Yesterday's trip to K.C.
May. 17th, 2002 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, the trip up to and back from K.C. went well yesterday. We left about 5:45 a.m., got back about 5:45 p.m. Joe had to go to work for a couple hours, even tired as he was; I came back here. I regret that we didn't really have time to visit the folks at Bookcrossing, who're located in downtown K.C., but maybe next trip.
We decided to take a slightly different route from the usual, this time...instead of going north from Kansas Expressway and passing through Humansville, we went north on the West Bypass (highway 160), followed it out west to Lamar, and then went north on I-71. It added 20 miles to the trip, but since most of the drive was on a four-lane interstate instead of two to three lane blacktop, I think it either saved us time or else came out roughly even.
Once we hit K.C., Joe helped me navigate out to the site of the movie. I missed the first turning, but he helped me find an alternate route that still got us there. I was a bit fretful that we might not get good seats because we only got there about an hour and fifteen minutes before the movie was due to start, but as it turned out, I needn't have worried much. We found a good spot in about the middle of the bottom third of the stadium seating, and Joe whiled away the time on his Gameboy Advance (with a brief Mario Brothers battle versus the guy in the seat below us in the next row, who also had one) while I read the book I'd picked up the other day, Batman: Ground Zero (the novel).
What a heck of a theater that was! People are always making noise about big, impersonal multiplexes, but after this, I think I feel entitled to tell them to stuff it. High-backed seats more comfortable than any I've ever seen down here; arm rests that can be flipped up and out of the way...and a huge screen with digital quality. I'm not sure how to describe seeing a film in digital...it's like watching a giant DVD. No projector noise, no print noise, no video glitches...just superior picture quality. End of story.
At the appointed hour, we put our stuff up as the trailers started: new Austin Powers movie, The Matrix Reloaded, Men in Black 2. The audience reacted appropriately. In particular, they cheered loudly when the first bit of Matrix code trickled down the screen as the Matrix trailer started.
It's neat seeing a movie with a first audience. They haven't seen the film before, so their reactions are all fresh and new. They applaud, they cheer, they react to the movie, and in a good way. I'll really miss the applause and cheering when I go to see it again in a few days.
Non-spoiler commentary about the movie: it had some shortcomings, but not so many as some people feel Phantom Menace did, and the last half made up for all the shortcomings present in both movies. Ohhhh, yeah.
We decided to take a slightly different route from the usual, this time...instead of going north from Kansas Expressway and passing through Humansville, we went north on the West Bypass (highway 160), followed it out west to Lamar, and then went north on I-71. It added 20 miles to the trip, but since most of the drive was on a four-lane interstate instead of two to three lane blacktop, I think it either saved us time or else came out roughly even.
Once we hit K.C., Joe helped me navigate out to the site of the movie. I missed the first turning, but he helped me find an alternate route that still got us there. I was a bit fretful that we might not get good seats because we only got there about an hour and fifteen minutes before the movie was due to start, but as it turned out, I needn't have worried much. We found a good spot in about the middle of the bottom third of the stadium seating, and Joe whiled away the time on his Gameboy Advance (with a brief Mario Brothers battle versus the guy in the seat below us in the next row, who also had one) while I read the book I'd picked up the other day, Batman: Ground Zero (the novel).
What a heck of a theater that was! People are always making noise about big, impersonal multiplexes, but after this, I think I feel entitled to tell them to stuff it. High-backed seats more comfortable than any I've ever seen down here; arm rests that can be flipped up and out of the way...and a huge screen with digital quality. I'm not sure how to describe seeing a film in digital...it's like watching a giant DVD. No projector noise, no print noise, no video glitches...just superior picture quality. End of story.
At the appointed hour, we put our stuff up as the trailers started: new Austin Powers movie, The Matrix Reloaded, Men in Black 2. The audience reacted appropriately. In particular, they cheered loudly when the first bit of Matrix code trickled down the screen as the Matrix trailer started.
It's neat seeing a movie with a first audience. They haven't seen the film before, so their reactions are all fresh and new. They applaud, they cheer, they react to the movie, and in a good way. I'll really miss the applause and cheering when I go to see it again in a few days.
Non-spoiler commentary about the movie: it had some shortcomings, but not so many as some people feel Phantom Menace did, and the last half made up for all the shortcomings present in both movies. Ohhhh, yeah.
