Why don't we ask for refunds at the movie theater more often?
Think of it like a restaurant. First you sit through four portions of "samplers" for loud dishes you don't care about, and then the entrée arrives. After three bites, you can tell it's not very good. It's overseasoned, and the meat is dry and chewy. You call the waiter over and say you don't want to pay for this. The waiter asks if you'd like something else.
"Like what? I've seen 'Barbie,' and the only other thing playing right now is the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.'" The waiter is confused because he was not informed that he was participating in an analogy.
I mention this because we went to see "Oppenheimer." An impressive movie, although I think it sagged a bit in the fifth hour.
Sometimes you see a biopic, then google the story and find they made up most of it. This one was scrupulous, right down to "amount of facial sweat regularly exuded by Edward Teller" — which has its own Wikipedia page, I think.
When I heard that they didn't use CGI for the nuclear bomb test, I wondered: "What? They got an actual nuke for the scene?" Imagine if Stanley Kubrick had directed it. Take after take, a total of 67 nuclear detonations, until he was satisfied. Cast and crew glowing like Reddy Kilowatt, but that was Stanley. Total perfectionist.
Anyway. I had no complaints about the movie. It's a rare summer blockbuster that makes you wonder why its protagonist did not pursue his theories on star implosions to the logical conclusion of black-hole existence.
It seems ungenerous to complain of its length when the performances were so fine. So what's the problem? My seat was behind a railing that cut through the view of the screen. The only way to see the movie without the obstruction involved sitting cross-legged on the chair and craning one's neck like a judgmental librarian who heard someone snicker. The seat simply should not have been sold to anyone who wasn't 9 feet tall.
