the best film I had ever seen. Then, last night, New Year's Eve, I saw it at a small theater, with a small, standard screen, a small and lightly-populated audience, with a bar serving wine and beer, and it increased my love for the film a thousand fold. The bass was not blasting so hard that voices were difficult to understand, I wasable to stretch out for the three hour and twenty minute epic, and enjoyed, finally, the immense detail in sharp focus. There was no comparison. Enjoying a nice India Pale Ale during Bilbo's Birthday Party brought me right under the Party Tree, and toasting his health on his eleventy-first birthday was a delight! Except for an exceedingly rude who, parents and children alike, talked with loud voices throughout, without pause and ignoring the ushers and fellow patrons' "ssshhh'es" [except during the death of Boromir], the fourth time for me was the best. Too bad the Cinemark theaters got a terrible print of the film, in poor focus and meant for a smaller, flatter screen. Even repeated attempts by the projectionist to correct this left at least a third of the curved screen out of focus. Really annoying, especially during the battles of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. I ended the old year just right, in my humble, Entingish opinion...Now come on, December 2002!!! __________________ "...[The Lord of the Rings] is to exemplify most clearly a recurrent theme: the place in 'world politics' of the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts of will, and deeds of virtue of the apparently small, ungreat, fogotten in the places of the Wise and Great (good as well as evil). A moral of the whole (after the primary symbolism of the Ring, as the will to mere power, seeking to make itself objective by physical force and mechanism, and so also inevitably by lies) is the obvious one that without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless." Letters of JRR Tolkien, page 160.