Iron Man I hate my theater!

[Aximlli]

GOD, I'M SO PISSED RIGHT NOW! My theater was holding a special advanced screening for Ironman tonight. At the start of the movie, they kept screwing up the projection. The screen was split in half, and the top half was showing on the bottom, and the bottom half was showing on the top!!

Funny, right? We thought so too at the start, but then it got annoying because it just kept happening, and they had to keep fixing it throughout the movie. This is what really got me angry: About halfway through, THEY SKIPPED RIGHT TO THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE! Not only that, but they also started playing it backwards! WTF?!

I've never been more angry at a movie theater before. And I wasn't the only one either. I went with some friends, and all of us walked about because we didn't want the rest of the movie spoiled. The rest of the people in the theater followed pretty soon. What's sad is that I could tell there were a lot Marvel fans there that were annoyed too.

This was supposed to be a special advanced screening by the people who made the movie. That's the reason why it's out a day before in the first place! I'm so mad that the first showing of Ironman is now ruined for me. I have been waiting since the beginning of this movie's project to see it, and I've been robbed of that experience. Free passes don't mean anything to me right now. I want to see IRONMAN!!

 

[Catman]

Did the theater have another screening like at midnight or whatever? Maybe you could have just gone to that one. I'm sure the error would have been fixed by then.

 

[Symbiotic]

Sorry to hear that, Ax.

 

[BETArayBill]

ouch damn that sux u have my sympothys man

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

wow dude...that is completely unacceptable...i feel bad for ya man!

 

[I Am The Knight]

Ouuuch. That sucks. Well you can always go again tomorrow.....

 

[Aximlli]

Did the theater have another screening like at midnight or whatever? Maybe you could have just gone to that one. I'm sure the error would have been fixed by then.

I asked about that, but they wouldn't allow it. They only had two showtimes (8:00 and 8:30) and I went to the last showing. They couldn't even resume the film where it screwed up, they said they would have to restart the entire thing all over again, so all they could give us were some passes to see it next time.

I can't see it tomorrow because I have a college midterm, and then I work in the weekend, so I have to hold out until next weekend. I had especially set some time aside for tonight to see this, so I feel completely ripped off.

Bah.

 

[I Am The Knight]

I asked about that, but they wouldn't allow it. They only had two showtimes (8:00 and 8:30) and I went to the last showing. They couldn't even resume the film where it screwed up, they said they would have to restart the entire thing all over again, so all they could give us were some passes to see it next time.

I can't see it tomorrow because I have a college midterm, and then I work in the weekend, so I have to hold out until next weekend. I had especially set some time aside for tonight to see this, so I feel completely ripped off.

Bah.

They screwed you up big time. Torch the place.

 

[Maresk]

Sue the bastards!!!

Oh well, you can't. But you should be able to.
My sympathies.

 

[Heretic]

There is a theater here in town that messes up every movie I see there on opening weekend. They are so used to giving me free passes that they go for their pockets whenever they see me.

But youre right though...its unacceptable to ruin a movie like this for a die-hard fan.

 

[kedrell]

^Especially ruining a 1st experience of a particular movie. You only get 1 of those, unless you have Alzheimer's.

 

[WarBlade]

GOD, I'M SO PISSED RIGHT NOW! My theater was holding a special advanced screening for Ironman tonight. At the start of the movie, they kept screwing up the projection. The screen was split in half, and the top half was showing on the bottom, and the bottom half was showing on the top!!

Funny, right? We thought so too at the start, but then it got annoying because it just kept happening, and they had to keep fixing it throughout the movie. This is what really got me angry: About halfway through, THEY SKIPPED RIGHT TO THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE! Not only that, but they also started playing it backwards! WTF?!

Sounds like someone did a complete hack job on putting together a 35mm print.

The out-of-frame problem sounds weird. I encounter them on rare occasions and generally it's a case of one mistake during a trailer pack that once corrected on-the-fly is not going to return. For you to say it kept happening has me completely dumbfounded. It's as if someone let a cinema attendant loose in the projection room to build up a print and the person just slapped reels together with no consideration for where the frame lines are.

The "playing it backwards" thing sounds like a case of the same person putting a reel on back-to-front. I've never seen this on a feature film, but encounter it about once or twice a year on a trailer or advertisement when someone leaves something stored tail out instead of head out and the next projectionist in a rush doesn't spot the problem. A feature reel though... What the hell? That's disgusting!

I asked about that, but they wouldn't allow it. They only had two showtimes (8:00 and 8:30) and I went to the last showing. They couldn't even resume the film where it screwed up, they said they would have to restart the entire thing all over again, so all they could give us were some passes to see it next time.

Yeah, it's something like three kilometres of polyester that has to run through the projector. Once it's finished that messed up print is going to take someone probably more than two hours after the show to disassemble, figure out, and finally reassemble again (hopefully correctly).

I can sympathise with the projectionists on this one as well. In my case Paramount did a split delivery with odd numbered reels arriving Tuesday morning and even arriving at the end of the day. I had a trainee on my hands, another print to build up, then Wednesday was a day-long marathon of advertising and trailer changes before a Thursday morning release. To top it off I had to wait an hour for cleaners before I could test run anything on Wednesday night so the shift bloated to 11 hours in the end and I didn't get to bed until 4:00am.

We get screwed pretty hard by distributors sometimes. They dump so many ridiculous anti-piracy measures on projectionists that they jeopardise the presentations of their own movies.

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

Did you try to get your money back?

 

[Darknightnomis]

Tough break Man!

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

I certainly hope everyone demanded their money back. I know I would have done so if this happened to me.

 

[Jul-el]

That sucks dog balls!

I've had 2 cinema screw jobs -
1.In Supe Returns when he goes to the kids bed and delivers the speech

and....wait for it...

2.Episode 3 just as Darth Vaders helmet went on.

2 Films I waited decades for!!!!Grrrrrr!!!!!

Both times the reels went funny and the screen lit up and the house liughts came on.Can laugh about it now.....no, actually I'm still pissed!!!

 

[BobJM]

GOD, I'M SO PISSED RIGHT NOW! My theater was holding a special advanced screening for Ironman tonight. At the start of the movie, they kept screwing up the projection. The screen was split in half, and the top half was showing on the bottom, and the bottom half was showing on the top!!

Funny, right? We thought so too at the start, but then it got annoying because it just kept happening, and they had to keep fixing it throughout the movie. This is what really got me angry: About halfway through, THEY SKIPPED RIGHT TO THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE! Not only that, but they also started playing it backwards! WTF?!

I've never been more angry at a movie theater before. And I wasn't the only one either. I went with some friends, and all of us walked about because we didn't want the rest of the movie spoiled. The rest of the people in the theater followed pretty soon. What's sad is that I could tell there were a lot Marvel fans there that were annoyed too.

This was supposed to be a special advanced screening by the people who made the movie. That's the reason why it's out a day before in the first place! I'm so mad that the first showing of Ironman is now ruined for me. I have been waiting since the beginning of this movie's project to see it, and I've been robbed of that experience. Free passes don't mean anything to me right now. I want to see IRONMAN!!

OH MY GOD THAT HAPPENED TO ME TOO!

It only lasted for about a minute, but the second Stark suited up in the cave the screen split like you described it. People started flipping **** and started sprinting out of the theater so it could be fixed quick and were banging on the glass window where the projector is; that's how into the movie this crowd was.

I'm seeing it again this weekend, so since it was only 40 seconds or so, I wasn't that upset. But if mine kept going on, I would have demanded that it be restarted or I get my money back.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

This used to happen all the time when I worked at a theater.
It's because projectionists and theater managers are usually alcoholics and or heavy drug users.

 

[WarBlade]

projectionists and theater managers are usually alcoholics and or heavy drug users.

I'd hope not.

Fortunately I'm neither of the above. I will say that the the job is typically low paid, requires a certain kind of mentality the most people don't have/can't muster, and the turnover of staff is often high so the skill levels seldom develop very far. I tend to find that it takes a year for someone to get up to a good skill level in the projection room, but most of the kids who try it only last six months.