Inception

I told Husband that I love him, but I am going to watch Inception by myself. Two weeks from now seems like a long time to wait for such a blockbuster. Armed with high expectation from the reviews of internet reviews and real life people, I pushed myself to be out of bed at 9 AM last Sunday morning. I freshened up, drove and bought my ticket at the counter. Matinee show was at 10:20 AM.

The studio was small and at 10:15 AM it was almost packed. It was no problem for me. I was just by myself, I didn't have to ask people to scoot over to make room for my party. I seated myself on the middle row by the aisle, giving an extra seat in between me and a couple.

To tell you the truth, movie goers at 10 AM Sunday morning were interesting. I spent more time people watching than paying attention to whatever it was they were playing before the lights were out. This one woman in moccasins and a matching jacket particularly caught my attention. She was sporting the look of just got out bed and was thoroughly confused looking for her husband who was already perching up there on the second from top row close to the projector. They ended up going to the bottom quarter of the seats, a decision I still didn't understand. I call those rows Looser Rows, that's what you end up with when you are late to a movie.

Going to a movie for me requires ultimate effort to be on time for a good seat. At church, there's always a seat somewhere, provided that you just have to face the eyes of the congregation on lookers. At work, well, everybody is always late for work, plus you are already designated a place, so who cares.

Then, there were a group of four teenagers headed by a queen bee. They got there pretty late when the lights were about to be dimmed. As time progressed, the group went on to become band of teenagers. Queen Bee decided that the front rows were just not good enough for them. She directed everyone and their popcorn and drinks to sit on the stair aisle effecting themselves as fire hazard.

One of them who sat on my side of the aisle had a little problem breathing. It seemed that he had a little stuffy nose going on, even so, he still tried to breath from the one that was free. Added that breathing problem to his soda slurping and popcorn munching and I could not really concentrate on what was going on with the movie. One minute the Inception team was in Paris, in another in Africa. One minute they were working on one dream, next minute they were two stages into.

Not long after, a security person evaded them from the stair premises. The band was left with either taking the front rows or demanding their money back. If I were one of these infantile baboons, I would take up that offer and come back for a midnight show next weekend. They, however, took the front row seats but not before leaving trails of popcorn and candy wrappers behind. But, hey, at last, I can concentrate.

As for the movie, I don't mind watching it again with Husband. It has all the necessary ingredients: cool special effects, a simple story for a mind boggling concept, good actors, and, ultimately, a very low cost per minute (at 248 minutes, it sure worth all of my $6). At first, I thought what more do I want. And it dawn on me. It could have been better. A better movie would not let me winch my eyes from it even for a split second, not band of teenagers, not people went back and forth, not my hungry and thirsty self. It will afford me to concentrate on more thought provoking aspects of the movie, how Leo became this good, the gidget character, the psychology, technology and fantasy behind, and, finally, how I would like to go working for this team.