I decided that with all the people talking about how awesome Avatar is, I should go see it… and what a better way to see a movie than in IMax 3D right?

Location: Theater 2 – AMC IMax Theater – Quail Springs Mall – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Date: 13 February 2010 – 8:45 PM CST

I bought our tickets online from a link to movietickets.com off of http://movies.yahoo.com . I paid $28 for 2 tickets, and $12.50 for 2 boxes of candy and 1 soda. Yes, it was over priced. According to the website, normal ticket price is $9 a person, but since it’s IMax and you’ll be needing a pair of 3D glasses, they charge an extra $5. Ok, whatever. The experience will be worth it, with this being the supposedly best movie ever made with the best graphics and sound of all time right? Let’s press onward.

We arrive at the theater at 8:15 PM CST, 30 minutes prior to the movie. We wait in line at the ticket booth for about 15 minutes. At the teller window, all I have to do is swipe the card I paid for the movie online with, he hands me 2 tickets, and we walk in. I suppose it saved a whopping 30 seconds to pre-purchase my tickets. Definitely not worth it unless you’re worried about the movie selling out.

We get our tickets and walk into the theater. We buy our candy and soda, then proceed into the theater to get our seats, approximately 10 minutes before the movie start. I swear, the only place there were 2 seats available so that I could sit with my wife were in the absolutely top last row, on the left edge. Ok, whatever. We go up and sit.

The seats were the same size as regular theater seats. Moderately crowded with little to no leg room at all. Only one person can possibly use an arm rest. Ok, well. Maybe the movie will be so awesome I won’t care about being cramped up.

20 minutes later, the movie starts. No real intro to know that you are watching the movie. It just cuts from one preview right into the movie itself. Almost didn’t realize I needed to start paying attention to it.

3 hours later, I felt as though I had watched Dance’s with Wolves … in space … while wearing the most uncomfortable and ridiculously cheap and ugly 3D glasses ever. They weren’t the nice RayBan style glasses most theater’s are using. They were huge, flat gray, non-fold-able, slightly bent, and very akin to the childish clown glasses on sale at the dollar store. The didn’t anyone’s head at all, at least none of the people around me anyway.

The story portrayed in the movie left a lot to be desired. I felt like I’d seen an expensive remake of a hundred other movies. The graphics were stellar. The sound was phenomenal. I can definitely say that it’s worth seeing this movie in the theater if you are going to watch it at least once… but otherwise it fell short of my expectations and the standard that had been set by so many other people.

What made my experience worse, this was my first IMax movie. This was my first 3D movie. I’ve been told by everyone I know that has seen a 3D movie, you are allowed to keep your glasses if you wish, but it would be nice of you to recycle them. Well, I wanted to keep mine as a souvenir. I do this with a lot of things / places. I once visited an “In and Out Burger” in California, and asked if I could have one of their paper hats as a souvenir. They gladly obliged without charging me anything. It’s just a neat trinket. Now, here I am, having paid an additional $5 a person to “borrow” some 26 cent plastic pieces of crap, just to watch this highly over-rated movie, and when I leave the theater, there’s a kid outside that asks me to recycle them. I cordially say “No thanks, I’d like to keep them as a souvenir” and he reply’s that it’s fine and not a problem. On my way out of the theater, the manager practically chases me down and demands that I hand them over as though I am stealing a bar of gold from Ft. Knox. At this point, an argument ensues, during which I request he provide me with a written policy stating that I am required to turn them in. He fails to produce such a document, and motions for 2 security guards to come over. After several minutes of heated debate, he leaves, with my glasses, to obtain contact information for his manager.

There is no moral to this story. The outcome is that I felt as though I had been somehow legally robbed of my property that I paid for. I was harassed and detained wrongly, ruining the evening with my wife, and am now extremely dissatisfied with the higher up manager’s capacity to answer a phone. I highly suggest that people avoid the above listed movie theater and go somewhere else at every opportunity they have, in hopes of having a fun and non-ridiculous evening.