Going to the Movies in Germany

On Friday night, I went to go see The Avengers because it was surprisingly released here in Germany a few days earlier than in the U.S.  I had only had the choice of watching it in 3D in English or 3D dubbed in German.  Obviously, I didn't choose to watch it dubbed.



I don't really care for 3D movies.  I've seen only 3 that I can think of: Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, and The Avengers.  Here in Germany, 3D movies are more expensive to see like everywhere else.  And like everywhere else, you also have to pay for the glasses.  My boyfriend and I used a Groupon deal, and we still had to pay 9€.  Moreover, here in Germany if a movie is over 2 hours long, it's considered "Überlänge," or excessive length (basically, a long movie).  And that means you'll add on another Euro to the movie price.  So for a 3D movie, you're already paying 2-4€ extra because it's in 3D, plus another 2€ for the glasses, and then if it's over 2 hours long, add on another 1€.  Basically, to see a movie in 3D, you're paying an extra 7€, which is around the price of a 2D ticket on discounted days.

Here in Germany, movies that are two hours long are broken up in the middle of the movie and there's a break.  I'm not kidding.  It's like an intermission right at the climax that isn't meant to be there.  Thankfully with the transition to digital projections, the projectionist hopefully tries to pick a less climactic scene to insert the break (around the 90 minute mark), whereas with analog, the break came at the end of the first film roll.  It's slightly better, but not by much.  I ask myself, why the heck am I paying an extra 1€ for the theater to give me a break?  I'll pay them the extra 1€ to keep the movie going and not have a break because it ruins the movie's pacing.

When I saw The Hunger Games a few weeks ago, the break seemed to make sense and was taken right before Katniss goes into the arena.  OK, great, it made sense.  But the projectionist somehow messed up the projection's settings in the second half and the colors were completely desaturated.  I don't think they noticed because they didn't change it.  It annoyed me completely because everything was just too cold, there was way too much blue in the picture.  You might argue, "But in the arena, maybe that'd be better because it's not supposed to be a warm, fuzzy place, right?"  NO.  I want to see the movie the way it was intended.  Yes, I could've gotten up and said to the manager that the colors were wrong, but then I would've missed out on whatever happened.  So either I miss what happens completely, or I deal with crappy colors.  It made me annoyed that I paid for a movie and the projectionist is so incompetent.

That brings me to last night at The Avengers.  After the break, the projectionist couldn't figure out how to turn the picture on.  So there we were, listening to everything that was happening, but not seeing it.  It took the projectionist a good 5 to 10 minutes to realize it.  Then they took an extra 10 minutes to figure it out while we sat there looking at a white light on the screen.  All seemed to work well afterward, and then the picture cut out again.  The projectionist wound up figuring it out and rewound it to the point where it had cut out, but seriously, way to ruin the pacing of the movie and the element of surprise.  I don't understand why I'm paying so much money for a movie when the theater can't do its job and show it right, including the break.  People can choose if they want to go to the toilet or not, or buy more snacks or not.  Why the heck should everyone else have to take a break?  I don't want to have to pay so much money to ruin a good movie.

On a side note, I miss seeing movies with Americans.  Americans react to movies.  For example, when I went to see Bridesmaids, a lady next to me said outloud, "Oh no, she di'nt!" during a particularly gruesome scene.  During X-Men First Class, the guy behind me commented, "Daaaaaaay-mmmnnn," during a climactic and visually impressive scene.  And when I went to see one of the Harry Potter movies at midnight, people cheered and clapped and hooted. None of this ever happens while watching a movie in Germany.  People barely laugh aloud during comedies.  They might smirk or quietly giggle to themselves at most.

"Daaaaaaay-mmmnnn!"


Some may think it's annoying when people react to the movie.  I personally have no problem with it as long as it a reaction to what's happening and not some idiot making comments about which characters from the book are on screen (that happened during The Hunger Games. The guy was like, "Oh!  That's Foxface!"  Thanks, I knew that, shut up).  It's part of the experience seeing a movie in the theater with other people, even if you don't know them.  When I saw a Harry Potter movie here on opening day, I cheered ("YAAAY!") when the Warner Bros. logo and the title appeared, and someone actually shushed me.  There wasn't even anything happening on screen.  And can I stress it again: it was opening day of a Harry Potter movie.  Talk about lame.

So yes, whenever I am home in the United States, I go to the movies so that I can get the lovely reactions from the fellow moviegoers.  Not to mention eating buttered popcorn.  I miss that too.