The 7:00 had been
sold out since Monday, so I bought for the 11 despite the
running time, anticipating what would probably be a
rowdy-as-hell audience. I got there around 8:30 and there was
a small but decent line partly down the street that eventually
curved around the block and down another street. Once
the lights dimmed, there was a lot of cheering but even the
Chamber of Secrets dimming got a louder response from the same
theater at almost the same time opening night (10:45).
The Core was the first preview up and as it concluded some
cheers gave way followed by some enthusiastic, loud boo's that
created quite a bit of laughter as well.
Next up was X-Men 2. As the Fox logo was loading, someone
on the balcony yelled, "yeah, X-Men!" which got people to cue
in and start cheering a slight bit. Once the chess board
appeared, the room was filled with cheers and applause. About
the same response when the trailer concluded.
For Bad Boys 2, the theater went absolutely bezerk once
Will Smith unmasked himself, which resulted in a bombardment
of cheering as if it was an event picture. Once Martin
Lawrence appeared, it got a little stronger. Some cheering and
clapping as the preview played, with a large response when it
ended.
A Man Apart got boo's at Vin Diesel's first appearance. A
silent reaction as the preview played, but when the title
appeared as it was ending a young adult on the balcony
screamed, "You're gay!" to Diesel which erupted huge laughs
from the audience and some claps.
For T3, the crowd was lightly cheering and clapping when we
saw the skulls in the dirt, but once Arnold appeared in the
smoke walking toward the camera lots of cheering and
applauding went up. The preview concluded with a good response
but nothing overly fancy.
For Dumb & Dumberer, the crowd started laughing at the
first text definition and started cheering loudly as they
seemed to be figuring it out. As one of the last text
definitions appeared, the cheering got louder and a big
response to the stupidity of making a prequel to Dumb &
Dumber. Once the actual title loaded, the response got toned
down as I think people were confused as to what the hell this
was going to be like. It had no real applause or cheering
afterwards.
The concluding preview was Final Destination 2, and despite
the fact that it looked as though the audience was really
"feeling" for the incidents involved, it didn't get an overly
exciting response. I'm not sure how many people in there
actually knew of part one. The trailer concluded with lots of
boo's and laughter that followed.
Once Lord of the Rings itself started, there was cheering
and clapping when the New Line logo appeared, but some of the
moviegoers were trying to quiet down everyone else. There was
a light applause and a little cheering when the title hit the
screen, but people wanted it fairly quiet from there on in.
Some light applauses when certain characters first appeared,
and a big applause when the film concluded. |