Why So Serious? Simple, kill the Bat-Man.

So, last night while listening to a live podcast(stay tuned for more info), a bunch of us were talking about all the anticipation for the new movie, The Dark Knight, and how everyone was gitty awaiting their turn to see it. I very nearly purchased tickets at that point, which would have been for a 12:35 a.m. show, but as my internal battery was quickly running down, I decided to hold off until today. However, I wasted no time in purchasing one of the handful of remaining tickets for today's 3:45 show along with one for Hellboy II before it.

I didn't last a whole lot longer and therefore went to sleep at my normal weeknight time. So, I awoke this morning around 7 full of energy for the coming day. I went through my normal moring routine and still had a few hours to kill before heading up to the theater, so I sat down and updated my TV Episode Guide spreadsheet, Rentals spreadsheet, and movie info spreadsheet while watching Come Early Morning(review to come). It was an ok little film, but nothing to right home about... blog maybe, but not write.

So, the time quickly came to go to the theater. Once in the complex, I first stopped by Barnes and Noble as I had a 15% coupon burning a hole through my wallet and only 2 days left to use it. So, after perusing for a bit and trying to decide which of the books I want to use it on, I finally decided on World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide(review to come) which I read a couple of weeks ago.

So, it was time to go into my first movie of the day, Hellboy II: The Golden Army(review to come). It ended up being in a theater with about 32 seats, not good for its second week. It was a pretty decent movie.

I decided with about 2 hours inbetween the films to stop by the restaurant connected to the theater for lunch as I had gotten a free dessert coupon with my tickets. So, I came in and ordered and angus beef burger, medium-well, with mustard, BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, and American cheese. I chose the tater tots as the free side and mac-and-cheese for an additional side. The burger was decent and it was on an odd almost jumbo pretzel style bun. The tots were tots and the mac was pretty good, but a very small portion.

However, I was pretty darn full after downing a bag of popcorn in the theater and then the large meal. However, I had the dessert coupon and it wouldn't do to waste it, so I got the banana creme pie which came with a couple of strawberries as well. Overall it was a bit pricey, even with the free dessert, but pretty decent meal.

I read about 30 pages of my new book during the meal, but once I was done, it was time to run to get in line for The Dark Knight. I was one of the score or so people with General Admission tickets and therefore, wanted to be at the front of that line so I could get a good seat. I was the fifth person in line, so I felt pretty good about it. Half an hour later we finally were released into the theater, where I nearly had words with 4 or 5 people who had somehow snuck their way into the theater while everyone else was being held out and therefore had taken the best general admission seats.

I found the best seat I could and got settled in. So, about 2 hours into the film, I am glued to the screen and right after a huge explosion, the screen went black, lights started flashing, and alarms started going off. I had an intense urge to jump up and let out a giant Joker cackle, but somehow surpressed it. Eventually, people started getting up and moving out of the theater, only to be met in the hallway by an usher who assured people that everything was OK and they could go back to their seats. (My thoughts immediately surmissed a possible henchmen, but after a couple of minutes and no laughing gas, I had a brief moment of disappointment and returned my attention to the blank screen.) After a few minutes we were notified that there had been a false alarm and as soon as they could they would get the alarm turned off and start the movie back up. He also stated that they may back it up a bit so that we did not miss anything.

A couple minutes later there was a huge BOOM as the movie started back up and after a few seconds the picture showed up to match the music, but it was a very pivotal part of the movie and people quickly began to heckel as we had missed a part. Luckily, we were in a Digial Cinema and after a minute or two of the movie, they jumped back about 5 minutes before the alarm had went off so we were able to get right back into the suspense.

As the movie ended, I realized that all the hype was there for a reason. I had went from the opening scene to about the 1 1/2 hour mark entrenched in the movie with no thoughts of the outside world, this is amazing stuff. As I was leaving about half way into the credits, I noticed that there were at least 25 people still in the theater talking about the film. I'm sure I will have a second go at it some time down the road. BTW, there will deffinetly be a review of it coming soon, hopefully this weekend.

So, I left the theater, where the weather had cleared up from earlier in the day in a good mood to start blogging.

{Purchases: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks}

{Currently Listening to How Soon is Now? (Craft Soundtrack) - Love Spit Love, Fool in the Rain - Led Zepplin, On the Drift - Bedlam Bards, Princes of the Universe - Queen [I can't listen to this song and not sing along, lip synch, or act things out], Tire Swing - Kimya Dawson, Let's Get It Started (Spike Remix) - Black Eyed Peas [Nod Yo' Head], Photograph - Def Leppard, and Around the World - Daft Punk}