The Martian

12079580_10153544334325306_8456620219219788823_nFirst off, The Martian is a great movie. This was the first movie I saw that was adapted from a book that I had read. I now understand the frustration some people feel watching a film that couldn’t possibly include everything the book did.

They got a lot right in the film, I have no complaint, I enjoyed it. The one part I was waiting for and they didn’t include was the conversation between the youngest crew member and her father.

Watching a movie that you read the book of is like watching the book in fast forward, or what I imagine speed reading would be like.

My experience, was touch and go at the beginning.  I saw it in 3D, and in the theater I was in, the projector was messed up. The previews were doubled images, like I wasn’t wearing my glasses, knowing what little I know about the technology involved, I thought perhaps both lenses of my 3D glasses were polarized the same way maybe?..  So I traded them out, and went pee, to get that in under the deadline. I got back into the theater at the end of the last 3D preview and the movie started, it wasn’t the glasses. at this point about 6 people left the theater, I assumed to tell the manager about the problem, nope.  I would have went to tell someone, but I didn’t want to miss any part of the movie, blurry as it was. So at the ten minute mark of the film, I used my portable communication device to call the theater. The recording gave me the option to talk to a manager by pressing 7. I did then press 7. The recording then told me the other phone number to contact the manager. Without having some way of logging the number, I had to remember it. It was all up to me at this point. I cleared my mind of all the extraneous thoughts that are always running through my mind and thought of nothing, not even the all important phone number. I hung up and typed the number, my best guess was I’d get a wrong number, but my plan had worked. The voice on the other end said “Marquee Cinemas…”. To finally make contact with another human being after all these problems started, was exciting. I thought, now I might just survive to tell others about this. If you’re reading this, I did. I told the woman on the phone “I’m in theater 6, and the projector is broken”. I had meant to say malfunctioning, but with all the excitement, and, still trying to pay attention to the film, I had just blurted out what I could think of at that moment. Would she understand me? Would she be able to help? She told me in a calm voice “I’ll tell the manager”. She got my message. It was all going to be OK. The movie had gotten off to a rough start, but I was going to be able to see Matt Damon in 3D and not double 2D. For about five more minutes, I wondered if my message had fell on deaf ears or worse yet, what if the number was wrong, and the people with the close enough phone number just liked messing with the many people who misdialed them…  What if the girl who was to relay my message had accidentally slipped on some golden flavored oil that had been dripped on the floor, why did I have to say extra butter!… The movie paused, the screen went black. There was five seconds of a deafening silence and complete darkness, that unless you were in that theater, would be impossible to explain. The movie started over and the 20th Century Fox logo appeared on the screen, in 3D. I had solved the problem, and with the help of the crew in the projection room, movie night was saved. The guy behind me said “Good job.” and as I remeber now, may have patted me on the back.
My only thought exiting the theater after the movie was over, was, who could I talk to, to get the big cardboard standing poster of The Martian?

-Albie