Cloverfield is really good. It delivers the sort of sustained tension I love in a thriller.
Spoiler alert: I managed to snap a phonecam pic of the mind blowing super secret monster.
I love seeing movies at the Arclight. Every time I go to normal theaters the experience is ruined by:
- The stress of waiting in line and jockeying for good seats.
- Pre-show advertising. Economics note: Pre-show ads are the reason normal theaters can’t feature assigned seats. If you have a seat you won’t show up super early to sit through the 30+ minute pre-show audio visual assault.
- Shoddy projection.
- Crummy audio.
- Teenagers talking on cellphones.
- Un-shushable groups of people doing running commentary. This is true even at IMAX movies.
The Arclight experience is the the exact opposite:
- Choose your seats online, arrive at show time.
- Higher price means fewer children and teenagers and more people who really want to enjoy the movie.
- No stress, no risk. It’s worth the extra few dollars to make sure that your night out doesn’t suck.
Arclight theaters are like Apple stores: they’re always buzzing with people, and they sell high end product with a great experience instead of chasing the low end of the market.
Footnote: Here’s a post on Metroblogging about the difference between the Arclight and “normal” theaters.
One Comment
Cloverfield was awful. My friend got sick, and Will and I both got headaches within 30 minutes. We three walked out, asked for a refund, and got it. Awesome.