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May 07, 2009
The Bridge: Boldly Bursting Ear Drums
Just came back from seeing "Star Trek." While the movie is brilliant and I hope everyone sees it, the experience was worse than sub-standard.
It started with the commercials coming on twice as loud as you'd expect any theatre sound. My friend complained twice and was twice told they couldn't possibly change the sound level, but don't worry the movie would not be as loud.
I couldn't tell you what the 30 pre-movie commercials were about, because my mind could only focus on the loss of hearing being caused by the insane volume.
The movie was at a nominally better sound level, but only nominally. It was as if The Bridge at Howard Hughes Center was trying to recreate Star Tours (the shaking seat Star Wars Disneyland ride) by jostling me from the inside out.
We stayed until the end of the credits (sorry, nothing happens) and on our way out, complained again to the children who had no purpose but to block the entrance / exit to the theater. This time, they decided to respond to our backs "you should stay home in your living room." What fabulous customer service! This for an over-priced small theater (aka "director's screening").
The woman at the customer service desk claimed the sound level on the movie was mandated by its distributor. Yeah, maybe they mandated that you make your Imax screenings at that sound level, but what movie producer in his right mind wants to ruin the hearing of his audience? And further, it ain't like the distributor is in your audience -- if your paying customers complain about something, you either fix the problem or you lose the customer. It's that simple. Between the obnoxious "service" and the stale popcorn, there is no way I'll be walking back into The Bridge anytime soon.
Check out Nimoy's appearance on the Today Show. (RT @AnnCurry Would not blame Leonard Nimoy if he asked for a restraining order restricting me to another another galaxy after this.)
Posted by cj at May 7, 2009 10:10 PM