I went to the movies by myself. Now that I work for a great company (Granite Print, y’all!) and have a flexible sched, I could go whenever I want, right? So, why don’t I? In part, I’m outta the habit but more, there are, or used to be, precious few cinemas with closed caption capabilities.
These now come, theoretically, in three ways:
Rear Window Closed Captioning The Rear Window Captioning System displays reversed captions on a light-emitting diode (LED) text display which is mounted in the rear of a theater. Patrons use transparent acrylic panels attached to their seats to reflect the captions so that they appear superimposed on or beneath the movie screen.Captiview
The CaptiView system consists of a small, OLED display on a bendable support arm that fits into the theater seat cup holder. ***snip*** The high contrast display comes with a privacy visor so it can be positioned directly in front the movie patron with minimal impact or distraction to neighboring patrons.and
Closed Captioning Glasses
Sony Entertainment Access Glasses are sort of like 3-D glasses, but for captioning. The captions are projected onto the glasses and appear to float about 10 feet in front of the user.
Since the grand deafening, I’ve only movie-ized with friends. They’ve done all the communication with theater staff for me — bought the tickets, arranged for me to have the captioning hook up and gotten us to our seats.
It occurred to me yesterday morning that this wasn’t brain surgery (duh huh) — I could do this on my own. So I did.
Mind you, this wasn’t seamless. The movie going experience has def changed.
There are reserved seats even when you’re not going to a Cinema de Lux joint where a waiter brings you a lovely glass of Monterey Pinot Noir and a warm chocolate chip cookie from Rosie’s Bakery.
Seats must be selected when you buy your ticket. Luckily, a tremendous gentleman, in line behind me, helped me out with the confusing-because-it-was-my-first-time system.When inside, past the velvet rope, one of the staff was there to bring me to the Captiview device counter. From there, a lovely young usher not only showed me to my seat, which was bigger and posher than The Amazing Bob’s Lazy Boy, she also reclined my seat for me (!) and brought me my 3D glasses. Geez, such awesome service! (I only mention it but the movie house in Braintree is THE best. Closed Captioning in all ten of it's auditoriums and GREAT staff)
Yes, I was seeing Godzilla in 3D. I’m a sophisticated intellectual with wickedly refined tastes, don’cha know.
So then, how was the flick?
About what you’d expect from a big budget (estimated at $160 million) summer blockbuster — confusing storyline. Who was the bad guy? Was it the nuclear power plant owners? Godzilla? The M.U.T.O.s? How did we end up in Nevada — was it only for the spectacle of seeing Las Vegas destroyed by the M.U.T.O.s? Will the nuclear device be defused in time by our steely, musclebound hero? Was it? How did anyone know that Godzilla would be the good guy? He's still hailed as the hero by San Franciscans despite all the damage and death he caused?
I had to come home and Google the plot line which helped me to see that, yes, this was an overly complicated, dense and confusing tale. ‘SOK, the special effects (in 3D!!!) were mega fab on toast points
History shows again and againBlue Oyster Cult — Godzilla
How nature points out the folly of men
Godzilla
