The Wasteland Reviewer

Outside the Wasteland: The Avengers (2012)

Film can mean so much more than just entertainment on a screen, right? Outside the Wasteland is my new avenue to express my thoughts on films that have truly made an impact on my life. This is not about how great the films are or even how much I love them. This is an expression of how these films have made a direct impact on my life including my love of film, my personality, my world view, and just an overall lasting impression that deeply affected me.  This is a doorway into The Wasteland Reviewer through the films that have shaped me.

The Avengers (2012)

Why do we go to the movies? The opportunity to escape from our stressors and concerns for a certain amount of time and get lost in the lives of others is an exciting prospect. The ability to be transported to worlds we can only conceive in our dreams is a wild idea too. Walking in the shoes of someone else is an unbelievable experience that allows us to build empathy and connection. When the lights go down in a theater, you get enveloped in the darkness and that illuminated screen is everything for the runtime of that movie. There are very few experiences like sitting in a dark theater and watching a story come to life on screen. But there is also a communal experience that can develop depending on the film. Sitting in a packed theater to watch a comedy with everyone laughing together, I feel cathartic. A horror film cuts through the audience with plenty of tension and screams and shudders. But a big-time blockbuster can get a whole theater full of people cheering in the most impressive, shared experience.

What is my most memorable experience like this? The Avengers. This was my sophomore year of college. This was when films still debuted at midnight for their opening instead of having showtimes all evening starting at 5 PM. You also couldn’t reserve you seats tat that point so you had to get there early to make sure you got a seat. But we had a part of 15 of my college friends going to the massive AMC Hamilton 24 where they had (unfortunately the theater closed during COVID) massive auditoriums that could fit 600 people. We stopped at Wegman’s for snacks (because of the poor college student life and all) and I stuffed the pockets of my jean shorts will all my friends’ candy (for the record, they made fun of my jorts until they got their candy into the theater). We arrived two hours early and stood in line for a good 1.5 hours before they let us into to get seated at 11:30 PM. Those 30 minutes were quite interesting, leading to the lights going down. My friend Ed had been speaking in an English accent for two weeks (I cannot provide any reasonable explanation so just go with it). He sat there on his iPad playing some dragon and game and yelling out into the theater “Oy, Steve!”. This became quite annoying for others in the auditorium as one theater goer started yelling at Ed and threatening him. Luckily, we de-escalated. Then a whole group of friends dressed as the Avengers walked in and sat in the front row. The whole audience cheered. The trailers began and the movie started, and I experienced a couple of hours of laughing, cheering, and overall buzz in the air. I will never forget it (as you can probably tell by my detailed recounting of the experience).

But is the movie going experience always this great? Not quite. I have had plenty of other amazing experiences with groups of friends. Thor was my first birthday with my college friends in our freshmen year. Star War Episode VII: The Force Awakens was my first Star Wars film with a group of friends and my brother, Ethan, dressed up as Kylo Ren, which was cool. My brother also got my groomsman and other friends to go out to see Top Gun: Maverick for my Bachelor Party. But there have been some terrible experiences as well. Many of those situations were caused by people in the theater. A Quiet Place should have been a quiet and visceral experience…but no one told the person behind my party who was snorting the whole movie (sounded like some kind of sinus infection). Inside Out was a distracting experience due to a whole group of high school female athletes talking the whole time (until Bing Bong made his sacrifice and they all started bawling their eyes out).  Then there are countless times people on their phones throughout the whole film. The single worst was Happy Death Day on a Friday night with the theater full of 13-year-olds talking the whole time, throwing popcorn, and just generally being disruptive.

But why is the theater going experience so important? This is how movies were meant to be seen. A movie never feels as good as on a huge theater screen and engulfed in the audio in the theater. The theater is a great place to disconnect as well. It is hard not to get distracted watching a movie at home when you have a phone that has endless distractions at your fingertips. You also shouldn’t have to deal with other people talking throughout the experience. The theater is where movies make their money too and keep them alive. But it is getting even harder to find smaller films on the big screen. There are so many roadblocks to the theatrical experience but there are solutions too. There are so many people who do not follow proper theater etiquette that ruins the experience for everyone else. Theaters need to find ways to attract strong and more robust staff so they can properly have ushers again who can reduce some of these issues. The theater experience is so expensive as well. The theater membership programs out there make it a lot easier. I am biased as a consistent AMC patron, but AMC A-List is an incredible deal. But the food is still so expensive. The movie industry needs to get its spending under control, so they don’t have to pass so much along to the audience. Film budgets are at an obscene place right now and the film industry needs to get it under control. Home experience has become increasingly enticing due to advancements in home theaters set-ups as well as the convenience and comfort at home. They need to reduce the number of ads and trailers. 30 minutes of nonsense before your film even starts is just plain indecent. Theaters need to focus more on upgrading their theaters as many of them are just not enticing to be in. Theaters are important to the movie experience…they just need to be doing better.

The Avengers certainly gave me one of my most memorable theater going experiences…but it is not the only thing it did for me. Cinephiles complain about the film industry’s obsession with franchises, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the biggest motivators for me to go to the theater. I don’t want to watch a Marvel movie on my TV as my first experience. I want to experience it in a theater full of people. Spider-Man: No Way Home is the single most electric and exciting theater going experience I have had since the pandemic. I have seen every MCU film in a theater since Thor except for Black Widow (because of COVID). I make sure to get my tickets for opening night because I don’t want anything spoiled for me (because people are awful and spoil them right away all-over social media). But I am invested. I care about the characters. I care about the world. I cannot wait to see where the great story goes next. It is a special feeling being drawn in and invested in such a journey. Each film release feels like another special experience. I wouldn’t want it any different. I haven’t loved all the films that have come along with this franchise, but I am always excited for the prospect of another wonderful entry into a franchise I love. I want more original films in theaters but there should be space for the big franchises and those smaller films so that they can all be successful.